纽约时报 沉寂100多年的“坚忍号”沉船被发现(2)(在线收听) |
Today, the expedition stands as a parable of astounding courage and the poignancy of dreams not quite realized. 今天,这场探险是一个关于肝胆过人、壮志未酬的寓言。 The headstone placed at Shackleton’s grave site bears a quotation it attributes to Robert Browning: “I hold that a man should strive to the uttermost for his life’s set prize.” 沙克尔顿墓地的墓碑上有一句罗伯特·布朗宁的名言:“我认为一个人应该为他的人生目标不断奋斗、永不松懈。” The discovery of the long-lost ship is a reminder of Shackleton’s deeds. 这艘失踪已久船只的发现提醒人们沙克尔顿的事迹。 It’s also a lesson in how technology is transforming our encounters with the past. 这也是一个教训,说明技术如何改变我们与过去相遇。 The Endurance video is well-nigh Spielbergian, almost too wondrous, too exquisitely “art directed,” to be believed. 坚忍号的视频几乎是斯皮尔伯格式的,十分奇妙了,十分细腻的“艺术指导”,让人难以置信。 Watching it, I couldn’t help imagining what sights we might have beheld had a videographer been present at the opening of King Tutankhamen’s tomb,观看这一段视频,我不禁想象,如果图坦卡蒙国王的陵墓被打开时,有一位摄像师在场,我们会看到什么样的景象,or if a drone camera were on hand when the jungle cover was stripped back to reveal the citadels of Machu Picchu. 或者拨开丛林,马丘比丘的城堡显露出来时,有一架无人机在现场,我们会看到什么样的景象。 We live in a world where real-life “Indiana Jones” scenes may, at any moment, pop up on our social media feeds. 在我们生活的这个世界里,真实的“印第安纳·琼斯”场景随时可能出现在我们的社交媒体上。 But our relationship to these ruins and remnants has changed. 但我们与这些废墟和遗迹的关系已经改变。 These days, a sunken ship inspires not just awe but melancholy, moral unease, even dread. 如今,一艘沉船不仅让人敬畏,还让人感到忧郁、道德不安,甚至恐惧。 The world today is smaller and less mysterious than in Shackleton’s time. 与沙克尔顿时代相比,今天的世界没那么大,也没那么神秘。 Earth’s remotest realms have given up their secrets. 地球上最遥远的地域已经揭开了它们的秘密。 To know the lay of the land in distant places once required literal boots on the ground — in Shackleton’s case, boots with nails punched through the soles, makeshift crampons for clambering over icy peaks. 要了解遥远地域的地形,曾经需要脚踏实地的靴子——比如,沙克尔顿需要穿上鞋底有钉子的靴子,这是攀爬冰峰时的临时冰爪。 Now, thanks to our conquest of the most distant frontier, outer space, all-seeing satellites provide detailed maps of Antarctica’s ice-sheet moraines, available at the tap of a touch-screen. 现在,由于我们征服了最遥远的边境,外太空,全视卫星提供了南极洲冰盖冰碛的详细地图,只需点击触摸屏即可获得。 Journeys once undertaken only by the intrepid — to the depths of the Amazon or the heights of the Himalayas — are on the adventure-tourism circuit. 曾经只有勇敢者才会进行的旅行——前往到亚马逊的深处或攀登喜马拉雅山脉的高峰——现在成为了冒险旅游线路。 What would Shackleton make of “Journey to Antarctica: The White Continent,” 沙克尔顿会如何看待“南极洲--白色大陆之旅” a cruise-ship vacation that offers encounters with icebergs and Emperor penguins这是一次游轮度假,你可以邂逅冰山和帝企鹅 amid “the luxury of comfort — a quality of shipboard life and a philosophy of wellness designed to relax and rejuvenate body, mind and spirit”? 在“在奢华舒适的环境中--拥有高品质的船上生活、充满着健康的哲学,旨在放松和振奋身体,心灵和精神。 Yet we know too much to romanticize the swashbuckling past. 然而,我们知道的太多了,无法将过去的传奇经历浪漫化。 The history of exploration, after all, is inseparable from exploitation, the relentless drive of empires and private enterprise to claim territory and expropriate raw materials. 毕竟,勘探的历史与剥削是分不开的,也离不开帝国和私营企业为争夺领土和没收原材料而进行的不懈努力。 |
原文地址:http://www.tingroom.com/lesson/nysb/566057.html |