2020年经济学人 《第七封印》影评--意愿与恩惠(2)

He meets a young girl accused of being possessed¹ by the devil and soon to be burned at the stake, and stares into her eyes, looking for some greater truth. He finds none. “Faith is a torment²,” he says. “It is like loving someone who is out there in the darkness but never appears, no matter how loudly you call.”

他遇见了一个年轻的女孩，她受到指控被魔鬼附身，并且很快就要被绑在火刑柱上烧死，他注视着她的眼睛，妄图寻找真相。他没有找到答案。他说，“信仰是一种折磨。就像你爱的人沉入了黑暗,再也不会现身,无论你怎样高喊都没有用处。”

But there is a lighter³, earthly side to “The Seventh Seal”, in the form of Block’s sidekick, Jons, who thinks of faith as less a torment than a waste of time. “He grins at Death, mocks the Lord, laughs at himself and leers at the girls,” Jons says of himself “His world is a Jons-world, believable only to himself, ridiculous to all including himself, meaningless to Heaven and of no interest to Hell.”

但是《第七封印》也存在更加轻松且现实的一面，那就是站在布洛克的随从雄士的角度，他认为，与其说信仰是一种折磨，不如说是浪费时间。“他对死神扮鬼脸，取笑上帝、嘲弄自己，又挑逗妇女，”雄士描述自己，“他的世界就是雄士世界。这世界对谁都是可笑的，包括他自己，天堂毫无意义，地狱全不相干。”

Jons goes into a church, much like the one Bergman entered in Taby, where he finds a painter putting the last touches to a grisly mural, the “Dance of Death”. What, he wonders, is the point of scaring people like that? To make them think, answers the painter. And if they think, Jons says, they get more scared, and run to religion for solace⁴. Jons and the painter run to a barrel of brandy instead, and get roaringly drunk.

雄士进入一座教堂，就像是伯格曼进入的塔比教堂，他发现在教堂中又一位画家正在为一幅可怕的壁画“死亡之舞”做最后的润色。他想知道，画这些吓唬人的东西有什么用？为了让他们思考，画家回答。雄士说，如果他们进行了思考，他们就会更加惊惧，并信仰宗教以寻求慰藉。雄士和画家喝了一桶白兰地，酩酊大醉。

The struggle between man and death is always one-sided, and largely pointless. The chess game is rigged. Von Sydow died earlier this year, Bergman in 2007. Yet as he, the son of a pastor⁵, suggests in “The Seventh Seal”, salvation⁶ may await not in the next world, but in this one.

人类与死亡的斗争总是实力悬殊的，而且基本上是没有意义的。生死棋局受到死神的操控。冯·西多今年早些时候去世，伯格曼于2007年去世。然而就像《第七封印》中一位牧师的儿子暗示的那样，救恩可能不是在下一个世界，而是在这个世界。

1 possessed   

adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的

参考例句：

• He flew out of the room like a man possessed.他像着了魔似地猛然冲出房门。
• He behaved like someone possessed.他行为举止像是魔怔了。

2 torment   

n.折磨；令人痛苦的东西(人)；vt.折磨；纠缠

参考例句：

• He has never suffered the torment of rejection.他从未经受过遭人拒绝的痛苦。
• Now nothing aggravates me more than when people torment each other.没有什么东西比人们的互相折磨更使我愤怒。

3 lighter   

n.打火机，点火器；驳船；v.用驳船运送；light的比较级

参考例句：

• The portrait was touched up so as to make it lighter.这张画经过润色，色调明朗了一些。
• The lighter works off the car battery.引燃器利用汽车蓄电池打火。

4 solace   

n.安慰；v.使快乐；vt.安慰(物)，缓和

参考例句：

• They sought solace in religion from the harshness of their everyday lives.他们日常生活很艰难，就在宗教中寻求安慰。
• His acting career took a nosedive and he turned to drink for solace.演艺事业突然一落千丈，他便借酒浇愁。

5 pastor   

n.牧师，牧人

参考例句：

• He was the son of a poor pastor.他是一个穷牧师的儿子。
• We have no pastor at present:the church is run by five deacons.我们目前没有牧师：教会的事是由五位执事管理的。

6 salvation   

n.（尤指基督）救世，超度，拯救，解困

参考例句：

• Salvation lay in political reform.解救办法在于政治改革。
• Christians hope and pray for salvation.基督教徒希望并祈祷灵魂得救。