纪录片《大英博物馆世界简史》 041无量寿佛坐像(4)

"There is a movement going towards the representation of, I would say in brackets, gods and goddesses, because the Buddha¹ was in fact a real historical character, so he was not a god.

对于佛陀所代表的曾经有一场运动，我认为这里要说的是神与女神,而佛陀是真实的历史人物，因此并非神灵。

And so there was this movement two thousand years ago when they started representing these various deities² and human wise-men, who had lived a few hundred years before.

约两千年前，人类开始把几百年前的智者与各种神灵用人类的形象表现出来。

The first evocation³ of the Buddha's presence is carved around the circular monuments which are called stupas.

代表佛陀的形象首先被雕刻在舍利塔的四周，

There the Buddha is referred to through the tree below which he sat, where he became awakened⁴, which is the meaning of Buddha in fact-to be awakened.

他曾于其下打坐的那裸菩提树开悟。

"The worship of footprints are a major element in India still today, they refer to a person who is no more there, but who has left their traces on earth.

而对佛足印的崇拜至今在印度还很兴盛，足印代表了曾在世间留下足迹，但如今巳离开人世的人。

This will develop towards even a more elaborated structure, where you can have, in place of the tree, a flaming pillar, which means that out of the Buddha emerges light.

之后的象征手法变得愈加精巧，他们用燃烧的柱子代替菩提树，火焰象征着佛陀发出的光芒。

So there were symbols which were creeping in to the artistic⁵ world, and which really opened the way to the physical image of the Buddha."

这些象征方式逐渐成为艺术手法，导致了其后佛陀具象的诞生。

It's still not entirely⁶ clear just why the bodily image appears at this time.

为什么身体具象出现仍然尚不清楚。

1 Buddha   

n.佛；佛像；佛陀

参考例句：

• Several women knelt down before the statue of Buddha and prayed.几个妇女跪在佛像前祈祷。
• He has kept the figure of Buddha for luck.为了图吉利他一直保存着这尊佛像。

2 deities   

n.神，女神( deity的名词复数 )；神祗；神灵；神明

参考例句：

• Zeus and Aphrodite were ancient Greek deities. 宙斯和阿佛洛狄是古希腊的神。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Taoist Wang hesitated occasionally about these transactions for fearof offending the deities. 道士也有过犹豫，怕这样会得罪了神。 来自汉英文学 - 现代散文

3 evocation   

n. 引起，唤起 n. <古> 召唤，招魂

参考例句：

• Against this brilliant evocation of airlessness we may put Whitman's view of the poet. 我们从他这段批评诗人无生气的精采论述中，可以看出惠特曼对于诗人的看法。
• It prefers evocation spells and illusions to help it disguise It'self. 他更喜欢塑能系法术和可以辅助伪装自己的幻术。

4 awakened   

v.（使）醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）觉醒；弄醒；（使）意识到

参考例句：

• She awakened to the sound of birds singing. 她醒来听到鸟的叫声。
• The public has been awakened to the full horror of the situation. 公众完全意识到了这一状况的可怕程度。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 artistic   

adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的

参考例句：

• The picture on this screen is a good artistic work.这屏风上的画是件很好的艺术品。
• These artistic handicrafts are very popular with foreign friends.外国朋友很喜欢这些美术工艺品。

6 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。