纪录片《大英博物馆世界简史》 058日本铜镜（8）

And it's this particular ability of Japanese mirrors to allow humans to speak to gods that has ensured the survival¹ of our mirror, which, along with 18 others, was given to the British Museum in 1927 by a great Japanese collector of mirrors. All of these mirrors are made of bronze, and all have the same distinctive² matt surface. But it was only in the last few months, while we were preparing for this programme, that a Japanese scholar researching in the British Museum was, for the first time, able to tell us why they all looked like this. It's because all of them came from the same place, all of them were found in a sacred pond beneath the mountain shrine³ of Haguro-san in the north of Japan. At the beginning of the twentieth century this pond was drained, in order to build a bridge for pilgrims⁴. To the astonishment⁵ of the engineers, they found, deep in the mud at the bottom of the pond, around 600 mirrors, ours among them, which over the centuries had been consigned⁶ to the water. Here's that same visiting Japanese scholar, the archaeologist Harada Masayuki:

"People started to [make] pilgrimages to the mountain, because they thought there was a god in this mountain. They did consider the landscape quite holy and spiritual; for example, looking at the white snow that stays for a long time, they thought it something mysterious and quite spiritual. So people thought that in that pond there was a god.

一九二七年，我们的这面镜子与其他十八面铜镜一起来到大英博物馆。正是上述沟通人与神的特殊能力让它们留存至今。这些镜子都用青铜制成，表面均没有光泽。直至二。九年，我们才从一位来博物馆做研究的日本学者处了解了这十九面铜镜的渊源。它们都来自同一个地方，日本东北部羽黑山脚下一座著名寺庙的圣池。

二十世纪初，为了给香客修一座桥，人们抽干了池里的水，施工人员惊讶地在池底的淤泥中发现了大约六百面铜镜（我们的这些也在其中），都是在过去的岁月中被托付给池水的。这名日本访问学者、考古学家原田雅之描述道：

信徒们开始上山朝拜，因为他们认为这里的景致神圣庄严，适合众神居住。例如，山顶终年不化的白雪便透着神圣意味。圣池本身也成了朝拜的中心，人们认为池中住着一位神。

1 survival   

n.留住生命，生存，残存，幸存者

参考例句：

• The doctor told my wife I had a fifty-fifty chance of survival.医生告诉我的妻子，说我活下去的可能性只有50%。
• The old man was a survival of a past age.这位老人是上一代的遗老。

2 distinctive   

adj.特别的，有特色的，与众不同的

参考例句：

• She has a very distinctive way of walking.她走路的样子与别人很不相同。
• This bird has several distinctive features.这个鸟具有几种突出的特征。

3 shrine   

n.圣地，神龛，庙；v.将...置于神龛内，把...奉为神圣

参考例句：

• The shrine was an object of pilgrimage.这处圣地是人们朝圣的目的地。
• They bowed down before the shrine.他们在神龛前鞠躬示敬。

4 pilgrims   

香客，朝圣者( pilgrim的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Muslim pilgrims on their way to Mecca 前往麦加的穆斯林朝圣者
• Many pilgrims knelt piously at the shrine. 许多朝圣者心虔意诚地在神殿跪拜。

5 astonishment   

n.惊奇，惊异

参考例句：

• They heard him give a loud shout of astonishment.他们听见他惊奇地大叫一声。
• I was filled with astonishment at her strange action.我对她的奇怪举动不胜惊异。

6 consigned   

v.把…置于（令人不快的境地）( consign的过去式和过去分词 )；把…托付给；把…托人代售；丟弃

参考例句：

• I consigned her letter to the waste basket. 我把她的信丢进了废纸篓。
• The father consigned the child to his sister's care. 那位父亲把孩子托付给他妹妹照看。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》