纪录片《大英博物馆世界简史》 041无量寿佛坐像(4)（在线收听）

"There is a movement going towards the representation of, I would say in brackets, gods and goddesses, because the Buddha 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 deities 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 evocation 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 awakened, 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 artistic 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 entirely 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。