VOA常速英语2013--沙雕塑家庆祝短暂的艺术

 

Sand Sculptors² Celebrate Transient Art 沙雕塑家庆祝短暂的艺术

LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA — Sculptures made of sand are transient, here today and gone tomorrow, subject to the whims³ of wind and waves. Yet each year, artists spend hours creating elaborate sand sculptures in a summertime competition.

长滩，加利福尼亚——由于受到风浪的不断冲击，沙雕转瞬即逝，也许今天还在这里而明天就消逝殆尽了。然而每年夏季的比赛上，艺术家们还是会花上好几个小时去创作一尊尊精美绝伦的沙雕作品。

It takes patience and skill to create a sand sculpture, and the annual competition here attracts sculptors and hobbyists who take the craft seriously, including Ko Tanaka, a professional architect.

沙雕的创作需要耐心和技艺，每年长滩的沙雕比赛都会吸引许多热爱手工艺术的雕塑家和业余爱好者，包括Ko Tanaka，他是一名专业的建筑师。

“This is sand. Once in a while, it's not unusual that things collapse⁴...spending so many hours and have it collapse. That happens,” says Tanaka.

“这就是沙子，有时你的作品倒塌了…花了那么多时间在上面但它却倒塌了，这都是会发生的，这是再正常不过的事情了。”Tanaka说。

This year, the competition highlights characters from books and is raising funds for the local library foundation.

今年，比赛重点突出展现书本上的人物形象，是为了给当地图书馆筹集资金。

Sandis Kondrats, whose sculpture is inspired by the novel Atlas⁵ Shrugged⁶, is a professional artist who worked with granite⁷ and marble in his native Latvia.

Sandis Kondrats是一名来自拉脱维亚专门从事花岗岩和大理石雕刻的艺术家，他的沙雕作品的灵感来源于小说《阿特拉斯耸耸肩》。

“In sand, it's more open, it's more free. I can experiment. I can do it in two days. This is the second day for me. Compared with stone, granite, this would take almost a year,” says Kondrats.

“在沙的世界里更加开放，更加自由。我可以不断尝试。我可以在两天之类完成我的作品，今天是第二天。如果换做石头或花岗岩，这恐怕要花上整整一年时间。”Kondrats说。

For artists like Bruce Phillips, sand sculpting⁸ is a job. 

对于像布鲁斯。菲利普这样的艺术家而言，沙雕是一项工作。

“It's something you can just totally focus on and tune⁹ everything else out in the world. And I just quit my job and just did sand sculpture full time,” he said.

“这是一件你可以全神贯注去做的事情，你可以将世界上其他所有一切摒除在外。所以我辞掉了工作然后全身心投入了沙雕工作。”他说。

Like other professionals, Phillips is paid to display his art at promotional events around the world. 

和其他专业艺术家一样，菲利普在全球各地的专业赛事上展现他的作品都是有报酬的。

This competition also draws admirers from the community. Some get tips on sand sculpting and join the competition.

此次比赛也吸引了社区里的一些沙雕爱好者，他们有些获得了沙雕的技巧也加入到比赛中来。

It's fun for kids, says sculptor¹ Isabel Valaika.

这对孩子们来说很有趣，雕刻家Isabel Valaika说。

“And it's really cool to make stuff out of sand because you're usually just seeing it on the ground,” she said.

“利用沙子去做出一些东西来这是非常棒的一件事，因为你通常都只见到沙子散落在地上的。”她说。。

Competition organizer Michael Anderson likes the fact that the sculptures are temporary.

赛事组织者米歇尔。安德逊就喜欢这些沙雕的转瞬即逝。这个过程如此短暂

“Even though castles made of sand fade into the sea, I think that that's the appeal, it's so transient,” says Anderson.

“虽然沙子做的城堡消逝在大海中，我觉得那才是吸引人的地方，这是如此的短暂。”安德逊说。

Rusty¹⁰ Croft modeled his sculpture on a whimsical character in a children's book. He says these creations are made for the moment.

Rusty Croft的沙雕作品用儿童故事书上的一个古怪人物做原形。他说这些是他目前的创作。

“They're not supposed to last. It's kind of like life. It's here and then gone, so enjoy it now,” says Croft.

“这些雕塑不会持久，这就像生活。这些现在在这里等下就没有了，所以享受此刻的精彩吧！”克罗夫特说。

The sculptures will be gone, but many of these artists will be back next year, carving¹¹ new creations in the sand. 

沙雕会消逝，但是许多的艺术家明年还会回来，用沙子雕刻出全新的作品.

1 sculptor   

n.雕刻家，雕刻家

参考例句：

• A sculptor forms her material.雕塑家把材料塑造成雕塑品。
• The sculptor rounded the clay into a sphere.那位雕塑家把黏土做成了一个球状。

2 sculptors   

雕刻家，雕塑家( sculptor的名词复数 )； [天]玉夫座

参考例句：

• He is one of Britain's best-known sculptors. 他是英国最有名的雕塑家之一。
• Painters and sculptors are indexed separately. 画家和雕刻家被分开，分别做了索引。

3 WHIMS   

虚妄，禅病

参考例句：

• The mate observed regretfully that he could not account for that young fellow's whims. 那位伙伴很遗憾地说他不能说出那年轻人产生怪念头的原因。
• The rest she had for food and her own whims. 剩下的钱她用来吃饭和买一些自己喜欢的东西。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹

4 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

5 atlas   

n.地图册，图表集

参考例句：

• He reached down the atlas from the top shelf.他从书架顶层取下地图集。
• The atlas contains forty maps,including three of Great Britain.这本地图集有40幅地图，其中包括3幅英国地图。

6 shrugged   

vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• Sam shrugged and said nothing. 萨姆耸耸肩膀，什么也没说。
• She shrugged, feigning nonchalance. 她耸耸肩，装出一副无所谓的样子。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 granite   

adj.花岗岩，花岗石

参考例句：

• They squared a block of granite.他们把一块花岗岩加工成四方形。
• The granite overlies the older rocks.花岗岩躺在磨损的岩石上面。

8 sculpting   

雕刻( sculpt的现在分词 )； 雕塑； 做（头发）； 梳（发式）

参考例句：

• The quality of the result is determined by a Craft( sculpting) check. 由手艺（刻）定决定结果质量如何。
• Another difficulty in the process of ice sculpting is time control. 冰雕过程中的另一项困难是时间的掌控。

9 tune   

n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整

参考例句：

• He'd written a tune,and played it to us on the piano.他写了一段曲子，并在钢琴上弹给我们听。
• The boy beat out a tune on a tin can.那男孩在易拉罐上敲出一首曲子。

10 rusty   

adj.生锈的；锈色的；荒废了的

参考例句：

• The lock on the door is rusty and won't open.门上的锁锈住了。
• I haven't practiced my French for months and it's getting rusty.几个月不用，我的法语又荒疏了。

11 carving   

n.雕刻品，雕花

参考例句：

• All the furniture in the room had much carving.房间里所有的家具上都有许多雕刻。
• He acquired the craft of wood carving in his native town.他在老家学会了木雕手艺。