2019年经济学人 木雕艺术家大卫·埃斯特利(1)

 

Master and apprentice¹

大师与学徒

David Esterly, wood-carver, died on June 15th, aged² 75

木雕艺术家大卫·埃斯特利于6月15日去世，享年75岁

It might happen at any time of day. David Esterly would be at his workbench, gouge³ in hand, when he felt the breath on his shoulder. The voice would say: "I wouldn't do it like that," or "I've made a leaf curl that way before. Why are you bothering?" He did not need to ask who it was. The man's portraits at three different stages of his life, the last plump, bewigged and comfortable, hung round his workshop in a converted barn at Barneveld, in upstate New York.

这可能发生在一天中的任何时间。大卫·埃斯特利在感觉到肩膀上的气息的时候，会手拿圆凿，站在自己的工作台上。那个声音会说：“我不会那样做的，”或者是“我以前用这种方式制作过一个卷叶。你在担心什么呢？”他不需要问它是谁。他的工作室位于纽约州北部巴内菲尔德，由谷仓改建而成。工作室里面挂着他人生的三个不同阶段的肖像画，最后一个阶段丰满，戴着假发，很舒服。

Grinling Gibbons, England's 17th-century genius of wood carving⁴, was the god of the place. For ten years his admirer had been labouring to emulate⁵ his astonishingly meticulous⁶ chains and cascades⁷ of foliage⁸, fruit, flowers, feathers and shells in the same white lime or linden wood. The tradition of such carving was long-lost. Mr Esterly, whose studies as a Fulbright scholar at Cambridge had been in Yeats and the philosopher Plotinus, hoped he had found a way to combine intellectual, moral and sensory⁹ experience into what Yeats called "unity¹⁰ of being".

格林林·吉本斯是英国17世纪的木雕天才，他是当地的神。十年来，他的崇拜者一直在努力模仿他制作的一系列用同样的白石灰或椴木做成的树叶、水果、花朵、羽毛和贝壳。这种雕刻的传统已经很久没见了。埃斯特利在剑桥大学做访问学者时研究过叶芝，还有哲学家普罗提诺，他希望能找到一种方式将智力、道德和感觉体验结合起来。他把这个称为“存在的统一”。

There were many satisfactions in working as Gibbons had done. Standing¹¹ at his workbench—not sitting, for carving involved the whole body—he would take up, with a quick flip¹² of the hand, one of the dozens of tools spread before him. He could have done it blindfolded¹³, knowing just where each one was. The multiplicity of blades reflected the fecundity¹⁴ of nature, which he would strive to reproduce with ever-more-delicate gouging¹⁵.

像吉本斯那样工作有许多令人满意的地方。他站在工作台上，而不是坐着，因为雕刻涉及到整个身体。他会迅速地甩一下手，拿起摆在面前的几十件工具中的一件。他可以蒙着眼睛拿起工具，因为他知道它们都在哪里。叶片的多样性反映了大自然的繁殖力，他会努力用更加精细的刨削来重现大自然的繁殖力。

He began each piece by stabbing down the outline on a sawn board a few inches thick, then wasting away the wood around it and modelling the form. The rearward hand, and that half of his body, propelled the tool; the forward hand, on the wood, resisted. This opposition¹⁶ gave him exquisite¹⁷ control over the blade edge. It reminded him of the empowering contrast between Dionysian impulse and Apollonian restraint; and of Hamlet, too, torn between action and thought, whose tension drove through the play.

每一件作品开始时，他先把轮廓插在一块几英寸厚的锯过的木板上，然后把木板周围的木头削掉，做成模型。那只向后的手和他身体的那一半推动着工具；那只放在木头上的手抵挡着。这种对立给了他对刀刃的绝妙控制。这使他想起酒神的冲动和梦神的克制之间的强烈对比；也想到哈姆雷特在行动和思想之间的左右为难，他的紧张情绪贯穿了整部戏。

1 apprentice   

n.学徒，徒弟

参考例句：

• My son is an apprentice in a furniture maker's workshop.我的儿子在一家家具厂做学徒。
• The apprentice is not yet out of his time.这徒工还没有出徒。

2 aged   

adj.年老的，陈年的

参考例句：

• He had put on weight and aged a little.他胖了，也老点了。
• He is aged,but his memory is still good.他已年老，然而记忆力还好。

3 gouge   

v.凿；挖出；n.半圆凿；凿孔；欺诈

参考例句：

• To make a Halloween lantern,you first have to gouge out the inside of the pumpkin.要做一个万圣节灯笼，你先得挖空这个南瓜。
• In the Middle Ages,a favourite punishment was to gouge out a prisoner's eyes.在中世纪，惩罚犯人最常用的办法是剜眼睛。

4 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。

5 emulate   

v.努力赶上或超越，与…竞争；效仿

参考例句：

• You must work hard to emulate your sister.你必须努力工作，赶上你姐姐。
• You must look at the film and try to emulate his behavior.你们必须观看这部电影，并尽力模仿他的动作。

6 meticulous   

adj.极其仔细的，一丝不苟的

参考例句：

• We'll have to handle the matter with meticulous care.这事一点不能含糊。
• She is meticulous in her presentation of facts.她介绍事实十分详细。

7 cascades   

倾泻( cascade的名词复数 )； 小瀑布（尤指一连串瀑布中的一支）； 瀑布状物； 倾泻（或涌出）的东西

参考例句：

• The river fell in a series of cascades down towards the lake. 河形成阶梯状瀑布泻入湖中。
• Turning into the sun, he began the long, winding drive through the Cascades. 现在他朝着太阳驶去，开始了穿越喀斯喀特山脉的漫长而曲折的路程。 来自英汉文学 - 廊桥遗梦

8 foliage   

n.叶子，树叶，簇叶

参考例句：

• The path was completely covered by the dense foliage.小路被树叶厚厚地盖了一层。
• Dark foliage clothes the hills.浓密的树叶覆盖着群山。

9 sensory   

adj.知觉的，感觉的，知觉器官的

参考例句：

• Human powers of sensory discrimination are limited.人类感官分辨能力有限。
• The sensory system may undergo long-term adaptation in alien environments.感觉系统对陌生的环境可能经过长时期才能适应。

10 unity   

n.团结，联合，统一；和睦，协调

参考例句：

• When we speak of unity,we do not mean unprincipled peace.所谓团结，并非一团和气。
• We must strengthen our unity in the face of powerful enemies.大敌当前，我们必须加强团结。

11 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

12 flip   

vt.快速翻动；轻抛；轻拍；n.轻抛；adj.轻浮的

参考例句：

• I had a quick flip through the book and it looked very interesting.我很快翻阅了一下那本书，看来似乎很有趣。
• Let's flip a coin to see who pays the bill.咱们来抛硬币决定谁付钱。

13 blindfolded   

v.（尤指用布）挡住（某人）的视线( blindfold的过去式 )；蒙住（某人）的眼睛；使不理解；蒙骗

参考例句：

• The hostages were tied up and blindfolded. 人质被捆绑起来并蒙上了眼睛。
• They were each blindfolded with big red handkerchiefs. 他们每个人的眼睛都被一块红色大手巾蒙住了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

14 fecundity   

n.生产力；丰富

参考例句：

• The probability of survival is the reciprocal of fecundity.生存的概率是生殖力的倒数。
• The boy's fecundity of imagination amazed his teacher.男孩想像力的丰富使教师感到惊异。

15 gouging   

n.刨削[槽]v.凿( gouge的现在分词 )；乱要价；（在…中）抠出…；挖出…

参考例句：

• Banks and credit-card companies have been accused of gouging their customers. 银行和信用卡公司被指控欺诈顾客。 来自辞典例句
• If back-gouging is applied, grinding to bright metal is required. 如果采用火焰气刨，则应将其打磨至可见光亮的金属表面。 来自互联网

16 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

17 exquisite   

adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的

参考例句：

• I was admiring the exquisite workmanship in the mosaic.我当时正在欣赏镶嵌画的精致做工。
• I still remember the exquisite pleasure I experienced in Bali.我依然记得在巴厘岛所经历的那种剧烈的快感。