纪录片《大英博物馆世界简史》 051玛雅宫廷放血仪式浮雕（1）

051：EPISODE 51 - Maya relief of Royal Blood-letting 玛雅皇室浮雕

Maya relief of royal blood-letting (made early eighth century AD). Stone; from Mexico

It's tough at the top - at least, that's what those at the top like us to think - the long hours, the public exposure, the responsibility. In return though, most of us would argue, they get the status and the pay - and most people it seems are willing to settle for that particular trade-off.

But, we'd all think twice, I suspect, about envying anyone, however privileged, whose regular duty was to go through an ordeal¹ that sounds like this cry of pain . . . in this case that of a man in the Philippines, seeking and enduring excruciating physical pain, in order to achieve a transformed spiritual state. These days most of us take quite a lot of trouble to avoid pain. And wilful² "self-harm" suggests to most people an unstable³ psychological condition. Sado-masochism gets, on the whole, a bad press, but around the world there are, as there always have been, believers who see self-inflicted pain as a route to transcendental experience. To the average 21st-century citizen, and certainly to me, this willed suffering has about it something deeply shocking. And so I find it hard even to look at the image that I'm going to be discussing in this programme.

"What I find startling about this horrific image is how visible the woman's pain is." (Susie Orbach)

"You can tell from her clothing, her jewellery and her elaborate head ornament⁴ that this is a woman of great status and wealth." (Virginia Field)

1 ordeal   

n.苦难经历，（尤指对品格、耐力的）严峻考验

参考例句：

• She managed to keep her sanity throughout the ordeal.在那场磨难中她始终保持神志正常。
• Being lost in the wilderness for a week was an ordeal for me.在荒野里迷路一星期对我来说真是一场磨难。

2 wilful   

adj.任性的，故意的

参考例句：

• A wilful fault has no excuse and deserves no pardon.不能宽恕故意犯下的错误。
• He later accused reporters of wilful distortion and bias.他后来指责记者有意歪曲事实并带有偏见。

3 unstable   

adj.不稳定的，易变的

参考例句：

• This bookcase is too unstable to hold so many books.这书橱很不结实，装不了这么多书。
• The patient's condition was unstable.那患者的病情不稳定。

4 ornament   

v.装饰，美化；n.装饰，装饰物

参考例句：

• The flowers were put on the table for ornament.花放在桌子上做装饰用。
• She wears a crystal ornament on her chest.她的前胸戴了一个水晶饰品。