2019年经济学人 著名华裔建筑大师贝聿铭(1)

 

When in 1984 I.M.Pei, then the most sought-after architect in America, presented his plans for a 70-foot glass pyramid in the 18th-century courtyard of the Louvre, the general reaction was outrage¹. This was an atrocity²; it was "an annex³ to Disneyland". Because Mr Pei was Chinese-American, a foreigner twice over, he clearly had no understanding of the Louvre, or Paris, or France.

1984年，贝聿铭，当时美国最受欢迎的建筑设计师，计划在18世纪的卢浮宫庭院里建造一座70英尺高的玻璃金字塔，人们普遍的反应是愤怒。这是一场暴行；这是“迪士尼乐园的附属建筑”。因为贝聿铭是华裔美国人，这是两个外国人的身份。很明显，他对卢浮宫、巴黎或法国一无所知。

These remarks did not annoy him. As a man of courtesy and cultivation⁴, with quick enthusiasms and wide, wide smiles, he took them in his stride. But he was surprised. He had been asked to design a new entrance for the museum and, instead of adding on some utilitarian⁵ concrete block, had created a great welcoming space: put a swirling⁶ staircase underground and capped it with a glow of transparency and light that did not touch, let alone hurt, the old ornamented⁷ facades⁸. In short, he had taken his usual care. He had also expressed, once again, his two great passions in architecture.

这些评论没有激怒他。作为一个有礼貌和教养的人，他热情高涨，笑容灿烂，从容地接受了他们。但是贝聿铭很惊讶。他受邀为卢浮宫设计一个新的入口，他没有添加一些实用的混凝土块，而是创造了一个伟大的欢迎空间：他设计了一个地下的旋转的楼梯，用透明的灯光覆盖它，这种设计没有触及，更不用说伤害古老的装饰立面。简言之，他像往常一样小心翼翼。而且，他也再一次表达了他对建筑的两大热情。

The first, as befitted a true modernist trained at MIT and Harvard, was for simple geometric forms, triangle, circle andsquare. On these he based all his buildings, which included the East Building of the National Gallery in Washington, the KennedyLibrary in Boston, the Museum of Art at Cornell, the Bank of ChinaTower in Hong Kong and the Museum of Islamic Art in Dubai. Slopes, as in rhomboids and trapezoids, delighted him; pyramids pleased him for their perfect stability. And when he dreamed of one in the Louvre—for he always did the dreaming, while associates did the drawing—it fitted exactly, to his mind, with the love of geometry and rationality that he saw everywhere in Paris.

第一，他是接受过麻省理工学院和哈佛大学教育的真正的现代主义者，他喜欢简单的几何形状，三角形，圆形和正方形。他所有的建筑都基于这些几何形状，包括华盛顿国家美术馆的东楼，波士顿的肯尼迪图书馆，康奈尔大学的艺术博物馆、香港的中银大厦和迪拜的伊斯兰艺术博物馆。斜坡，就像菱形和梯形一样，使他高兴；金字塔因其完美的稳定性而使他开心。贝聿铭梦想着在卢浮宫里建造一个金字塔——因为他总是在做梦，而他的伙伴们则画画——这与他在巴黎随处可见的对几何学和理性的热爱完全吻合。

1 outrage   

n.暴行，侮辱，愤怒；vt.凌辱，激怒

参考例句：

• When he heard the news he reacted with a sense of outrage.他得悉此事时义愤填膺。
• We should never forget the outrage committed by the Japanese invaders.我们永远都不应该忘记日本侵略者犯下的暴行。

2 atrocity   

n.残暴，暴行

参考例句：

• These people are guilty of acts of great atrocity.这些人犯有令人发指的暴行。
• I am shocked by the atrocity of this man's crimes.这个人行凶手段残忍狠毒使我震惊。

3 annex   

vt.兼并，吞并；n.附属建筑物

参考例句：

• It plans to annex an England company in order to enlarge the market.它计划兼并一家英国公司以扩大市场。
• The annex has been built on to the main building.主楼配建有附属的建筑物。

4 cultivation   

n.耕作，培养，栽培（法），养成

参考例句：

• The cultivation in good taste is our main objective.培养高雅情趣是我们的主要目标。
• The land is not fertile enough to repay cultivation.这块土地不够肥沃，不值得耕种。

5 utilitarian   

adj.实用的，功利的

参考例句：

• On the utilitarian side American education has outstridden the rest of the world.在实用方面美国教育已超越世界各国。
• A good cloth coat is more utilitarian than a fur one.一件优质的布外衣要比一件毛皮外衣更有用。

6 swirling   

v.旋转，打旋( swirl的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Snowflakes were swirling in the air. 天空飘洒着雪花。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• She smiled, swirling the wine in her glass. 她微笑着，旋动着杯子里的葡萄酒。 来自辞典例句

7 ornamented   

adj.花式字体的v.装饰，点缀，美化( ornament的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The desk was ornamented with many carvings. 这桌子装饰有很多雕刻物。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She ornamented her dress with lace. 她用花边装饰衣服。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 facades   

n.（房屋的）正面( facade的名词复数 )；假象，外观

参考例句：

• Terraces of asphalt are placed by the building's south and west facades. 沥青露台位于建筑的南面和西面。 来自互联网
• Preserving historic buildings or keeping only their facades (or fronts) grew common. 保存历史建筑或是保持它们普通的正面增长。 来自互联网