2020年经济学人 眼前的黑不是黑(1)

Books & arts

文艺版块

Colour in art

艺术中的颜色

Paint it black

把它涂成黑色

The colour black has long been the ultimate test of an artist’s ingenuity¹

黑色一直是对艺术家创造力的终极考验

Claude Monet died in darkest December in 1926 surrounded by the garden he had created at Giverny. When Georges Clemenceau, the former French prime minister, arrived three days later for the artist’s funeral and caught sight of the blackdraped coffin², he exclaimed: “No! No black for Monet.” An old piece of cretonne was brought down from the house to replace the dark pall³ with the palette that the artist had made his own: nature’s many greens, lavender, water lilies and forget-me-nots.

1926年最黑暗的12月，克劳德·莫奈在自己建造的吉维尼花园中死去。三天后，法国前总理乔治·克列孟梭出席这位艺术家的葬礼。他望见盖着黑布的棺椁，随即大喊道：“不！莫奈不要黑色。”随后人们从屋子中拿出了一块陈旧的印花棉布来代替黑布，棉布的印花是莫奈自己创作的，他描绘了大自然的许多绿色植物、薰衣草、睡莲和勿忘我。

Most colours represent different things for different people. The hue⁴ of death in India and in some Slavic cultures is white, yet white also means spiritual rebirth for Muslims participating in the haj. Green was for bankers in early modern Europe; in the Kenyan flag it represents the land. Red is the badge of loyalty⁵ and success in China and of power and devotion in Russia. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s New England it was the sign of adultery. Black, however, has associations that are universal. It is bound up with witchcraft⁶, the underworld, nighttime and the far side of the Moon.

大部分颜色于不同的人代表着不同的意义。在印度和某些斯拉夫国家的文化中，白色是死亡的色调；但对于参与麦加朝圣的穆斯林来说，白色也意味着灵魂上的重生。在近代欧洲早期，绿色是银行家的象征；而肯尼亚国旗上的绿色代表着土地。红色在中国象征着忠诚和成功，在俄罗斯象征着权力和奉献，在纳撒尼尔·霍桑笔下的新英格兰则是通奸的象征。不过，黑色的象征意义十分普遍。它与巫术、阴间、夜晚和月背紧密相连。

Physicists⁷ say it is not really a colour at all. Because black is the result of the absence of light, Sir Isaac Newton did not see it on the spectrum⁸ of colours in his experiments with prisms in the late 1660s. Many artists take a different view. For them black represents an intellectual and technical challenge; it is the high-jump of colour, a test of their skill, ingenuity and imagination. (Black skin has its own, entwined but distinct, artistic⁹ history, with vexed¹⁰ connotations of power, prejudice and eroticism.)

物理学家表示，黑色根本就不是一种颜色。因为黑色是缺少光线的结果，艾萨克·牛顿爵士在17世纪60年代后期进行棱镜实验时，并没有在光谱上看到黑色。许多艺术家持有不同的观点。对他们来说，黑色代表着智力和技术上的挑战；黑色是颜色的飞跃，是对他们技能、创造力和想象力的考验。（黑色皮肤有它自己的艺术史，密切相连但与众不同，带有权力、偏见和色情等有争议的内涵。）

1 ingenuity   

n.别出心裁；善于发明创造

参考例句：

• The boy showed ingenuity in making toys.那个小男孩做玩具很有创造力。
• I admire your ingenuity and perseverance.我钦佩你的别出心裁和毅力。

2 coffin   

n.棺材，灵柩

参考例句：

• When one's coffin is covered,all discussion about him can be settled.盖棺论定。
• The coffin was placed in the grave.那口棺材已安放到坟墓里去了。

3 pall   

v.覆盖，使平淡无味；n.柩衣，棺罩；棺材；帷幕

参考例句：

• Already the allure of meals in restaurants had begun to pall.饭店里的饭菜已经不像以前那样诱人。
• I find his books begin to pall on me after a while.我发觉他的书读过一阵子就开始对我失去吸引力。

4 hue   

n.色度；色调；样子

参考例句：

• The diamond shone with every hue under the sun.金刚石在阳光下放出五颜六色的光芒。
• The same hue will look different in different light.同一颜色在不同的光线下看起来会有所不同。

5 loyalty   

n.忠诚，忠心

参考例句：

• She told him the truth from a sense of loyalty.她告诉他真相是出于忠诚。
• His loyalty to his friends was never in doubt.他对朋友的一片忠心从来没受到怀疑。

6 witchcraft   

n.魔法，巫术

参考例句：

• The woman practising witchcraft claimed that she could conjure up the spirits of the dead.那个女巫说她能用魔法召唤亡灵。
• All these things that you call witchcraft are capable of a natural explanation.被你们统统叫做巫术的那些东西都可以得到合情合理的解释。

7 physicists   

物理学家( physicist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• For many particle physicists, however, it was a year of frustration. 对于许多粒子物理学家来说，这是受挫折的一年。 来自英汉非文学 - 科技
• Physicists seek rules or patterns to provide a framework. 物理学家寻求用法则或图式来构成一个框架。

8 spectrum   

n.谱，光谱，频谱；范围，幅度，系列

参考例句：

• This is a kind of atomic spectrum.这是一种原子光谱。
• We have known much of the constitution of the solar spectrum.关于太阳光谱的构成，我们已了解不少。

9 artistic   

adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的

参考例句：

• The picture on this screen is a good artistic work.这屏风上的画是件很好的艺术品。
• These artistic handicrafts are very popular with foreign friends.外国朋友很喜欢这些美术工艺品。

10 vexed   

adj.争论不休的；（指问题等）棘手的；争论不休的问题；烦恼的v.使烦恼( vex的过去式和过去分词 )；使苦恼；使生气；详细讨论

参考例句：

• The conference spent days discussing the vexed question of border controls. 会议花了几天的时间讨论边境关卡这个难题。
• He was vexed at his failure. 他因失败而懊恼。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》