纪录片《大英博物馆世界简史》 009玛雅玉米神像（3）

The elite¹ from ancient societies focussed upon corn as having sacred kinds of properties which they then associated with themselves.

古代社会精英团队把玉米的地位提升到神圣的财产，并且将自己与玉米联系起来。

And this is pretty obvious in the young maize² god-the sculpture was apparently³ a manifestation⁴ of mythological⁵ beings resulting from the third Maya creation.

这点很显然地在这年轻的玉米神身上体现出来；你看，这雕像明显是第三玛雅人造神运动的成果。

There were eight mythological beings, four women and four men, who are the ancestors of all the Maya people.

玛雅历史上有八位神灵，四男四女，被奠为全体玛雅人的祖先。玛雅人认为他们祖先基本上是从玉米进化而来的，由黄玉米与白玉米面团做成的。

The Maya believed that their ancestors essentially⁶ came from corn, and they were formed of yellow and white maize dough⁷.

玉米曾经是古代中美洲人礼仪与宗教崇拜的重中之重，

Maize was certainly a primary focus of ritual and religious veneration⁸ by ancient Meso-American people,

可一种追溯回前玛雅，

going back all the way before the Maya and even into the Olmec civilisation⁹.'

甚至奥尔梅克文明时代。

So our maize god is not just a hauntingly beautiful statue, he gives us a real insight into the way ancient American society thought about itself and its environment.

因此，我们的玉米神可不只是一位高高在上的美丽雕像，他允许我们去真正体会到古代美洲社会人们是如何思考社会本身及周遭环境的。

The maize god represents both the fact of the agricultural cycle of planting, harvesting and replanting,

玉米神象征着农作物种植、收获与补植这种生生不息的循环过程，

and the faith in a parallel human cycle of birth, death and rebirth,but more, he is the very stuff of which the Central Americans are made.

同时也象征着另一种生命的循环—人类的出生、死亡与新生命的重新诞生这种生死轮回。

Where the Hebrew god made Adam out of dust, the Mayan gods used maize to make their humans.

更重要的是，玉米神是中美洲人民存在性的最本质事物。

The mythical¹⁰ story is told in the most famous epic¹¹ in the whole of the Americas, the Popol Vuh.

希伯来的上帝用尘埃造出了首位人类亚当，玛雅神用玉米来创造人类。

For generations, this was passed on through oral traditions before finally being written down in the seventeenth century. Here's a taste of it:

在整个美洲神话中，著名史诗《波波尔乌》讲叙了这个神话故事。悠悠岁月里，这故事在一代又一代人中口口相传，一直流传到十七世纪，终于被记载入书本。让我们来品味一下其中一小段：

'And here is the beginning of the conception of humans and of the search for the ingredients of the human body...

于是众神就开始有了最原始的关于人类的概念，也就着手进行寻找人类肉体的工作。

So they spoke¹²; the bearer, begetter¹³, the makers¹⁴, modellers-and a sovereign plumed¹⁵ serpent-they sought and discovered what was needed for human flesh.

众神开口说：人类应该是负重者、继承者、创造者与模范者，拥有主权意识及灵蛇般的灵性。经过千辛万苦的苦苦寻找，众神最终找到并发现了一种人类肉体需要的物质。

It was only a short while before the sun, moon and stars were to appear above the makers and modellers.

那时众神初混沌，创造出日月星辰，山川河流。在那苦水之滨，养育了黄玉米与白玉米。

Split place, bitter water place, is the name, the yellow corn, white corn, came from there.

众神寻找到那里，寻找到这些粮食并进行种植。

And this was when they found the staple¹⁶ foods, and then the yellow corn and white corn were ground.

随后他们念起了咒语，用黄玉米与白玉米造出了人类的肉体，

After that they put into words the making, the modelling of our first mother-father, with yellow corn, white corn alone for the flesh,

再用其他食品做成人类的四肢，赋于了生命。

food alone for the human legs and arms for our first fathers, the four human works.

这就是我们最早的父母亲，众神最初的四件人类作品。

But why did maize become the favoured food and the revered¹⁷ grain of the Americas? Why not wheat or a certain type of meat?

但为什么唯独玉米成为所有美洲人最为青睐的食品与崇敬的谷物？为什么不是小麦或者其它类型的肉类呢？

1 elite   

n.精英阶层；实力集团；adj.杰出的，卓越的

参考例句：

• The power elite inside the government is controlling foreign policy.政府内部的一群握有实权的精英控制着对外政策。
• We have a political elite in this country.我们国家有一群政治精英。

2 maize   

n.玉米

参考例句：

• There's a field planted with maize behind the house.房子后面有一块玉米地。
• We can grow sorghum or maize on this plot.这块地可以种高粱或玉米。

3 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

4 manifestation   

n.表现形式；表明；现象

参考例句：

• Her smile is a manifestation of joy.她的微笑是她快乐的表现。
• What we call mass is only another manifestation of energy.我们称之为质量的东西只是能量的另一种表现形态。

5 mythological   

adj.神话的

参考例句：

• He is remembered for his historical and mythological works. 他以其带有历史感和神话色彩的作品而著称。
• But even so, the cumulative process had for most Americans a deep, almost mythological significance. 不过即使如此，移民渐增的过程，对于大部分美国人，还是意味深长的，几乎有不可思议的影响。

6 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

7 dough   

n.生面团；钱，现款

参考例句：

• She formed the dough into squares.她把生面团捏成四方块。
• The baker is kneading dough.那位面包师在揉面。

8 veneration   

n.尊敬，崇拜

参考例句：

• I acquired lasting respect for tradition and veneration for the past.我开始对传统和历史产生了持久的敬慕。
• My father venerated General Eisenhower.我父亲十分敬仰艾森豪威尔将军。

9 civilisation   

n.文明，文化，开化，教化

参考例句：

• Energy and ideas are the twin bases of our civilisation.能源和思想是我们文明的两大基石。
• This opera is one of the cultural totems of Western civilisation.这部歌剧是西方文明的文化标志物之一。

10 mythical   

adj.神话的；虚构的；想像的

参考例句：

• Undeniably,he is a man of mythical status.不可否认，他是一个神话般的人物。
• Their wealth is merely mythical.他们的财富完全是虚构的。

11 epic   

n.史诗，叙事诗；adj.史诗般的，壮丽的

参考例句：

• I gave up my epic and wrote this little tale instead.我放弃了写叙事诗，而写了这个小故事。
• They held a banquet of epic proportions.他们举行了盛大的宴会。

12 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

13 begetter   

n.生产者，父

参考例句：

• Elvis Presley was the true begetter of modern youth culture. 埃尔维斯·普雷斯利是现代青年文化的真正奠基人。 来自柯林斯例句

14 makers   

n.制造者，制造商（maker的复数形式）

参考例句：

• The makers of the product assured us that there had been no sacrifice of quality. 这一产品的制造商向我们保证说他们没有牺牲质量。
• The makers are about to launch out a new product. 制造商们马上要生产一种新产品。 来自《简明英汉词典》

15 plumed   

饰有羽毛的

参考例句：

• The knight plumed his helmet with brilliant red feathers. 骑士用鲜红的羽毛装饰他的头盔。
• The eagle plumed its wing. 这只鹰整理它的翅膀。

16 staple   

n.主要产物，常用品，主要要素，原料，订书钉，钩环；adj.主要的，重要的；vt.分类

参考例句：

• Tea is the staple crop here.本地产品以茶叶为大宗。
• Potatoes are the staple of their diet.土豆是他们的主要食品。

17 revered   

v.崇敬，尊崇，敬畏( revere的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• A number of institutions revered and respected in earlier times have become Aunt Sally for the present generation. 一些早年受到尊崇的惯例，现在已经成了这代人嘲弄的对象了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Chinese revered corn as a gift from heaven. 中国人将谷物奉为上天的恩赐。 来自辞典例句