纪录片《大英博物馆世界简史》 051玛雅宫廷放血仪式浮雕（5）

"If you can create a feeling of pain in the body and you survive it, you can move into either a state of, not quite ecstasy¹, but out-of-the-ordinariness, a sense that you can transcend², you can do something rather special.

"What I find interesting about this image, which is quite startlingly horrific, is how visible the woman's pain is. I think that, in the present day, we've come to hide our pain. We have the jokes about our capacity for pain, but we don't really show it.

"What we see there is something that women can understand and can reflect, although it's very exaggerated, the kind of relation to self and to a husband that a woman often makes - or to her children. And it's not that men are extracting them. It's that women experience their sense of self by doing these things, by enacting³ them. They give them a sense of their own identity. And I'm sure that was true for her."

The next lintel in the series shows us the consequence of the Queen's self-mortification. The ritual blood-letting, and the pain, have combined to transform Lady K'abal Xook's consciousness, and enable her to see, rising from the offering bowl that holds her blood, a vision of a sacred serpent. From the mouth of the snake a warrior brandishing a spear appears - the founding ancestor of the Yaxchilan royal dynasty,

1 ecstasy   

n.狂喜，心醉神怡，入迷

参考例句：

• He listened to the music with ecstasy.他听音乐听得入了神。
• Speechless with ecstasy,the little boys gazed at the toys.小孩注视着那些玩具，高兴得说不出话来。

2 transcend   

vt.超出，超越(理性等)的范围

参考例句：

• We can't transcend the limitations of the ego.我们无法超越自我的局限性。
• Everyone knows that the speed of airplanes transcend that of ships.人人都知道飞机的速度快于轮船的速度。

3 enacting   

制定（法律），通过（法案）( enact的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Generally these statutes apply only to wastes from reactors outside the enacting state. 总之，这些法令只适宜用在对付那些来自外州的核废料。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法
• In addition, the complexion of enacting standards for live working is described. 另外，介绍了带电作业标准的制订情况。