纪录片《大英博物馆世界简史》 069瓦斯特克女神雕像（3）

 

Here in the Mexico Gallery at the British Museum, I am looking at a statue of a woman. Not just one woman, in fact, because although she is in prime¹ position, she is presiding² over a group of companions, three sandstone sisters, all carved to the same design.

Our statue is about five feet (1.5m) high, so more-or-less life-size, but she's not at all lifelike. She looks as though she's been shaped by a giant pastry-cutter - the contours of the body are straight lines, the surface is flat - you might almost imagine she's a huge gingerbread woman. When you step to the side, you can see that she's carved out of a very thin piece of sandstone. Edge-on, she's less than six inches (15 cm) thick. She folds her hands over her stomach, and her arms are held out from her sides, making two triangular³ spaces. In fact, she's really just a series of geometric shapes. Her breasts are perfect hemispheres⁴, and below the waist she wears a rectangular⁵ skirt, which falls flat and undecorated to the plinth. This is a lady of straight lines and hard edges, clearly not somebody you would choose to mess with!

这座瓦斯特克女性雕像陈列在大英博物馆的墨西哥厅，身边站着她的三个砂石做的姐妹，后者的设计相仿。雕像高约一点五米，几乎与真人等大，但模样与真人并不相似，看上去像是用大型饼干模子压出来的，身体外轮廓的线条横平竖直、身板呈扁平状，你可以把它想象成一个大号姜饼人。从侧面看过去，会发现她是用极薄的砂石雕刻而成的，边缘厚度不超过十厘米。她双手交叠放于胃部，胳膊稍稍外撑，与身躯之间空出一个三角形。其实她的整个身体都是由各种几何图形构成的，胸部是两个完美的半球，腰部以下穿着一条梯形裙，裙子上没有任何装饰，直接与基座相连。这是一位由各种直线与硬边组成的女士，你一定不想跟她有什么纠葛。

 

1 prime   

adj.首要的，主要的；最好的，第一流的

参考例句：

• The prime minister spoke of the general insecurity in the country.总理谈到了全国普遍存在的不安全。
• He met with the Prime Minister of Japan for an hour.他和日本首相会见了一个小时。

2 presiding   

主持会议的，指挥的

参考例句：

• Mercury was the presiding divinity over commerce. 墨丘利是商业之神。
• A presiding or participating employee may at any time disqualify himself. 主持之雇员或参与之雇员的资格得在任何时候取消。

3 triangular   

adj.三角（形）的，三者间的

参考例句：

• It's more or less triangular plot of land.这块地略成三角形。
• One particular triangular relationship became the model of Simone's first novel.一段特殊的三角关系成了西蒙娜第一本小说的原型。

4 hemispheres   

n.半球( hemisphere的名词复数 )；地球的半球

参考例句：

• The human brain is divided vertically down the middle into two hemispheres. 人脑从中央垂直地分为两半球。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The equator divides the earth into two hemispheres. 赤道把地球划分成为两个半球。 来自辞典例句

5 rectangular   

adj.矩形的，成直角的

参考例句：

• He put a rectangular box on the table.他把一个长方形的箱子放在桌子上。
• The equations are written in rectangular coordinates.这些方程是在直角座标系中写出的。