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And then you come across this.
然后再来看看这些
And in an instant, vast millennia of time just collapse
就在一瞬间 数千年的时间过去了
and you're in the midst of fellow humans.
你站在了人类同胞中间
Their hands doing what hands do,
他们用双手做事
signalling from a very long way off,
从很远的地方发出信号
37,000 years distant, in fact.
确切来说 是三万七千年前
But this long-distance greeting somehow makes us bond
但不知怎么这长距离的问候却把我们
with the makers of this because they establish a presence
和这些创作者紧紧相连 因为他们创造了
that is palpably alive.
一个鲜活的存在
Astonishingly,
令人吃惊的是
hand stencils like these have been found in caves
远在印度尼西亚和巴塔哥尼亚的洞穴里
as far apart as Indonesia and Patagonia.
也有这些手板画的存在
Wherever we went, it seems
似乎无论去往何地
the urge to signal a presence went with us.
想留下人类印记的强烈欲望都一直存在
And, undeniably, these hand stencils do
无可否认 这些手板画
what nearly all art that would follow would aspire to.
做到了几乎后来所有艺术所追求的
First, they want to be seen by others,
首先 它们渴望被他人发现
and then they want to endure beyond the life of the maker.
其次 它们想超脱创造者生命的限制
Like the earliest photographs,
就像最早的照片一样
the images here are faded, indistinct,
这些图像已变得模糊 难以辨别
but something tantalising is happening -
但有些诱人的事在悄然发生
the realisation that we can, however crudely, represent.
我们意识到我们可以呈现生活 尽管形式粗糙
In another cave further west in Asturias,
再往西的阿斯图里亚斯的另一个山洞里
20 minutes walk away from any daylight,
走二十分钟来到黑暗深处
are images that are anything but crude.
这里画着一些绝不粗糙的图案
