All we have are little paintings on pottery – on vases and urns.

我们只见到陶制器皿上、花瓶上和坛子上的小型画像。

Their loveliness tells us what we have lost.

这些画像如此之美以至我们能够想象得出来我们丧失了什么。

However, the temples are still standing. Even in Athens.

但神庙今日犹在。它们仍矗立在雅典。

And best of all, the citadel of Athens is still there – the Acropolis – where new sanctuaries made of marble were erected in the time of Pericles,

雅典的城堡——卫城如今还在——伯里克利时期人们在这城堡上建了新的大理石圣地，

because the old ones had been burnt and destroyed by the Persians while the Athenians watched from the island of Salamis.

因为旧的圣地在雅典人在驻守萨拉米斯岛上的时候被波斯人烧毁了。

The Acropolis still contains the most beautiful buildings we know.

今天卫城仍还是我们所见到的建筑物中最美的。

Not the grandest, or the most splendid.

那里根本就没有什么特别大或特别豪华的东西。

Simply the most beautiful.

只因为它最美。

Every detail is so clear and so simple that one cannot imagine it otherwise.

每一个细部都雕塑得如此清楚和简单，致使人们不会把它想象成另外的样子。

All the forms which the Greeks employed in these buildings were to be used again and again in architecture.

所有这些希腊人在那里曾使用过的式样从此以后在建筑艺术中一直一再被运用。

You will find Greek columns – of which there are several kinds – in almost every city of the world, once you have learnt to recognize them.

你看希腊式柱子——它们有各种式样，你只要注意观察，你就几乎会在世界上的每个城市见到它们。

But none of them is as beautiful as those on the Acropolis where they are used not for show and decoration but for the purpose for which they were invented: as elegant supports for the roof.

当然它们哪儿也不如雅典卫城的那样美，那里的柱子不是用做装饰和点缀，而是具有实用的价值：为了当作造型美丽的支柱支撑屋顶。