ON HIS lightning tour of South-East Asia last year, Barack Obama made a point of criticising Cambodia’s prime minister, Hun Sen, for his dismal human-rights record. Cambodians have indeed done horrifying things to each other (see the obituary). But what of America’s own legacy in the country? Cambodians have not forgotten the sustained American bombing campaign between 1970 and 1973, which drove so many people into the arms of Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge army.
在去年的东南亚一行中，巴拉克•奥巴马因指责了柬埔寨首相洪森在人权上的可怕记录。的确，柬埔寨人对同胞做了一些令人发指的事（见讣告）。但美国又留下了些什么呢？柬埔寨人不能忘记美国在1970至1973年间持续的狂轰乱炸，致使很多人加入波尔波特的大军及其红色高棉军。
“Parachute Skirt with Flowers”, an art installation made of military detritus collected over three decades, offers a disturbing reminder of that era. At its heart is a United States Air Force parachute that landed in Prey Veng village, the home of Leang Seckon, a Cambodian artist. It was known locally as chhat, Cambodian for umbrella, and Mr Leang remembers how it was used to cover leaky houses during the rains.
“带花的降落伞裙”是一种由收集了三十多年的军用碎石制成的艺术装置，总让人不安地想起那个年代。在其中心是降落在波萝勉村的美国空军降落伞，这个村子是一位柬埔寨艺术家Leang Seckon 的家乡。当地称之为chhat ，柬埔寨语是伞的意思，梁先生记得在雨天的时候漏雨的人家用伞来遮挡房屋。
Mr Leang’s artwork arrives at the Bronx Museum this month as part of “Season of Cambodia”, a $2.6m arts festival involving more than 125 artists of different disciplines, performing or exhibiting in 30 New York institutions, from the Metropolitan Museum of Art to the Asia Society. The catalyst behind the festival is Arn Chorn-Pond, a human-rights activist and outspoken critic of America’s foreign policy during that period. Orphaned as a boy, Mr Pond became a child soldier with the Khmer Rouge. After the war he was rescued from a Thai refugee camp by an American pastor, who adopted him. At Brown University Mr Pond met Amy Carter. It was partly through her father, former President Jimmy Carter, that he began working with Amnesty International.
梁先生的艺术品在这个月到达布朗克斯博物馆，作为“柬埔寨季节”的展览作品。这个耗资2600万美元的艺术节容纳超过125位来自不同流派的艺术家，这些作品将在纽约30个机构中被展出，从大都会艺术博物馆到亚洲协会等。这次艺术节的背后始作俑者是阿恩•乔恩-庞德，一位人权活动家，也是那段时期对美国外交政策的公开批评家。孩童时代就成了孤儿的他成为了红色高棉军的娃娃兵。战后，他在泰国难民营被一位美国牧师解救，随后被牧师领养。在布朗大学，庞德先生遇见了艾米•卡特。他的父亲，前总统吉米•卡特，对他产生的影响让他开始在国际特赦组织工作。
During the Pol Pot years Mr Chorn-Pond was stationed in the north-western city of Battambang where he witnessed horrific violence every day. He was saved by his skill in entertaining Khmer soldiers on the khim, a dulcimer-like instrument used to play propaganda songs. Mr Chorn-Pond’s search for his khim teacher, Yoeun Mek, and their eventual reunion led to the creation of what is now known as Cambodia Living Arts (CLA). This Phnom Penh-based organisation tracked down 20 other master musicians, many of them destitute. It gave them housing, food and a small allowance to encourage them to pass on their musical techniques and traditions to future generations. CLA initiated the New York festival.
在波尔布特的那些年里，乔恩•庞德驻扎在马德望西北部的一个城市，他在那目睹了每天爆发的恐怖暴力事件。他依靠“金”，一种用来弹奏宣传歌声的洋琴，为高棉军表演而逃过一劫。乔恩•庞德找到了他的“金”老师，Yoeun Mek ，他们两的重聚创造了现今为人所知的柬埔寨生活艺术（CLA）。以金边为基地的这个组织拉拢了20位音乐大师，他们当中很多都穷困潦倒。该组织给予他们住所，食物以及一点点津贴，鼓励他们将自己的音乐技术和习俗传递给下一代。CLA开创了纽约艺术节。
Cambodia has a long tradition of classical music, dance and film. King Norodom Sihanouk, who ruled the country until 1970, used to appoint artists to Cambodia’s diplomatic missions. Sihamoni, his youngest son and the current king, trained as a ballet dancer in Paris and Prague. Norodom’s eldest daughter, Buppha Devi, specialised in a classical dance style known as robam boran, and performed for General de Gaulle and Marshall Tito.
柬埔寨在古典音乐、舞蹈和电影上有着悠久的传统。统治柬埔寨直到1970年的诺罗顿•西哈努克曾任命艺术家们为柬埔寨的外交使团，他最年幼的儿子即现任国王西哈莫尼，曾在巴黎和布拉格接受过芭蕾舞的训练。诺罗顿最年长的女儿，布法•提毗则专门从事一种现被称为robam boran的古典舞蹈，她还为法国戴高乐将军和马歇尔•提托表演过。
All that changed with the arrival of Pol Pot in 1975. He regarded artists as superfluous. One of his favourite sayings was, tuk min chamnen, dak chenh ka, min kat—“to keep you is no gain, to kill you no loss”. Thousands died before Pol Pot fled in 1979 and the terror ended. It took another decade for cultural life to recover.
这些都在1975年波尔布特到来的时候发生了改变。波尔布特认为艺术家们是多余的。他的一句至理名言是“tuk min chamnen,dak chenh ka,min kat—“多你一个不多，差你一个也不少”。1979年波尔布特逃亡恐慌终结前，有数千名艺术家身亡。又过了十年，文化生活才得以复苏。
Identifying survivors was just the first challenge. Robam boran dancers start training when they are six years old, and have to learn thousands of different positions to achieve the required balance of technical perfection and spiritual poise. One of the festival’s highlights—to be shown at the Brooklyn Academy of Music—is “The Legend of Apsara Mera”, which includes a dance that Princess Buppha Devi made famous. Among the performers are two young stars of the genre, Chap Chamroeun Mina and Chey Sophea.
第一项挑战就是确认幸存者。Robam boran 舞蹈家在6岁的时候就开始接受训练，并且得学习数千种不同的姿势以达到技术上的完美和心灵上的镇静所需的平衡。这次艺术节的一个亮点—将在布鲁克林音乐学院上演—是“仙女梅拉的传奇”，当中包括因布法•提毗而成名的一种舞蹈。在表演者中有两位风俗画的新星，章•姜•米娜和谢伊•索菲亚。
The Joyce Theatre in Chelsea will host the Khmer Arts Ensemble, a privately funded company created by Sophiline Cheam Shapiro, who trained with the Royal Ballet. The ensemble gives modern twists to classical dances, folk legends and even Western plays and operas. “A Bend in the River” (pictured), from a popular Cambodian story of village love and revenge, receives its world premiere in New York. This event has brought together for the first time three of Cambodia’s most important artists—Ms Shapiro, a Moscow-trained composer, Him Sophy, and Pich Sopheap, a sculptor who is working for the first time as a stage designer.
切尔西的乔伊斯剧院将接待高棉艺术团，这是一家由与英国皇家芭蕾舞团有来往的索菲丽娜•奇姆•夏皮罗私下创建的团队。该团队把现代扭动加入到古典舞蹈、民间传说甚至是西方戏剧和歌剧中。来自柬埔寨有名的乡村爱情与复仇故事“大河湾“（如图）在纽约全球首映。该事件首次集齐了三位柬埔寨最重要的艺术家—在莫斯科受过训练的作曲家夏皮罗先生、伊姆•索菲以及雕刻家皮奇•梭熙，后者首次担任舞台设计师。
Mr Pich already has an international reputation. A child during the final days of the Khmer Rouge, he emigrated to America and enrolled at the Art Institute of Chicago. Mr Pich’s works, with their broken Buddhas and undetonated bombs, have a strong autobiographical feel. He was the first Cambodian artist to be offered a solo show at the quinquennial dOCUMENTA exhibition in Kassel, in Germany. During the festival Mr Pich’s work will be shown at Tyler Rollins Fine Art, the Metropolitan Museum and the World Financial Centre.
皮奇先生早已享有世界声誉。在红色高棉军最后的日子里，还是孩童的他移民到了美国并进入了芝加哥艺术学院。皮奇先生的作品，破碎的佛像和没有爆炸的炸弹，带有一种强烈的自传色彩。他是首位能在德国每五年一次的卡塞尔文献展上个人表演的柬埔寨艺术家。在艺术节期间，皮奇先生的作品将在泰勒罗林斯美术馆、大都会博物馆和环球金融中心展出。
Amrita Performing Arts promotes contemporary dance in Phnom Penh with the help of several Westerners, including Peter Chin of Canada and a German choreographer, Arco Renz. Chey Chankethya’s 15-minute solo, “My Mother and I”, which opens at the Abrons Art Centre on April 18th shows both her classical Cambodian roots and the influence of these choreographers.
仙露表演艺术团与几位西方艺术家将在金边共同表演现代舞，这几位西方艺术家包括加拿大的彼得•陈及德国编舞者阿科•伦兹。谢伊15分钟的个人表演“我和我的母亲”4月18号将在Abrons艺术中心上演，同时展现了她的古典柬埔寨根源和这些编舞者们的影响。
Only two shadow-puppet companies survived the war. Wat Bo, a Siem Reap-based troupe, will perform scenes from the “Ramayana” at the World Financial Centre’s Winter Garden. An unlikely setting perhaps, but the organisers are confident that the atrium with its giant palms is as close to the puppeteers’ natural environment as can be found in New York.
只有两个皮影戏公司从战争中存活下来。在暹粒市创建的剧团笏博公司将在环球金融中心的冬季花园表演“罗摩传”的场景。也许是一个不太可能的环境，但组织方相信长有巨大棕榈树的中庭是在纽约能够找到的最贴近皮影戏表演自然环境的地方。
Cambodia had a vibrant film industry during the 1960s and Asia’s first international film festival was held in Phnom Penh in 1968. Its best-known director, Panh Rithy, has put together a programme of ten full-length feature films (including three of his own) to be shown in New York, along with four shorts.
在20世纪60年代，柬埔寨拥有着充满朝气的电影工业，1968年亚洲第一届国际电影节就在金边举行。柬埔寨最有名的一位导演是潘•瑞希，他的一个将在美国上映的节目是由十部未删减的剧情片（包括他自己的三个）和四个短片。
The link between creativity and memory is raised repeatedly by Mr Panh, who lost almost his entire family during the Khmer Rouge era. How to revive a culture after a holocaust is a question that he would like to see more widely discussed. The festival will introduce new audiences to Cambodian culture, and remind Americans of their government’s checkered role in Cambodia’s history.
潘先生反复突出创造性和记忆的连接，他在红色高棉军时代几乎失去了所有家人。怎样复原一次大屠杀之后的文化是他想要看到被广泛研究的一个问题。这次艺术节会给柬埔寨文化带来很多新的观众，也能提醒美国政府曾在柬埔寨历史中扮演的多变角色。