(单词翻译:单击)
PARIS — For years, lovestruck visitors to Paris had affixed locks, often inscribed with their initials or names, to the wire mesh panels along the Pont des Arts, flinging the keys into the Seine River below. But last year, after a section of the bridge’s railing collapsed under the weight of some 700,000 declarations of fidelity, the city removed the locks, citing reasons of aesthetics and security.
巴黎——曾经有很多年,来巴黎游玩的恋人们把大多刻着自己名字或名字首字母的锁挂在艺术桥(Pont des Arts)的铁丝网上,把钥匙抛入桥下的塞纳河(Seine River)。但是去年,桥的一段栏杆在约70万把表达爱情忠诚的锁的重压下垮掉了,市政府鉴于美观和安全方面的原因移除了那些锁。
Some people were pleased that what they considered a blight on the city was being eliminated. Others, however, expressed regret that they would not be able to participate in what had become a cherished Parisian ritual. City officials, while acknowledging the sensitivity of the issue, said at the time that they wanted to restore views of the Seine, which the locks had obscured. The pedestrian bridge connects the Institut de France and the central square of the Palais du Louvre.
有些人认为这些锁影响市容,为锁的移除感到高兴。也有些人为不能参与这项受到珍视的巴黎活动而感到遗憾。市政府官员虽然承认此事比较敏感,但是表示,当时他们想要恢复被锁破坏的塞纳河风景。这座步行桥连接法兰西学会(Institut de France)和卢浮宫(Palais du Louvre)中央广场。
Now the Pont des Arts, its iron grillwork freshly painted and protected by plexiglass panes, has taken on a new role, as the setting for an exhibition of sculptures by the contemporary artist Daniel Hourdé.
艺术桥上的铁丝网被粉刷一新,用有机玻璃板保护起来。现在它有了一个新用途:这里正在举办当代艺术家丹尼尔·乌尔代(Daniel Hourdé)的雕塑展。
The installation, “The Enchanted Footbridge,” opened last week and was to be formally dedicated on Wednesday evening. There are seven pedestals, eight statues, 10 reflective metal “trees” and a kinetic statue of a figure engaged in what appears to be a violent movement or struggle.
装置作品《施了魔法的步行桥》(The Enchanted Footbridge)上周揭幕,周三晚上举行正式典礼。展览包括7个垫座、8个雕塑、10个反光金属“树”,以及一个活动雕塑——表现的是一个人好像在进行剧烈的运动或挣扎。
“I imagined a kind of hanging garden,” Mr. Hourdé said in a telephone interview on Wednesday, adding that the works made for a “metallic transition” from when the bridge was weighed down by the locks to its newly lightened state.
“我想像出一种空中花园,”周三乌尔代在电话采访中说。他又补充,这些作品是一种“金属过渡”——从这座桥被锁重压的状态过渡到它全新的轻盈状态。
“All sculptures are on the verge of equilibrium, on the verge of rupture,” he said.
“所有的雕塑都处于平衡和断裂的边缘,”他说。
But, much as they were when the locks were removed, opinions were divided.
不过,很像锁被移除时那样,人们对这些雕塑的观点也存在分歧。
“I don’t know if I like it,” Cornelia Katsikotoulou, 24, a tourist from Greece, said Tuesday evening as she gazed at a gilded figure of Actaeon, a mythological hunter shown in the company of his dogs, baring their teeth.
“我不确定自己是否喜欢它,”周二晚上,24岁的希腊游客科尔内莉娅·卡茨科图鲁(Cornelia Katsikotoulou)注视着亚克托安(Actaeon)镀金雕塑说。这位神话传说中的猎人被自己的一群狗围着,那些狗露出锋利的牙齿。
“I get mythology, I get ‘Apocalypse Now,’ I get Olympics,” Ms. Katsikotoulou said. “I have to understand what it means.”
“我感受到了神话,感受到了《现代启示录》(Apocalypse Now),也感受到了奥林匹克运动会,”卡茨科图鲁说,“我得弄明白它究竟什么意思。”
Charlie Saco, 70, a retiree visiting from New Jersey, offered his own interpretation of one of the works.
70岁的查理·索科(Charlie Saco)是来自新泽西州的退休游客。他给出了自己对其中一件作品的理解。
“That has to be something antiwar,” Mr. Saco said of a piece entitled “Le Ciel lui tombe sur la tête,” or “The sky is falling down on him.”
“那应该是表达反战的意思,”索克谈起一件名为《天塌下来砸向他》(The sky is falling down on him)的作品时说。
“Is that a plane?” he asked, pointing at a jumble of steel figures tumbling onto a sculpture of a man. Mr. Hourdé said that, in fact, the figures were letters spelling out the Greek word for sky.
“那是飞机吗?”他指着一堆砸向人物雕塑的乱糟糟的钢铁图形问道。乌尔代说,那些图形实际上是构成了希腊单词“天空”。
Mr. Saco did not lament the loss of the love locks, citing the danger their weight posed to the bridge.
索科先生没有为爱情锁的移除感到惋惜,认为锁的重量会给桥带来危险。
Neither did Nicolas A., 31, a French photographer who would not give his last name. “When you have the locks, you have a wall,” he said. “Try putting a notebook in front of your eyes and now choose what you prefer.”
31岁的法国摄影师尼古拉斯·A(Nicolas A.)也是同感。他没有透露自己的姓。“那些锁就像一堵墙,”他说,“你试试在眼前放一个笔记本,然后把它拿开,然后再选择你更喜欢什么。”
With the see-through panels on the bridge, he said, “The place has been reclaimed.”
他说,桥上现在安装的透明玻璃板让这个“地方焕然一新”。
On the Left Bank side of the bridge, a photographer for Dior photographed a woman wearing a salmon-colored dress.
在桥的左岸,迪奥(Dior)的一名摄影师在给一名穿着浅橙色连衣裙的女人拍照。
The photographer, Zhang Jie, 29, who lives in Paris, said he missed the locks. He recalled one engraved with Chinese characters that read: “We’re not together anymore.”
这名29岁的摄影师名叫张杰(音),住在巴黎。他说,他怀念那些锁。他记得有一把锁上刻着一行中文字:“我们分手了。”