Brontë Treasures, Blown in From the Moors
矌野的風 吹來夏綠蒂．勃朗特的珍寶
By William Grimes

The dress – a floor-length blue-on-white petal print with little round buttons up the bodice and a tight collar – is tiny, tailored for a woman 4 feet 9 inches tall. The wearer was Charlotte Brontë, and her demure day dress, just about big enough for a 12-year-old girl, was the plain wrapping that encased an enormous talent, a bubbling blend of ambition, passion and literary genius.
這件洋裝－藍白花瓣印花的及地長裙，緊身上衣的小圓釦一直扣到領口，還有緊衣領─是為4呎9吋高的女人剪裁的小衣服。穿它的人是夏綠蒂．勃朗特，而她端莊的日常洋裝，大小約適合12歲的女孩，是包住一位大才女，一個集野心、熱情和文學天才於一身的沸騰混合體的尋常外衣。

Like a disembodied spirit, the dress stands at the entrance to “Charlotte Brontë: An Independent Will,” which runs Friday through Jan. 2 at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York. Timed to the 200th anniversary of Brontë’s birth, the exhibition offers a compact, sensitively arranged and surprisingly comprehensive tour of the life and work of one of the Victorian era’s most beloved writers, an object of fascination from the moment that “Jane Eyre” was published under the pen name Currer Bell in 1847.
就像脫離肉體的精神，這件洋裝站在「夏綠蒂．勃朗特：獨立的意志」特展的入口，特展9月9日到明年1月2日在紐約摩根文學博物館展出。這項展覽選在勃朗特誕辰200周年推出，對維多利亞時代最受愛戴作家的生活與工作提供了一個精巧、感性陳列、且完整的出奇的巡禮。打從1847年「簡．愛」以筆名庫瑞爾．貝爾出版起，勃朗特就一直令人著迷。

The exhibition’s subtitle comes from the pivotal chapter in “Jane Eyre” in which the heroine, although deeply in love with Rochester, the master of the house where she is a governess, spurns his proposal that she live with him, in effect, as his mistress. He entreats her to stop struggling like a “wild frantic bird.” She replies: “I am no bird; and no net ensnares me. I am a free human being with an independent will, which I now exert to leave you.”
特展的副題取自於「簡．愛」的關鍵章節，在這一章中，女主角雖然深愛著她擔任家庭教師的那戶人家的主人羅切斯特，拒絕了他要她與他同居，實際上是當他情婦的請求。他懇求她別再像一隻「狂野的鳥」般掙扎。她回答：「我不是鳥；沒有網子能誘捕我。我是擁有獨立自主意志的自由人，我現在用這個意志來離開你。」

The passage – one of the sizzlers that made “Jane Eyre” an eyebrow-raiser in its time – may be read in the novel’s bound manuscript, on view for the first time in the United States, and opened to the relevant page. Christine Nelson, a Morgan curator, secured the loan from the British Library and, to complement the Morgan’s deep holdings of Brontë manuscripts, books and drawings, arranged to borrow other items from the National Portrait Gallery in London and the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth, Yorkshire.
這個段落─當時讓「簡．愛」令人刮目相看的發燒段落之一－現在可以在小說的活頁手稿中讀到，手稿首次在美國展出，翻到有這個段落的那一頁。摩根的策展人克莉絲汀．尼爾森向大英圖書館借到這本手稿。儘管摩根本身在勃朗特的手稿、書籍和繪畫方面館藏極豐，尼爾森還是向倫敦國家肖像畫廊和約克郡哈沃斯的勃朗特故居博物館另外借來了一些展品，以充實內容。

The exhibition, tracing a fluid, chronological circle, begins by establishing the location. For nearly all her life, Brontë lived in a modest parsonage in Haworth, northwest of the urban and industrial Bradford and Leeds, perched on the edge of a wild moor.
這項展覽循著一個流動的、按年代順序的環形場地，從建立地點開始。勃朗特幾乎一輩子都住在哈沃斯一間簡樸的牧師公館，坐落在曠野的邊緣，而哈沃斯這城鎮則位於都會和工業城市布拉福和里茲的西北方。

In the hands of the novelist Elizabeth Gaskell, whose enormously popular biography “The Life of Charlotte Brontë” appeared in 1857, two years after its subject’s death at the age of 38, the village, the house and its inhabitants took on a gothic character that haunted the public imagination. High on a windswept hill, wrapped in darkness and incessant rain, lived a family of creative geniuses, with three little Wednesday Addamses – Charlotte, Emily and Anne – afloat in a literary fantasy world.
小說家伊莉莎白．蓋斯凱爾極受歡迎的傳記「夏綠蒂．勃朗特的一生」1857年問世，也就是傳記主角38歲去世的兩年後，在她筆下的村莊、房子、住在房子裡的人，呈現哥德式特色，牽縈著大眾的想像。在寒風颯颯的山坡高處，包覆在昏暗的天色和綿綿不斷的雨中，住著一家創作天才，三個小「阿達一族」－夏綠蒂、艾蜜莉和安妮，飄浮在文學的幻想世界中。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/09/books/she-was-no-bird-jane-eyre-manuscript-on-first-trip-to-america.html

2016-10-09．聯合報．D4．紐約時報賞析．田思怡譯

說文解字看新聞 田思怡

一家能出一位作家已很了不起，勃朗特一家出了三位女作家。勃朗特三姊妹（the Brontë Sisters）夏綠蒂（Charlotte）、艾蜜莉（Emily）和安妮（Anne）各自有經典名著傳世，夏綠蒂的「簡．愛」（Jane Eyre）；艾蜜莉的「咆哮山莊」（Wuthering Heights ）；安妮的「荒野莊園的房客」（The Tenant of Wildfell Hall）。

就像張愛玲有經典語錄，夏綠蒂．勃朗特的「簡．愛」也有發燒語錄（sizzlers），例如文中提到的 “I am no bird; and no net ensnares me. I am a free human being with an independent will, which I now exert to leave you.”而「獨立自主的意志」正是夏綠蒂一生的追求。

三姊妹成長的城鎮哈沃斯（Haworth）對她們的作品影響甚鉅，很難想像這個位在曠野邊的城鎮當年竟是汙染嚴重的工業城，居民平均壽命24歲，夏綠蒂38歲去世，兩個妹妹艾蜜莉和安妮死時更只有30歲和29歲。

這次特展以哥德風（gothic character）呈現哈沃斯，哥德式小說（Gothic fiction）結合恐怖、死亡和羅曼史，文中提到在寒風颯颯的山坡高處，包覆在昏暗的天色和綿綿不斷的雨中，就是典型的哥德式場景。

China’s Tech-Savvy, Burned-Out and Spiritually Adrift, Turn to Buddhism
中國科技人 轉向佛門尋開悟
By Javier C. Hernández

For centuries, Buddhists seeking enlightenment made the journey to Longquan Monastery, a lonesome temple on a hilltop in the hinterlands of northwest Beijing. Under the ginkgo and cypress trees, they meditated, chanted and pored over ancient texts.
許多世紀以來，尋求開悟的佛門弟子總會遠道來到龍泉寺，那是北京西北部偏遠地帶小山頂上一座人跡罕至的寺廟。他們在銀杏樹和柏樹下靜思冥想、誦經，研習古經。

Now a new generation has arrived. They wear hoodies, watch television shows like “The Big Bang Theory” and use chat apps to trade mantras. Many, with jobs at some of China’s hottest and most demanding companies, feel burned-out and spiritually adrift, and are looking for change.
如今，新一代修行者來了。他們穿著連帽衫，觀賞「宅男行不行」等電視影集，用聊天應用程式交流佛法。許多人在中國大陸最火紅且要求最嚴格的公司上班，他們身心俱疲，精神空虛，尋求改變。

“Life in the outside world is chaotic and stressful,” said Sun Shaoxuan, 39, the chief technology officer at an education startup. “Here, I can be at peace.”
「外面世界的生活混亂而且緊張」，39歲的教育新創公司首席技術官孫紹軒說，「在這裡，我可以處於平靜之中。」

As a spiritual revival sweeps China, Longquan has become a haven for a distinct brand of Buddhism, one that preaches connectivity instead of seclusion and that emphasizes practical advice over deep philosophy.
一陣精神復興風正席捲中國，龍泉寺成為一個與眾不同佛教的庇護殿堂，這種佛教宣揚的是與外界聯繫而非隔絕，而且重視提供務實的建議，甚於深奧的哲理。

The temple is run by what may be some of the most highly educated monks in the world: nuclear physicists, math prodigies and computer programmers who gave up lives steeped in precision to explore the ambiguities of the spiritual realm.
這座寺廟的管理者可能是世上教育程度最高的一些和尚：核子物理學家、數學奇才和電腦程式設計師，他們放棄了沉浸於追求精準的生活，轉而探究精神領域的奧義。

To build a large following, the monks have put their digital prowess to work. They have pioneered a popular series of cartoons based on Buddhist ideas like suffering and reincarnation (“Having a bad mood can ruin one’s good luck,” a recent cartoon said). This past spring, they introduced a 2-foot-tall robot named Xian’er to field questions from visitors, the temple’s first foray into artificial intelligence.
為吸引更多信眾，這些和尚發揮了他們的數位本領。他們首創以受難、轉世等佛教觀念為基礎的一系列流行卡通片，（最近有一部卡通中說道「壞情緒會毀掉好運氣」）。今年春天，他們推出一個兩英尺高的機器人，名為賢二，來解答訪客提問；這是龍泉寺在人工智慧領域的首次嘗試。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/08/world/asia/china-longquan-monastery-buddhism-technology.html

2016-10-09．聯合報．D4．紐約時報賞析．陳韻涵譯