为你读英语美文·第533期云南看云·永清

主播：永清

录制地点：云南

Watching Clouds in Yunnan (Excerpt)

《云南看云》节选

作者：沈从文，翻译：永清

Yunnan gets its name from clouds. Yet when outsiders live here for half a year or so, they become much like the locals — seeing the clouds merely as signs of weather changes, and no longer appreciate their pure beauty.

云南是因云而得名的，可是外省人到了云南一年半载后，一定会和本地人差不多，对于云南的云，除了只能从它变化上得到一点晴雨知识，就再也不会单纯地来欣赏它的美丽了。

After seeing Mr. Lu Xilin’s photography, many people suddenly awaken to the fact that they were born in Yunnan, or that they live in Yunnan.

看过卢锡麟先生的摄影后，必有许多人俨然重新觉醒，明白自己是生在云南，或住在云南。

War has taught many people a certain education about life: we’ve walked many roads, crossed many bridges, slept in many beds, and suffered more than we could’ve imagined.

战争给了许多人一种有关生活的教育，走了许多路，过了许多桥，睡了许多床，此外还必然吃了许多想象不到的苦头。

But the most profound kind of education may be this: every region has its own weather, and that weather, in turn, shapes the ways of its people.

然而真正具有深刻教育意义的，说不定倒是明白许多地方各有各的天气，天气不同还多少影响到一点人事。

Clouds have regional character. In northern China, the clouds are heavy, and so are the people. In the south, clouds are lively — and so are the people. Along the coasts, clouds are strange and ever-changing; the clouds over the Bohai Sea and the South China Sea differ, just like the temperament of the people living along their shores.

云有云的地方性：中国北部的云厚重，人也同样那么厚重；南部的云活泼，人也同样那么活泼；海边的云幻异，渤海和南海云又各不相同，正如两处海边的人性情不同。

The impression left by Yunnan’s clouds is altogether different. Their defining quality is simplicity — shaping a nature in people that is sincere and pure.

云南的云给人的印象大不相同，它的特点是素朴，影响到人的性情，也应当是挚厚而单纯。

They seem to be made of two materials: the ice and snow of Tibetan mountains, and the yearlong heat waves from the South China Sea — combined through some magical process.

它似乎是用西藏高山的冰雪，和南海长年的热浪，两种原料经过一种神奇的手续完成的。

Their colors are astoundingly simple; it is this very simplicity that reveals their greatness.

色调出奇的单纯，惟其单纯反而见出伟大。

Especially during clear twilights, the scenery is extraordinary — like an ink-wash painting with bold and unrestrained brushwork.

尤以天时晴明的黄昏前后，光景异常动人。完全是水墨画，笔调超脱而大胆。

Sometimes one corner of the sky turns as black as lacquer, yet the feeling it gives is light and weightless — the darker the evening clouds in Yunnan, the brighter the next day will be. It’s like Zhao Songxue’s ink painting Autumn River and Layered Peaks, where rich ink gives rise to subtle grace.

天上一角有时黑得如一片漆，给人感觉却十分轻——云南傍晚的黑云越黑，越预示次日晴好，恰似赵松雪的水墨画《秋江叠嶂》，浓墨重彩中透出秀美。

But under such beautiful skies, human affairs remain unbearably mundane. People scramble all day for "fabi" (legal tender), college students fight for accounting degrees to land banking jobs, professors drown in card games, and citizens — even under air raid sirens — keep calculating the rise of Vietnamese currency or gasoline prices.

然而在这般美丽天空下，人事却庸俗不堪：人们终日为“法币”奔忙，大学生挤破头学会计只为进银行谋生，教授沉湎牌桌，市民警报声中仍盘算“越币涨跌”“汽油涨价”。

However beautiful the clouds of Yunnan may be, they mean nothing to most people.

云南的云纵使再美，对多数人毫无意义。

Lu Xilin’s cloud photography exhibition became a perfect counterpoint. His works captured the vigor, grace, gentleness, and sublimity of Yunnan’s clouds, evoking poetic inspiration and conveying noble sentiments through cloud imagery.

卢锡麟的云摄影展恰成对照。他的作品捕捉了云南云的健美、飘逸、温柔与崇高，让观众从云影中获得诗的感兴，传递高尚情感。

The purpose of art is not only to praise, but also to resist “vulgar pragmatism” — when society becomes wholly commercialized and intellectuals care only about survival, what future can a nation have?

艺术的目的不仅是赞美，更是对抗“庸俗的实际主义”——当整个社会被市侩化，知识分子只顾糊口，民族未来何在？

We must learn to “contemplate in silence the clouds in the sky”: let the clouds refine, inspire, and transform us, so that we become used to “gazing into the far distance,” and refuse to sink into degradation.

我们需学会“静观默会天空的云彩”：让云陶冶、启发、改造我们，使习惯“向远景凝眸”，不甘堕落。

Mr. Lu’s photography offers more than visual pleasure — it invites reflection: in a time of national peril, only by rising above worldly gain and turning our eyes toward distant ideals can our people preserve hope.

卢先生的摄影不仅是视觉享受，更引人深思——在国难之际，唯有超越眼前利禄，凝望远方理想，民族才有希望。

后期制作：永清

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