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Heavenly vaults but made by the earthly hand of man.
凡人之手建造的神之穹顶
The imagined form of the universe.
是人们想象中宇宙的样子
A circle.
圆
No beginning, no end, just wheeling eternity.
无始也无终 周而复始地旋转着
Domes had appeared in antiquity
穹顶自古代与中世纪时
and the medieval centuries
便已出现
but never with such compulsive grandeur.
但从未如此宏伟 摄人心魄
In the 15th and 16th centuries,
十五与十六世纪时
domes appeared everywhere,
穹顶在各地拔地而起
constellations of them.
多如繁星
They were all the work of mortal men,
它们都是凡人的杰作
but by the lights of philosophers,
追随着哲人的启示
the infinite capacity of man's mind,
加上人类无限的想象力
made him a mortal God, king of the lower beings.
使他成为了尘世中的神 凡人的王
Artists and architects, East and West,
东西方的艺术家们与建筑家们
now began to be spoken of as touched by a divine gift.
开始宣称他们是受到神灵的指点
From domes they built from Rome to Lahore,
从罗马到拉合尔的穹顶
were the crowning achievement
都是这一美妙时期的
of this moment of supreme,
辉煌成果
almost sacrilegious, creative confidence.
彰显着近乎逆天 却又创造力无穷的自信
So, why do we treat those blossomings
所以为何我们像是对待另一星球的文明般
as though they were happening
看待这些如花朵般
on different cultural planets?
遍布各地的穹顶呢
Well, I think you will know the answer to that one.
你应该知道这个问题的答案
It's that word "Renaissance", isn't it?
是"文艺复兴" 对吗
Invariably attached to the word Italian
它总不可避免地和其发源地
by those who coined it.
意大利联系起来
Oh, I know, every so often it's extended
我知道文艺复兴波及甚广
north and west to France and Germany,
北至德国 西至法国
and even, as far as literature was concerned,
凡是有文学的地方都深受其影响
to the very shores of Albion.
包括英国的每个角落
But if we want to feel the pulse of
但若是想深切感受
one of those great moments,
文艺复兴那个美妙的时期
the surge of inventiveness,
那一人类极具创造力
when civilisation bounded forward,
并大幅推动文明前进的时期
we need to look much further than that.
我们还需将眼光放远
We need to look East.
我们需要去东方看看
The great flowering we call the Renaissance
文艺复兴的硕果很大程度上
owed much to Arab scholars
归功于阿拉伯学者们
who recovered the lost classics of antiquity,
他们复原了失传的古代科学
of science, mathematics, and philosophy.
数学和哲学经典
Through the centuries that followed,
之后的几个世纪内
the outpouring of creativity
创造力的迸发
would flow both ways
使得东方伊斯兰教
