You didn't need to be literate to be drawn into the sacred epic
在炫目的色彩冲击下 你不需要精通文学
by the blaze of colour.
也能被领入那神圣的史诗
Included in the story were the people themselves.
故事中描绘的都是人
The wheelwrights and the water carriers,
车匠 挑水人
the butchers and bakers with their boule of bread.
屠夫 面包烘培师和那成堆的面包
Now, medieval man believed that jewels, rubies, sapphires,
中世纪人相信那些宝石 比如红宝石
topazes, had the power not just to concentrate brilliance
蓝宝石和黄宝石不仅能聚集光辉
but actually emit light, and they had another power too.
也能放射光芒 具有别的力量
They could transport you from your earthly existence
它们能把人从尘世
into that extraordinary immaterial world of heaven.
带往非物质的天堂世界
So that all this stained glass were meant to be immense
所以这些彩色玻璃是为了
expanses of jewel-like radiance.
放大并且扩展这宝石般的光辉
So when you were in here,
当你身处教堂
you got a glimpse of paradise.
便能一窥天堂的模样
Visions of paradise
这一天堂的美景
through instinctive, joy-giving colour,
通过直冲眼帘的 美好色彩
easily accessible to everyone,
就这样简单地呈现在所有人眼前
was not exclusive to the Christian Church.
但这并不是基督教独有的
For centuries, colour as the symbol of the divine
几个世纪来 全球的文明都一致认为
was an idea common to different civilisations across the globe.
色彩就是神圣的象征
But at the birth of the modern age,
然而在现代初期
when religion began to lose its grip on mass belief,
宗教逐渐不再牢牢掌控人们的信仰
then a new generation of artists would reinvent
一些新世代的艺术家们就重新发明了
the idea of divine illumination.
新的理念来描绘神圣光辉
But when the smoke of chimneys and the fog of war
但当烟囱的灰烟及战争的阴霾
threatened to cast everything into the dark,
威胁着要让一切坠入黑暗
was it even possible to deliver a glimpse of salvation
人们还能否通过耀眼鲜活的色彩
in glowing, living colour?
来传递救赎的讯息呢