All we have are little paintings on pottery1 – on vases and urns2.
我們只見到陶制器皿上、花瓶上和壇子上的小型畫像。
Their loveliness tells us what we have lost.
這些畫像如此之美以至我們能夠想象得出來我們喪失了什么。
However, the temples are still standing3. Even in Athens.
但神廟今日猶在。它們?nèi)源A⒃谘诺洹?/p>
And best of all, the citadel4 of Athens is still there – the Acropolis – where new sanctuaries5 made of marble were erected6 in the time of Pericles,
雅典的城堡——衛(wèi)城如今還在——伯里克利時(shí)期人們在這城堡上建了新的大理石圣地,
because the old ones had been burnt and destroyed by the Persians while the Athenians watched from the island of Salamis.
因?yàn)榕f的圣地在雅典人在駐守薩拉米斯島上的時(shí)候被波斯人燒毀了。
The Acropolis still contains the most beautiful buildings we know.
今天衛(wèi)城仍還是我們所見到的建筑物中最美的。
Not the grandest, or the most splendid.
那里根本就沒有什么特別大或特別豪華的東西。
Simply the most beautiful.
只因?yàn)樗蠲馈?/p>
Every detail is so clear and so simple that one cannot imagine it otherwise.
每一個(gè)細(xì)部都雕塑得如此清楚和簡單,致使人們不會把它想象成另外的樣子。
All the forms which the Greeks employed in these buildings were to be used again and again in architecture.
所有這些希臘人在那里曾使用過的式樣從此以后在建筑藝術(shù)中一直一再被運(yùn)用。
You will find Greek columns – of which there are several kinds – in almost every city of the world, once you have learnt to recognize them.
你看希臘式柱子——它們有各種式樣,你只要注意觀察,你就幾乎會在世界上的每個(gè)城市見到它們。
But none of them is as beautiful as those on the Acropolis where they are used not for show and decoration but for the purpose for which they were invented: as elegant supports for the roof.
當(dāng)然它們哪兒也不如雅典衛(wèi)城的那樣美,那里的柱子不是用做裝飾和點(diǎn)綴,而是具有實(shí)用的價(jià)值:為了當(dāng)作造型美麗的支柱支撐屋頂。