经济学人11:彩花玻璃艺术家迈克尔·拉森

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　　讣告；迈克尔.拉森；

　　Michael Lassen, stained-glass artist, died on September 8th, aged¹ 61；

　　迈克尔·拉森，彩花玻璃艺术家，卒于9月8日，享年61岁；

　　ALMOST nothing is known of the men who built the great medieval cathedrals. A mason's mark chiselled² on a column; a game of nine-men's-morris scratched on a stone; a gargoyle's half-human face, of foreman or master of works, are all that remind observers of the crowds of labouring souls who raised Canterbury or Winchester, Beauvais or Cologne.

　　对于建造中世纪大教堂的那些人我们几乎一无所知。一个被刻进圆柱的工匠的标记；一个在石头上乱划的九人莫里斯游戏；一个怪兽状滴水嘴的半人脸，那些工头或者大师的作品，都会让观者想起那些建造坎特伯雷，温彻斯特，科隆或韦伯大教堂的那些千万劳苦大众的在天之灵。

　　The dangers of such projects were legion. Contemporary illustrations show cathedral spires³ collapsing⁴, vaults⁵ caving in, high scaffolding keeling over in a chaos⁶ of planks⁷ and poles. Casualties were expected, and were many, though the fabric⁸ accounts often could not name them. In modern times the labour is no less perilous⁹; but in the days of health-and-safety and hard hats, accidents are rare. Hence the horror in Durham when, on September 3rd, Michael Lassen fell from a ladder as he helped to fix a new stained-glass window in the south quire aisle¹⁰ of the cathedral. He died some days later in hospital.

　　这些大项目危险重重。同时代的画作显示了大教堂尖塔的倾倒，拱顶的塌陷，高高的脚手架倒在一片八七八糟的木板和柱子中。尽管凭零星的记录难以命名，但意外事故的确在所难免而且经常发生。时至今日，这种劳动的危险一点也没有减少。因此，在9月3日达勒姆发生了惨案，当迈克尔。拉森帮助修复一个大教堂南边唱诗班席位的彩色玻璃窗时，他从梯子上摔了下来。几天后他在医院里死去。

　　Climbing up in the south quire to look at the traceries originally, he had found them heavily fissured¹¹, like all Durham's ancient sandstone. Blocks were missing on the exterior¹², and one side of the main arch was worn away almost to a skeleton, as though two or three centuries of wild north-east weather had blown through it. But all the stone had been carefully stabilised before his work began.

　　爬到南唱诗班席位上去原本是去看花饰窗格，他却发现他们已经严重破裂，就像所有达勒姆古老的沙岩那样。外围那些石块已经掉了，主拱经过两三百年的东北风吹过，一侧已经破损得只剩一个骨架， 但在他的工作开始之前是所有的石头都被仔细地固定下来。

　　The window was of the Transfiguration of Christ, made by Tom Denny, and one of the largest to be installed in Durham in modern times. Mr Lassen was working from top to bottom, fixing the glass he had leaded. He started with the small quatrefoil lights of the Holy Spirit and the crucifixion, proceeding¹⁴ down through the main panels of Christ and his followers¹⁶ on the mountain, with all the way the white shaft¹⁷ of God's transfiguring light growing broader through the fire-and-storm colours of the glass. The four principal lights, nicknamed after the chief figures in them, were Cuthbert, Moses, Elijah and Michael; they became familiar friends. He was fitting a small panel at the bottom left-hand side, a pane¹⁵ of bruised¹⁸ blue glass that showed the broken and suffering about to be transformed by light, almost the last piece in the window, when he fell. He was not particularly high up, working at the ledge¹⁹. But stone flags are unforgiving.

　　窗户是圣容显现，为汤姆丹尼所造，这是在现代达赫姆大教堂要安装的最大的一个。拉森的工作从顶部到底部，负责修复玻璃。他从那些圣灵和十字架的四叶草光芒和开始，接下去通过基督的主体和他在山上的追随者，从上到下，神的美丽的光线透过火红色的玻璃逐渐变光，投射出白色的光柱。四道主要的光，以里面的主要任务命名，分别是库斯伯特，摩西，以利亚和迈克尔。他们成为熟悉的朋友。当迈克尔坠落的时候，他正在安装左手边底部的一个小的镶嵌板，那是一块磨损了的蓝色玻璃，几乎是窗户上的最后一块玻璃。他其实并不是特别的高，也不是特别靠边缘。但是石板是无情的。

　　Mr Lassen had been called in late to lead and fix this window. The man originally contracted had fallen ill, and the deadline for the installation, the end of September, was fast approaching. Help was needed fast; Mr Lassen provided it, expertly and fully¹³. The tight timetable troubled him; but he was not a keen marathon runner for nothing.

　　拉森很晚的时候被召来领导修复窗户。起初签约的那个人生病了，而九月底工期的最后时限即将到来。拉森专业而不遗余力地提供了急需的帮助。紧张的时间表给他添了麻烦，但拉森不是一个只顾跑步的马拉松运动员。

　　His training had been traditional, in the Government School of Stained Glass at Hadamar in Germany; though English, he had spent many childhood years in Bavaria. After working as a glazer²⁰ and glass-restorer, he had turned to glass-painting and designing, gradually obtaining commissions in churches all over Britain. His own windows, at St Cadoc's chapel²¹ in Cowbridge in South Wales, or in the Church of Sts Peter and Paul at Great Somerford in Wiltshire, showed a love of blocks of pure colour carefully contained within thick, angular leads, especially glowing blues²² and rich reds: the medieval way of glass. His figures, too, had a medieval solidity, dignity and stillness about them.

　　拉森在德国哈达马尔的国立彩花玻璃学校受到过传统的训练，尽管是个英国人，但他很多童年时光都是在巴伐利亚度过的。在成为一名上釉和玻璃安装工后，他转而从事玻璃彩绘和设计，逐渐获得了英国各地教堂的任务。他自己的彩窗作品，遍布南威尔士考布里奇的圣卡多克礼拜堂，威尔特郡大萨默福德的圣彼得圣保罗教堂，展示了他对于仔细地填满又厚又尖的纯色块的热爱，尤其是鲜艳的蓝色和饱满的红色：这是中世纪式的玻璃。他的形状，也具有中世纪的坚固，端庄和沉静。

　　Lead and fire

　　铅与火

　　The techniques needed to lead and fix his own glass had barely changed. He would stretch the H-section lead strips, or cames, to stop “creep” in the soft, ductile²³ metal; cut them expertly straight with his pliers, so as to leave no gaps between them when they were moulded round the glass pieces; apply the hot chisel-tip of the soldering²⁵ iron just long enough to melt the solder²⁴, not the lead, when joining the strips together. The double-layered and plated technique of leading Mr Denny's glass, with the lines almost lost in the painting, was at first new to him, and correspondingly tricky²⁶. But by the time of the Durham project he had become an enthusiast²⁷, and all was going well until he fell.

　　他固定和修复自己的玻璃所需要的技术几乎没有什么变化。他伸展H型铅条，或卡梅斯，消除柔软韧性金属的脆性； 熟练地用他的钳子把它们弄直，这样当镶嵌上玻璃后就不会产生空隙；用滚烫的带凿头的焊接烙铁刚好溶化焊条，当把两个条焊接起来时不会化掉铅条。起初这种在涂色中几乎不留线条的双层镀金属的工艺对他来说是全新的，而且技术性很强。但是随着达赫姆项目的进行，他对此越发痴迷，一直到他从那里坠落。

　　A memorial service for him was held at the foot of the window while the scaffolding still covered it. Mr Lassen, who worked from Bristol, was barely known in Durham, although he had once had a studio at Worship Farm, not far away. To most of the people who attended, extending the human crowd in the bottom panels of the window, he was just “that nice chap” who had had the accident. But when September 25th came, the day of dedication²⁸, he was remembered in a different way. The clue lay in George Herbert's poem “The Windows” which was sung as an anthem²⁹ at evensong. Man was “a brittle³⁰ crazy glass”:

　　Yet in thy temple thou dost him afford This glorious and transcendent place To be a window, through thy grace.

　　一个为他举办的纪念仪式就在那窗户脚下进行，脚手架还没有拆掉。来自布里斯托尔的拉森在达赫姆几乎不为人知，尽管他在不远的礼拜农场有一个工作室。对于来参加纪念仪式的人群来说，他就是那个出事故的“好小伙”。但是当9月25日，奉献日这天到来的时候，他以一种不同的方式被怀念。而线索就藏在乔治·赫伯特的一首诗里“窗”，这是晚祷的一首赞美歌。人是一块“易脆的疯狂的玻璃”：

　　然而，栖身在你的圣殿，透过你的恩典，他这一光荣而超然的地方是一扇窗

　　As the congregation pressed through afterwards into the south quire aisle they found the windows still wreathed in incense³¹, like the cloud of God that had enveloped³² Jesus on the mountain. Through it shone the glass. Its golds and blues were smoky in the evening light, but the central column blazed white, like the transfiguration of a man; and of all men, named or un-named, whose lives and skills are embedded³³ in the stone and glass of great cathedrals.

　　众人在集会通过南唱诗班的走廊，他们还发现窗户依然在香缭绕，像神云笼罩了耶稣在山上。通过它闪耀的玻璃，金色和蓝色在夜色里显得烟雾迷茫，但中央纵队开辟白色像一个人变身，和所有的人，有名的无名的，他们的生命和手艺，都早已嵌入大教堂的石头和玻璃中。

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