走进耶鲁大学 第3期:斯特林纪念图书馆(1)

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斯特林纪念图书馆

Yale University has a huge library system of 25 libraries, including Sterling Memorial Library, Law Library, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, and so on and so forth².

耶鲁大学拥有一个庞大的图书馆系统，共有25座图书馆，包括斯特林纪念图书馆、 法学院图书馆、贝克尼珍品与手稿图书馆，等等。

Housing approximately 12.5 million volumes in 20 buildings on campus, it is the second-largest academic library in North America as well as the world.

整个图书馆系统藏书约1250万册， 分布在校园内20座建筑物中，是北美乃至世界上规模第二大的研究型图书馆。

Sterling Memorial Library is the latest library at Yale and serves as the center of the library system. Completed in 1930，the library was designed by James Gamble Rogers (Yale 1889) as a memorial to John William Sterling (Yale 1864), who donated much of his fortune to Yale.

斯特林纪念图书馆是耶鲁最大的图书馆，也是图书馆系统的核心。该馆由耶鲁 1889届毕业生詹姆斯·甘布尔·罗杰斯设计，建成于1930年，是为了纪念约翰·威廉·斯特林。斯特林是耶鲁大学1864届毕业生，他将自己的大量财产捐给了耶鲁大学。

On the sidewall of the entrance, there is an utterance³ of William Osier-Father of Modem⁴ Medicine: The Library is the Heart of the University. And Sterling Memorial Library lies in the center of the campus. The building has fifteen stack levels, each with its own category of books. In total, it contains about 4 million volumes in the humanities and some social science and also houses specialized⁵ research collections in area studies, as well as the department of Manuscripts and Archives. It is said that if put all the shelves in a line, it would be as long as 128 km, which is equal to the distance from New Haven⁶ to New York.

图书馆人口处刻着"现代医学之父"威廉·奥斯勒的一句话：图书馆是大学的心脏。斯特林纪念图书馆就坐落在校园的中心地带。 整个建筑有15层楼高，每一层都收藏有不同类别的图书。图书馆收藏了共计400万册人文和社会科学藏书，还收藏了领域研究的专门资料；另外，手稿及档案也收集于此。据说，如果把馆中的书架一字排开，长度约达128公里，可从纽黑文一直排到纽约城。

The library is one of the most elaborate buildings on the Yale campus. Being an example of Gothic revival⁷ architecture, and adorned⁸ with thousands of panes⁹ of stained glass, it looks like a church. Rogers made it this way to demonstrate: library is a cathedral of knowledge.

斯特林纪念图书馆是校园中最精美的建筑物之一。它是典型的哥特式复古建筑， 加上上千个彩色玻璃窗的点缀，放眼望去宛如一座教堂。罗杰斯如此设计，就是要彰显这样一种理念：图书馆是知识的殿堂。

The main entrance has two doorways¹¹. The gates which were made of oak are now looking bronze. Above the lintels, there are a range of stone carvings¹² showing ancient civilization: In the midst is a medieval sage¹³ holding a book; on the left side carved a Phoenician battleship symbolizing¹⁴ for Egypt as well as a winged bull for Babylon; on the right hand, there are Mayan serpent, Roman wolf, and Athenian owl¹⁰. In addition, from left to right it is adorned with Cro-Magnon, Egyptian, Babylonian, Hebrew, Arabian, Ancient Greek, Ancient Chinese as well as Maya inscriptions④.They seem to say that here is the temple of human civilization, also a treasure house of all human writings and cultures.

图书馆的正门有两个门洞。用橡木做成的大门呈古铜色；门楣上方是一组表现人类古代文明的石雕：一位中世纪哲人手执书籍位于中间，左边是象征古代埃及文明的腓尼基战船和象征巴比伦文明的有翼兽，右边是象征玛雅文明的蛇、象征欧洲文明的罗马狼和雅典猫头鹰；此外，石头门楣上镌刻着多种文字的碑文，从左至右分别为克罗马努、古埃及、巴比伦、希伯来、阿拉伯、古希腊、中国和玛雅的文字。所有这些似乎都在告诉人们，这里就是人类文明的圣殿，是一切人类文字和文化的宝库。

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