2015-02-21

【Aiden in English】

       As we walked out of Serafina Fabulous Pizza with full, yet queasy stomachs, Mom led us to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MMA). I don’t know about you, but the world history isn’t a 12-year-old boy’s favorite to learn on Saturday, if we even learn on Saturday. Even if history were our favorite subject, the library would have 24-hour service.  Besides, the MMA only has art. So if we were going there, it would take hours to read the small summaries next to each artwork. But no matter what I did try to change my mom’s thought, she would budge even an inch.

        Mom had gotten us the audio headphones and a gadget of some sort to give us a description of certain pictures. It didn’t take Einstein to figure out what the gadget was, because the size, battery sign, and time gave it away. The “gadget” was an iPod, just in a plastic case and the iPod stuck to one app. As I scrolled through all the guides and instructions, the MMA seemed larger than ever.

        Where to start? It’s the question, isn’t it? Well, it’s certain if you have three hours to tour the MMA. It’s so big that you could spend an entire day exploring. Literally, that’s the description the iPod told me about. So instead of picking a random place to begin, we went to the nearest entrance we could find to the vast maze of art. We plopped in the middle of Greek & Roman Art that my friend Kevin was currently learning in his social study at the 6th grade, while I was wondering about Ancient India in my school district at the same time. 

        As soon as I scanned the gallery, I saw a ton of small, black and bolded numbers. The screen would then have a narrator lecture on and on about a piece of artwork after pressed the corresponded number on iPod. His voice also sounded very lame and droopy and made me feel like falling asleep in class when the teacher talked about how grass grew or paint dried. So Kevin and I were just standing at a bowl with many paintings on it and listening to an old man talk about how people were playing a sport. I thought the iPod helped me to know what it’s going on. With my imagination, the person holding the spear was trying to poke someone in the back. It would’ve been rude, but now I could also see how the people were playing a sport of Who-Can-throw-A-Spear-Farther game. Yet when the curator finished talking, both moms became just a puff of smoke. Down the hall at the end of the gallery, I caught a glimpse of our moms turning the corner. We raced to catch up, barely looking around us. Kevin and I caught up to them, and they said we were only going to scan things. I would’ve hugged her right then and there. I didn’t know about you, but if we stopped to hear a lecture on everything of the largest museum in the US, I rather eat uncooked frozen carrots. 

        The Ancient Greek section continued onto statures of men with six packs, each with a history of three things, a winner in the Olympics or sports, a warrior, or a king/god. The statures were all white, but in different sizes. In the hallway, huge marble figures loomed over us, while in the next exhibition room was a shriveled up old man who didn’t fit my overall assumption. I didn’t have time to listen to the iPod explain because moms and the others were in and out as fast as lighting. All I did catch was that he was missing a hand.

        We sped out of Greek & Roman Art and blasted into the European Paintings of the 13^th-19^th century. Rooms split into intersections, and paintings lined the walls everywhere. Getting lost was easy. After a while, all the paintings looked the same. But when things started looking the same, differences became more obvious. As we wandered through rooms and rooms of the gallery, I noticed the differences between painters. Some painters drew strokes like waves, easy and peaceful, yet others painted with erratic strokes, making sharp edges. Also, paintings varied from chaotic scenes like war to calm backdrops of beaches. In those chaotic war paintings, there was so much to take in. It seemed almost as if the artist wanted to overwhelm the viewer with swords, explosion and most of all uniforms. While in those calm beach paintings, the artists painted with smooth curves of waves and sand colliding over and over again, almost hypnotizing me when I saw it. Although these were small variations, I kept walking until a painting stood out. Now when I said chaotic before, I meant kind of chaotic but neat enough to know what it was. Whoever painted this picture, I didn’t even know if “neat” was in his vocabulary. The highlight was added to increase the brightness. Different shades of gray were splattered over. It looked like a child painted by flinging the paint brush everywhere. If I closely looked at, other colors emerged like red, green, and yellow. Again, it was only a glance because Mom had paid her visit many times over the years and she flew along through rooms. I followed her, and Kevin followed me. 

        The next room had a painting of “Wolf and Fox Hunt” that stood out even to Mom. It was a picture of a man hunting with his dogs by Flemish Baroque Painter Peter Paul Rupens (1557-1640). Yet there was a wolf fighting two soldiers with other wolves fighting the foxes. It reflected one of those chaotic paintings with death and sharp stuff, which was not something you wanted to see before bed.

        As we finally finished a circle back to the place where we started, the four of us took a break. Our legs and brain became sore, and just ahead was another few long adventures of cultures to go.

【红霞译文】

        在六翼天使巨无霸皮萨店饱餐过后，大家的胃口早已被撑得滴水不进，这时妈妈率领我们直奔纽约大都会艺术博物馆。不知你怎么认为，对于一位不满十二岁的男生来说，干吗要在星期六跟自己过意不去，即使非得占用周末时间，犯不上拿世界史开刀，如果真的因为喜爱历史而想强化学习，还有图书馆甘做后盾，那是一天廿四小时昼夜开放免费为民服务的文化场所，而大都会艺术博物馆充其量只与艺术相关。且不讲我们先要长途跋涉赶往那里，再花上大把精力抠叱清楚所有艺术作品旁那些小了吧叽的注解说明，可事先无论我怎么费尽口舌，都难以打动妈妈，她始终坚持己见寸步不让。

        妈妈为我们每人预定了音频耳机解说器，戴上它可以了解有关展品背景，即使你不是爱因斯坦，同样知道怎么使用这玩意儿，因为单凭其外观大小、充电容量以及使用长短就不难做出个人选择，它就是苹果牌数码多媒体播放器，小小的塑料盒内安装有软件应用程序，我马上把里面的参观攻略与介绍指南横扫一遍，方知大都会艺术博物馆要比想象的大得多。

        从哪儿入手呢？这下问题来了，难道不对吗？假如你计划用三个钟头涵盖全馆，那么这个问题肯定首当其冲，大都会艺术博物馆规模宏大，怎么着都得花掉整天的功夫，解说器也强调这一点。因此，与其漫无边际地闲逛，不如择近走入古希腊古罗马艺术展厅，恰好也是同龄发小好友艺博目前六年级社会学所学内容，而我的学校正侧重世界四大文明古国之一印度。

        我放眼环视古希腊古罗马艺术展厅，面前出现一堆密密麻麻既小又黑还粗的编号，只要在解说器输入相应的号码，荧光屏讲解员便开始滔滔不绝地讲述起来，其声调枯燥低沉，宛如课堂上老师谈论绿草如何生长或者油漆怎么变干一样，令我昏昏欲睡。于是，我和艺博来到一口大碗旁，上面附有不少图画，我们一边观摩，一边聆听老先生介绍当年人们如何参加体育运动，我觉得解说器有助于拉近参观者与作品的距离，激发人的想象力，画中人手握长矛正试图直戳对手的后背，这么做虽有失常理，但现在至少我明白了扔标枪游戏是怎么来的。听完解说员讲解，两位妈妈一溜烟跑得无影无踪，在展厅的尽端拐角处，我好不容易捕捉到她俩的身影，咱哥们儿急起直追，顾不上多猫一眼身边的展品。待我和艺博跟了上来，才被告知要加快步伐。知子莫如母啊，这话可说到了我心坎上去，不知你作何感想，总而言之，如果真的叫我逐一听完全美最大的博物馆各种介绍，我情愿立地自罚吞下生硬冰冻令人作呕的胡萝卜。

        我们继续沿古希腊馆向内延伸直至腹肌发达的美男雕像群，其中每位都与以下三件事情密不可分：奥林匹克能手、战将或国王即上帝，全部从白色大理石雕刻而成，只不过大小各异。走廊上风度翩翩的巨型雕塑随处可见，展厅内间或出现老态龙钟的长者，与前面我所描述的形成了鲜明对照。我来不及聆听详细解说，因为大家进进出出犹如闪电一般穿梭，最后只容我看到一尊断臂人雕像。

        我们速战速决，很快转入十三—十九世纪欧洲绘画展厅。展厅之间设有隔断，四周墙壁挂满了名门流派的各家代表，乍看上去大同小异，但实际上风格不一。我们从一个展室走出，立刻又走进另一个展室，逐步意识到画家之间格调上的差别：有的画锋平滑，静如微波荡漾，“江作青罗带，山如碧玉篸”；有的则古道西风，构图突兀苍劲，“为草当作兰，为本当作松”。从驰骋疆场到恬静海滨，各路绘画手法纷纷亮相：反映残酷战争的作品刀光剑影，到处呈现杀气腾腾的景象；表现湖光山色的作品柔情似水，海波簇拥浪花拍打着沙滩，缠绵得催我入睡。即使同类展品也独有特色，我接着往前走一直走到后面一幅画前才停下了脚步。在此我想解释先前所言的混乱场面并非乱涂一气，相反其中每幅作品下笔干净利落，足以让人领悟画家所要表达的意境，不管画家是谁，也不知道画家是否认可“干净利落”，总之，高光部位线条明亮，与周围灰色阴影形成强烈对比，好像孩童随笔涂鸦一气呵成；如果走近端详，我不难发现红绿黄三色从画面凸显出来。当然，我本来就是一位来去匆匆的过往行客，再加上妈妈早年来过多次，知道自己喜欢的东西，我只好脚踩妈妈的足迹，而艺博则步我之后尘。

        下个展厅有一幅“猎取狼与狐狸”竟然高度吸引了妈妈的眼球，这幅油画出自比利时巴洛克画派彼得·保罗·鲁本斯（1577生—1640卒）之手，描绘了猎手及其猎狗野外狩猎场景，动作猛烈，色彩鲜明，生动地再现狼与士兵、狼与狐狸之间的殊死搏斗，可纳入上述众多混战作品之列，睡觉前最好不要欣赏这类作品。

        我们一行四人终于重新回到博物馆大厅稍事休息，这时只觉得浑身上下酸痛不已，后面将有几个精彩的艺术展厅正等待我们继续探索。