2015-02-21

【Aiden in English】

        The Metropolitan Museum of Art (MMA) has more in store for all visitors’ expectations. Not only do they have the European Paintings, but the MMA dedicates huge sections of the museum to other cultures. At first, three hours seemed like plenty. However, time became an issue after using up two-thirds of that in the Greek/Roman Art and European Paintings.

        The MMA’s Chinese section looked pretty impressive. My favorite was the Classical Gardens of Suzhou, a replica of a Chinese landscape and courtyard. I have never, ever, ever seen it firsthand before. The experience made me feel very cool. The floor was made of tiles, and the roof was just like the pictures we saw in my Chinese history class at Guang Hua Chinese School in PA. They seemed like bamboo poles strapped together. Statures of Buddha were placed in the center of the wall with meditating. Next to the Great Wave Pavilion alongside Lingering Garden, there was a little lotus pond with golden fish swimming around aimlessly. 

        As we moved on, the Chinese section sort of faded away, leading into the Japanese exhibition. It showed us the traditions to Japanese life. Even though it wasn’t as large as the European Paintings, but a few certainly stood out. One very descriptive thing on display was a traditional room with a Tatami bed that could be found in most houses. This was why I believe that the Japanese and Chinese were a lot more intriguing than the European section where we didn’t have time to see the family-orientated setting. I believed this would make the pictures and information a lot more appealing. So this room had a straw-like carpet and a low, but very long and large table, small pillows lined the border of the table. They seemed good for sitting and relaxing. Although after living my entire life in tall chairs, everything was kind of plain, and the people didn’t seem to want extreme luxury, large, or level up.

        Egypt came to our last stop. The iPod blabbed on about hieroglyphs and I got lost on the second word. I walked into a replica of a tomb, which wasn’t all too amazing to me. When I was 8 years old almost four years ago, I went to visit Cairo, Alexandria, Sharm el Sheikh, Luxor, Thebes, Aswan, and many other places along the Nile. After a long vacation, I came back with a ton of eye-witness from St. Catherine Monastery, Temple of Philae/Abu Simbel/Kom Ombo/Karnak/Luxor/Hathor/Medinet Habu, Step Pyramid of Djoser, the Giza Pyramids, etc. When I saw the real tombs where Pharaohs were buried in along Valley of the Kings and Queens, this seemed too… too… too modern. There wasn’t much ancient feeling to it. Walls and hieroglyphs were man-made too purposefully to be ancient, which was why they weren’t the same. Just as everyone’s different, Confucius says you can’t copy something done thousands of years ago. 

        Our visit to the MMA was done after a long journey. It gave me a lot of knowledge and a good workout. The world felt brought together here and every art mixed under one roof. There will be tons of more stuff for us to explore. Even when all arts were united in a museum, the world seems bigger and bigger every second we stayed in the MMA.

【红霞译文】

        纽约大都会艺术博物馆努力让来访者尽量感受到全球最美的艺术内涵，不仅渲染欧洲艺术展厅，而且还增设其它文化背景。起初我原以为投注三个钟头大把光阴足以遍及所到之处，然而在匆匆涉猎古希腊雕刻、泛泛浏览欧洲绘画之后，才发现三分之二的良辰美景已悄然远去，剩下的时间寥寥无几。

        中国展厅印象深刻，苏州古典园林不光成为大都会艺术博物馆中国庭院的突出代表，更是我本人的至爱。尽管我从来、从来没有亲自领略江南风情，但身临这座人工特制的园林之城，令我“不出城郭而获山林之怡，身居闹市而有林泉之乐”。园内地面全部由土砖铺成，天花板看上去跟我在宾州光华中文学校中国历史课上播放的图像一模一样，捆扎成堆的“古”竹参天，正在打禅的佛像高悬正墙中央，“留园”旁“沧浪亭”下小荷花池里金鱼悠闲自得。

        离开中国馆后，我们来到隔壁日本展室，这里所有的展品集中再现了东洋人传统生活方式，尽管规模不及欧洲绘画浑厚壮观，但内部打造得短小精悍，令我耳目一新。正厅摆设精巧别致，榻榻米床与常见的完全不同，这也是为什么我格外喜欢中日两国东方艺术所包含的民族气息，因为时间关系未能鉴赏到也许更接地气的西方风俗，所以才觉得只有通过这种视觉效果才能形象地反映出一个国家的文化特征。地板上的草席、低矮细长的大桌、桌边摆放的袖珍枕头，生动营造了日式修身养性的家庭氛围，难怪我老觉得自己的起居方式平淡乏味，莫非因为坐久了高凳，看来不是人人追求高端大气上档次，低调朴实有内涵同样倍受青睐。

        古埃及馆是我们最后一站，随身携带的苹果牌多功能媒体解说器一本正经地讲述象形文字，我没听上俩字便开起小差。当走进古墓陵地，我一点也激动不起来。大约四年前我八岁的时候，我曾访问过开罗、亚历山大、沙姆沙伊赫、卢克索、底比斯、阿斯旺及尼罗河畔其它地方，从圣凯瑟琳修道院、菲莱神殿、阿布辛贝神庙、双神金庙、卡纳克综合神殿、卢克索神殿、哈索尔神庙、哈布城陵庙、卓瑟王阶梯金字塔、吉萨金字塔等地度假归来，我收获了许多真知灼见，正因为当时实地参观了帝王谷法老墓地，才觉得眼前展出的模型实在太…太…太现代化，毫无古老悠远之感，围墙石块和象形文字均为赝品，没法与真迹相比。老夫子说过人各有异，几千年前的埃及古迹确实很难复制得惟妙惟肖。

        经过辛苦跋涉，本次全部参观行程告一段落，在增长见识的同时，我还不失时机地磨练了体魄。纽约大都会艺术博物馆像一条纽带，把世界各族同胞与艺术联系在一起，为我们深入了解更多更美的文化遗产开辟了一个异彩纷呈的广阔天地。