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The first French explorers who had arrived in the 1760s regarded the people they found there as the most content on earth.
十八世纪六十年代 第一批到达的法国探险家 把这座岛上的人视为地球上最幸福的人
They seemed, to the European imagination,to be living proof of the idea of the noble savage -a simple people with an unspoiled way of life.
岛上的居民对欧洲人来说 是高贵野蛮人的现实代表 一群简单的 原生态的人
But that is not the Tahiti Gauguin found.
但高更看到的塔希提岛却绝非如此
By the time Gauguin arrived in Tahiti in 1891,this was one of the most tragic places in the world.
高更1891年到达塔希提岛时 这里是世界上最悲惨的地方之一
Because while a tiny local elite had done rather well from the arrival of Europeans,the Tahitian people had been devastated by war, disease and alcohol.
因为在欧洲人到来之后 尽管一小撮当地精英还混得不错 大部分塔希提人正饱受 战争 疾病和酒精的摧残
The population was a fraction of what it had been and the missionaries had done their absolute best to stamp out the local culture and religion.
当地人口大幅下降而传教士们在消灭当地文化和宗教方面 也做得相当彻底
Tahiti was no longer a romanticised alternative to European civilisation,it was a classic case study of what European civilisation could do to other societies.
塔希提不再是欧洲文明理想化的替代选择 而是研究欧洲文明扩张 对其他社会影响的一个经典案例
Once he got away from the capital, Papeete,Gauguin discovered that some parts of the old legend still survived.
当他离开首都帕皮提后 高更发现 这个古老传奇的某些部分得以幸存
He found beauty in the landscape...
他发现了如画的风景之美
And in the villages,proof of the island's reputation for the easy availability of women.
而在村庄中 他证实了这座岛上 妇女的廉价与开放
Gauguin quickly found himself a local mistress,a girl of around 13, called Teha'amana, who became his model and his muse.
高更很快给自己找了个当地的情妇 一个十三岁左右的女孩 名叫蒂哈阿玛拉 她也成为了他的模特和灵感源泉
There are many reasons to not like Paul Gauguin.
有很多原因会让人不喜欢保罗·高更
He was a man who spent much of his life wallowing in self pity or else engaged in an endless campaign of self-promotion.
他一生中大部分时间都在自怜自哀 或是在无休止地自我推销
And the relationships that he had with young Tahitian girls is something that we today find deeply disturbing.
如果用今天的道德标准来衡量 他和年轻塔希提女孩之间的关系令人谴责
And yet, for all his faults, the art that he produced here on the islands of the Pacific was radical, vivid and stunningly beautiful.
然而尽管他有种种缺点 他在这个太平洋岛上 创作出的艺术却是激进的栩栩如生而又惊人的美丽
The way Gauguin used solid blocks of colour was something new in art.
高更大量使用平涂色块 这在艺术上是一种创新
And these images were no mere European fantasy version of a carefree paradise.
这些图像不仅仅是欧洲人幻想中 无忧无虑的天堂
