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In Transi tombs,like this one at Canterbury Cathedral,you got remembered twice over.
在Transi墓穴中 比如坎特伯雷大教堂中的这个 一个人有两种面貌
They were double-decker affairs.In the top deck, you were seen very much in the guise the world expected,as a knight in armour or a bishop in full Episcopal rig.
它们是双层墓穴 上层 呈现的是 世人期待的 伪装下的面孔 身披护甲的骑士 或身着华服的主教
In the lower deck, though,there you were, a naked skeleton,the flesh fallen away from the bone.
而在下层 是一具赤裸的骷髅 只剩骨架 没有血肉
The mindset that produced the transi tombTransi was a kind of reverse envy;
墓穴的产生 是出于一种抛弃嫉妒的心态
a determination to fall behind the Joneses,to bow to no one in your painful awareness
一种归为布衣的决心 痛苦而清醒地意识到
that however grand you were, pretty soon you'd be reduced to a heap of dust and maggots.
不管你曾经多么显赫 终将归为尘土
The idea was to contrast, as shockingly as possible,two sorts of self-consciousness.
这种做法目的是更鲜明地对比 两种不同的自我意识
On one hand, how we'd like to be remembered dying in splendour and piety.
一方面 是我们 希望别人记住的样子 显赫而虔诚
And on the other hand, the way we really are pathetic in our cadaverous mortality.
而另一方面 是真实的自我 注定归为尘土
"I was pauper-born,"reads the inscription on Archbishop Chichele's tomb,Then to primate raised.
我本贫贱 大主教查切尔的墓志铭写到 奋斗为主教
"Now I am cut down and served up for worms."Behold my grave."
失却性命为尘土 囚禁于墓穴
