"Robam kbach boran," or the art of Khmer classical dance, is more than 1,000 years old. It was developed as a prayer in movement for rain and fertility, and a prosperity that this meant for an agricultural society. Dancers who were both men and women were offered to temples where they served as living bridges between heaven and earth. Their dancing bodies carried the prayers of the people up to the gods, and the will of the deities was delivered back through them to the people and the land.
“Robam kbach boran (宫廷舞蹈)”, 即高棉古典舞, 已经有超过1000年的历史了。 这种舞蹈被人们用于 祈求雨水和丰收, 预示农业社会的繁荣。 舞者中有男有女, 他们作为上天与苍生之间的 桥梁被供奉给寺庙。 他们用舞蹈将人们的祷告带给神明, 再将神明的启示传达给 苍生和大地。
There are a lot of curves in Khmer dance. Our backs are arched, our knees are bent, our toes are curled, our elbows are hyperflexed and our fingers are curved backwards. All of these curves create a serpentine impression, and this is important because before the introduction of major religions, Khmers, and people all over the world practiced animism. Serpents were especially important in this belief system because in their fluid, curvilinear movement, they mimicked the flow of water. So to invoke the serpent in your dancing body then was to conjure the image of rivers cutting across the earth: inspire the flow of life-giving waters.
高棉舞蹈中有很多曲线, 我们把背拱起, 膝盖弯曲, 脚尖卷起, 手肘屈曲, 手指内扣。 这些曲线会让人想起蛇。 这一点很重要, 因为在宗教进入之前, 高棉人和其他地方的人一样, 都相信万物有灵。 在这个信仰体系里, 蛇占有重要的位置。 它们蜿蜒流畅的前进姿态, 如流水一般, 所以用舞蹈表现蛇的姿态其实也是在 展现河川塑造大地形态的样子。 让人们联想到孕育生命的水。
As you can see then, Khmer classical dance is a transformation of nature, of both the physical world around us and of our own internal universe. We have four primary hand gestures that we use. Can we do them together? Yeah? OK.
各位可以想见, 高棉古典舞代表着自然的变化, 代表着我们周围以及内心世界的变化。 这种舞蹈主要包括四种手势, 我们一起试一试? 可以吗?好的。
This is a tree. That tree will grow, and then it will have leaves. After it has leaves, it'll have flowers, and after it has flowers, it'll have fruit. That fruit will drop and a new tree will grow. And in those four gestures is the cycle of life.
这是一颗树, 树会生长, 它会长出叶子, 长出叶子以后。 它会开花, 开完花以后, 它会结果。 果实会掉落, 又会长出新的树。 这四种手势 代表了生命的循环。
These four gestures are then used to create a whole entire language with which dancers express themselves. So for example, I can say, "I." "I." In dance that would be ... "I." Or I can say ... "Hey you, come here, come here." In dance ... "Come here," or, "Go, go."
舞者用这四种手势 创造了一种可以表达自我的语言。 比如 我会说: “我”。 “我”。 在舞蹈里就是 “我”。 我也可以说 “你,过来,过来。” 在舞蹈里, “过来。” 或者“去去去。”
(Laughter)
(笑声)
"Go." And everything from ... love ... to sadness, to --
“去”。 既可以表达 爱, 悲伤, 也可以是
(Stomping)
(跺脚声)
anger can be expressed through the dance as well.
愤怒, 都可以通过舞蹈去表达。
There's a certain magic in the way that things are filtered, transformed and put together to create limitless possibilities in art. The Khmer word for art, silapak, in fact, at its root, means "magic." The artist -- the silapakar, or the silapakarani, then, is nothing short of a magician. I am very proud to say that I belong to a long line of magicians, from my teacher, Sophiline Cheam Shapiro, to her teachers who were stars in the royal palace, to the ancient dancers of Angkor and to the primal villagers from which the art form originally took life.
这其中蕴含着一股神奇的力量, 事物经过筛选、改变、组合, 创造出了艺术的无限可能。 高棉语中的“艺术”一词 叫“silapak”, 根据词根,意为“魔法”。 “艺术家” 高棉语为“silapakar” 或“silapakarani”, 意为魔术师。 我可以非常自豪地说, 自己师承多代魔术师, 从我的老师夏皮诺 (Sophiline Cheam Shapiro) 到我老师的老师们, 她们当时是皇宫里的红人, 到吴哥窟的舞蹈先辈, 再到远古村落的居民们, 他们让这种艺术形式得以萌发。
That said, our cherished heritage was once almost completely destroyed. If you are wearing glasses, please stand up. If you speak more than one language, please stand up. If you have light skin, please stand up. Your glasses meant that you could afford health care. That second or third language you spoke indicated your elite education. Your light skin meant you didn't have to work beneath the sun. Under the Khmer Rouge, who took over Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, we would all be dead now, targeted because of our assumed privilege. You see, the Khmer Rouge looked to Cambodia, and they saw centuries of rigid inequality. The king and the few elites around him had all the pleasures and comforts of the world while the mass majority suffered from backbreaking labor and harsh poverty. You don't need a history book to see that this is true.
大家知道 这份珍贵的遗产 曾经差点被彻底摧毁。 如果你戴眼镜, 请起立。 如果你会说两种及以上的语言, 请起立。 如果你皮肤很白, 请起立。 你戴眼镜说明你付得起医保。 会说第二种或第三种语言 说明你接受过良好的教育。 皮肤白说明你不需要在太阳底下劳作。 红色高棉 在1975至1979年间统治了柬埔寨, 要是在那时,我们已经死了, 就因为我们身上的特权。 各位可以想见, 红色高棉眼中的柬埔寨, 让他们看到了长达几个世纪、 顽硬不化的不平等。 国王和他身边的少数精英阶级 极尽全天下的享受于一身, 而民众则要艰苦劳作, 忍受贫穷。 事实显而易见, 都不需要查阅历史书。
The Khmer word for "I," for "me," is khnhom. This very same word can also mean "slave" and dancers were in fact known as knhom preah robam, or "slaves of the sacred dance." The Khmer Rouge sought to end slavery in Cambodia, yet somehow they turned everyone into slaves to do it. They became the oppression that they sought to end. They evacuated the capital and forced people into labor camps. They tore families apart and brainwashed children against their own parents. Everywhere, people were dying and being killed, losing their lives from disease, overwork, execution and starvation. The result of this is that an entire third of Cambodia's population was lost in less than four years, and in that number were 90 percent of Khmer dance artists. In other words, nine out of 10 visions for the tradition and future were lost.
高棉语中的 “我”, 叫做“khnhom”。 这个词的意思也可以是“奴隶”, 而舞者则被称作 “knhom preah robam”, 意为“神圣舞蹈的奴隶”。 红色高棉本想结束柬埔寨的奴役, 到头来却让所有人成了奴隶。 他们则成了自己想要结束的压迫力量。 他们把人赶出都城, 强迫民众进入劳改营。 家庭四分五裂, 孩子们被洗脑, 反过来对抗自己的父母。 到处都是奄奄一息的人或尸体, 他们因为疾病, 过度劳作, 处决、饥荒而丧命。 柬埔寨人口因而减少了三分之一, 而这仅仅用了不到四年的时间, 其中有90%的人 是高棉舞蹈的艺术家。 换句话说, 继承传统与未来希望的人 仅剩下十分之一。
Thankfully, however, it was my teacher's teachers, Chea Samy, Soth Sam On and Chheng Phon, who would lead the revival of the art form from the ashes of war and genocide: one student, one gesture, one dance at a time. They wrote the love, magic, beauty, history and philosophy of our lineage into the bodies of the next generation.
但幸运的是, 我老师的老师们 契萨梅、索潘桑和琴朋, 她们让这种艺术形式 重新焕发了光彩, 从战争和种族屠杀的 残垣断壁中重生: 一个学生, 一个动作, 一套舞蹈,一步一步来。 她们将爱, 魔法, 美, 历史和哲学 灌注到下一代人身上。
Nearly 40 years later, Khmer classical dance has been revived to new heights. Yet somehow it still exists in a vulnerable environment. The disastrous effects of war still haunt Khmer people today. It is written in our bodies, manifested in a genetic passage of PTSD and in families facing cyclical poverty and immense cultural rifts and language barriers.
近40年后, 高棉古典舞已经恢复到了新的高度, 但所处环境依旧脆弱。 战争的阴霾仍然挥之不去, 侵害着我们的身体, 让我们遗传了创伤后应激障碍, 一个个家庭始终 逃脱不了贫困的循环, 文化和语言的传播 则产生了极大的障碍。
Yet beauty is a most resilient thing. Beauty has this ability to grow anywhere and everywhere at any time. Beauty is what connects people through time and place. Beauty is a liberation from suffering. As Khmer artists work to revive our culture and country, we find that there are many paths in which to move forward into the future. And in a tradition where we often don't know the dancer's names, who they were, what their lives were like, what they felt, let me propose that we move forward honestly and openly from "khnhom." Khnhom not as in slave, but as in conscious service. Khnhom: "I," "me," "flowering."
但美拥有极强的适应力。 美可以在任何时间、任何地点 生根发芽。 美可以穿越时间和地点, 将人们联系在一起。 美可以让人们拜托苦痛。 柬埔寨艺术家们正努力 复兴他们的文化与国家, 我们知道,通往未来有无数条路。 按传统来说,我们不知道舞者的名字, 他们是谁, 生活经历怎样, 内心感受如何, 我提议,从真诚开放地 看待“khnhom”一词开始, khnhom 指的不是奴隶, 而是自愿的行为。 Khnhom: “我”, “我”, “盛放”。
My name is Prumsodun Ok. I am Khmer, and I am American. I am the child of refugees, a creator, a healer, and a builder of bridges. I am my teacher's first male student in a tradition understood by many as female, and I founded Cambodia's first gay dance company. I am the incarnation of the beauty, dreams and power of those who came before me. The convergence of past, present and future, and of individual and collective.
我的名字叫普姆桑顿·奥克, 我是高棉人, 也是美国人, 我是难民的后代, 一个创作者,一位治愈者, 也是桥梁的建设者。 我是老师的第一个男学生, 舞者在传统上都是由女性传承, 而我则成立了柬埔寨 第一家同性恋舞蹈公司。 先辈们的美、梦想和力量 在我身上得到了显现。 个人与集体的过去、现在和未来 交汇在一起。
Let me then play that ancient and ageless role of the artist as messenger, by sharing the words of Chheng Phon "A garden with only one type of flower, or flowers of only one color, is no good." This is a reminder that our strength, growth, survival and very existence, lies in diversity. It is, however, a message of courage as well. For a flower does not ask for anyone's permission to bloom. It was born to offer itself to the world. Fearless love is its nature.
接下来我将承担起 艺术家作为信使的角色, 传达信息,延续 这一亘古不变的使命, 琴朋曾说过: “花园里只有一种花, 或是所有的花只有一种颜色, 都不是件好事。” 这提醒着我们,我们的力量, 发展, 生存 和我们的存在 都诞生于多样性之中。 但是, 它同时还传达出了一份勇气。 鲜花的绽放不需要征求别人的应允。 鲜花生来就可以把自己奉献给世界。 其本质,是无所畏惧的爱。
Thank you.
谢谢。
(Applause)
(掌声)