Back in the fourteenth century, in a tiny village near Nuremberg, lived a family with twelve children. In order to merely keep food on the table for this mob, the father and head of the household, a goldsmith by profession, worked almost eighteen hours a day at his trade and any other paying chore he could find in the neighborhood.
14世纪时,在德国的一个小村庄里,住着一个有12个孩子的家庭.父亲是一名金匠,作为家中的顶梁柱,为了维持一家生计,他每天要工作18个小时,除了做他的本行,他还要在邻居那里寻找一些差事.
Despite their seemingly hopeless condition, two of the children had a dream. They both wanted to pursue their talent for art, but they knew fully well that their father would never be financially able to send either of them to Nuremberg to study at the Academy.
尽管生活窘迫逼人,但是这个家庭里的两个孩子却怀着同样的梦想-他们都希望可以发展自己在艺术方面的天分.不过他们也了解,在经济上父亲无法供他们两个中的任何一个到纽伦堡艺术学院读书.
After many long discussions at night in their crowded bed, the two boys finally worked out a pact. They would toss a coin. The loser would go down into the nearby mines and, with his earnings, support his brother while he attended the academy. Then, when that brother who won the toss completed his studies, in four years, he would support the other brother at the academy, either with sales of his artwork or, if necessary, also by laboring the mines.
一天晚上,两兄弟在床上经过多次讨论后,达成一个约定：掷铜板决定-胜者到艺术学院读书,败者则到附近的矿场工作赚钱供另一人读书,来支持胜者在艺术学院里的费用；四年后,在矿场工作的那个人再到艺术学院学习,由学成毕业的那个人赚钱供他学习.如果需要,这个人可能也要到矿场去工作赚钱.
阿尔布雷特•丢勒(自画像)
They tossed a coin on a Sunday morning after church. Albrecht Durer won the toss and went off to Nuremberg. Albert went down into the dangerous mines and, for the next four years, financed his brother, whose work at the academy was almost an immediate sensation. Albrecht's etchings, his woodcuts, and his oils were far better than those of most of his professors, and by the time he graduated, he was beginning to earn considerable fees for his commissioned works.
周日早上做完礼拜,他们掷了铜板,结果,弟弟阿尔布雷特•丢勒胜出,去了纽伦堡艺术学院.哥哥阿尔伯特则去了危险的矿场工作,四年来一直给弟弟提供经济支持.阿尔布雷特在艺术学院表现很突出,他的蚀刻画、木刻画和油画画得简直比教授还好.毕业时,他的作品已经能赚不少钱了.
More than 550 years have passed. By now, Albrecht Durer's hundreds of masterful portraits, sketches, water colors, charcoals, woodcuts, and copper engravings hang in every great museum, but the odds are great that you, like most people, are familiar with only one of Albrecht Durer's works. More than merely being familiar with it, you very well may have a reproduction hanging in your home or office.
550多年过去了,阿尔布雷特•丢勒有成百上千幅杰作流传下来,他的肖像画、素描、水彩画、木炭画、木刻、铜刻等杰作可以在世界各地博物馆里看到；然而,大多数人最为熟悉的,却只有一件作品.也许,你的家里或者办公室里就挂着一件它的复制品.
爱的画作——祈祷之手
One day, to pay homage to Albert for all that he had sacrificed, Albrecht Durer painstakingly drew his brother's abused hands with palms together and thin fingers stretched skyward. He called his powerful drawing simply "Hands", but the entire world almost immediately opened their hearts to his great masterpiece and renamed his tribute of love "The Praying Hands".
为了表达哥哥所做牺牲的敬意,一天,阿尔布雷特•丢勒下了很大的工夫把哥哥合起向上的粗糙的双手给画了下来.他把这幅伟大的作品简单地命名为"双手",然而,全世界的人看到这幅作品都立刻被震撼了,并将这幅爱的作品重新命名为"祈祷之手".
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