琥珀：时光机器（2004）

自然世界
世上有种物质奇特而美丽
There is a substance so strange and so beautiful,
无论何时 人们捡到它
that whenever people encountered it,
都以为发现了魔幻般的宝藏
they thought they'd found something magical.
它的确富有魔力
And its magic is real.
因为这种物质可以穿越时空
Because this material has traveled through time,
将来自远古的旅客带到现代
bringing with it passengers from the distant past
来诉说他们神奇的故事
that have wonderful tales to tell.
自从第一次遇到它
This extraordinary substance has fascinated me
我就被这神奇的物质迷住了
since I first held a piece...
就是这一块 我12岁得到的
this piece... when I was 12.
天然时光机 琥珀
我的第一块琥珀来得很意外
My first piece of amber arrived in a very unexpected way.
1938年 二战的阴霾逐渐降临
In 1938, during the build up to the Second World War,
我的父母帮助一些孩子逃出德国
my parents helped some of the many children fleeing from Germany.
这些孩子背井离乡
They had left their families behind
而且几乎不允许携带任何行李
and were allowed to bring almost nothing with them.
有个女孩我记得特别清楚
I remember one girl in particular.
她叫玛丽安
Her name was Marianne.
她那年12岁 和我一般大
She was 12, about the same age as I was.
来自波罗的海沿岸的一个城市
She came from a city on the Baltic coast,
她父亲是当地的一名医生
where her father was a doctor.
他给了她一件小巧而珍贵的礼物
He had given her one small but precious thing
希望以此来感谢
as a sign of his thanks to whoever it was
那些照顾他女儿的好心人
who was going to look after his daughter.
就是这块琥珀
And this is it.
拿在手里 它温暖而轻盈
It felt surprisingly warm and light in my hand.
但让我真正爱上琥珀的
But what made me fall in love with amber
是其内在的奥秘
was what I discovered inside it.
我有个奇迹般的发现
I found something miraculous.
里面所保存的昆虫 完好程度令人惊异
There were insects preserved in astonishing detail.
我百思不得其解
I burned with questions.
它们来自什么样的世界
What sort of world were they from?
它们一定生活在很久以前
They must have lived a long time ago,
可究竟有多久呢
but how long?
多年之后 我的兄弟理查德
Years later, my brother Richard
在电影里扮演了一位科学家
would play a scientist in a movie
让琥珀闻名世界
which made amber famous the world over.
欢迎来到侏罗纪公园
Welcome to Jurassic Park.
理查德扮演的科学家
Richard's character extracted DNA
从琥珀中恐龙血里提取了DNA
from dinosaurs' blood trapped in amber
使恐龙复活
and with it, brought dinosaurs back to life.
这真的可行吗
Could that ever be done?
你是怎么做到的
How did you do this?
等会给你看
I'll show you.
带着玛丽安的礼物 回到它的形成地
I started my journey with the amber time machine
波罗的海海岸
by taking Marianne's gift back to where it came from:
我们的琥珀时光之旅开始了
to the shores of the Baltic Sea.
这块琥珀来自海底的岩石
The amber comes from rocks on the seabed
与海岸相距甚远
some distance out from the coast.
冲上岸后 才被人们发现
But people don't find it until it washes up on the shore.
像这样的小块琥珀 很是常见
Little bits like this are quite common.
有时 如果幸运的话
Sometimes, if you're lucky,
尤其在风暴过后 你会发现些大块的
particularly after a storm, you can find bigger bits.
有些甚至还附着着藤壶
Some even have barnacles still attached to them.
几千年前 人们就开始收集琥珀
People have been collecting such bits for thousands of years
当时他们并不知道它是如何形成的
but had no idea how amber originated.
有人说那是凝固的阳光
Some said it was solidified sunshine.
还有人说那是神明的眼泪
Some that it was the tears of the gods.
到了大约公元77年
And then around the year 77 A.D,
一位伟大的罗马博物学家 大普林尼
a great Roman naturalist, Pliny the Elder,
进行了一个简单的实验
conducted a simple experiment.
他是这样做的
He did this.
这种味道 不会错的
The smell... unmistakable.
是松香树脂
Pine resin.
有几种针叶类植物
Several types of plants, among them conifers,
会分泌出粘稠的树脂
seal any wound inflicted by storms or insect attack
来封住风暴袭击或昆虫咬蚀造成的伤口
by producing a sticky resin which oozes out from them.
由于树脂能持续而轻柔地覆盖周围生物
And because it continues to gently flow around whatever it traps,
它可以保存生物原貌 使其毫发无伤
it can preserve creatures in the finest detail.
随着树脂逐渐硬化
As the resin hardens around its captives,
其内部时间 也随之停滞
they become suspended in time.
当然 有许多生物会变为化石
Of course, many creatures are fossilized in rock.
例如这只小比目鱼
Like this small flatfish, for example.
这是一种魟鱼
It's a kind of ray.
外力的挤压导致其软组织腐烂
It was squashed, its soft parts decayed,
甚至外♥围♥细小的毛刺 也印入岩石中
even its little spines turned into rock.
而琥珀保存生物的方式 迥乎不同
But amber preserves creatures in a quite different fashion.
当这只小蜜蜂碰到松香
When this little bee touched this drop of resin,
由于粘性 它被困其中
she was caught by its stickiness.
随即便被完好地 立体地保存下来
And she was instantly and perfectly preserved in three dimensions.
这对复眼见证了 人类出现以前的世界
These eyes saw a world which existed long before mankind evolved.
它采集花粉时 人类甚至从未闻过花粉
She scented flowers before the first human being ever smelled one.
通过她后腿上的花粉块
I can even tell that she was working hard when she died
我甚至可以判断出 它临死前还在辛勤工作
by the bundles of cargo on her hind legs.
琥珀真是最完美的时代文物密藏器
It's hard to imagine a more perfect time capsule than this.
这只小蜜蜂被困在这里
This little bee has been trapped in there
至少有上百万年了
for literally millions of years.
琥珀穿越时空的本领
Amber's ability to travel through time
也可以带我们回顾近期的历史
can take us back into more recent history.
人类的历史
Our history.
巨石阵是世界上最早的人类建筑之一
Stonehenge is one of the earliest manmade structures in the world.
这些巨石在此屹立了3500年
These stones have been standing here for something like 3,500 years
即使在那时
and we know that even then
建造巨石阵的人们 就把琥珀奉为珍宝
the people who erected them treasured amber.
不过他们可不是最早的
But they weren't the first.
最早的当属石器时代的人们
It was considered to be precious way back in the Stone Age.
原因可能如此
And this may be why.
当你用燧石刃刮去它粗造的表层
When you scrape its rough surface with a flint blade, perhaps,
内部的耀眼金光 便会散发出来
you quickly reveal the wonderful golden color inside.
这极富魔力
It's quite magical.
石器时代的人们打磨骨骼和石头
Stone Age people also carved bone and stone
将其做成工具
in order to make tools.
但不同的是
But amber was different.
琥珀似乎没有什么实用价值
It seemed to have had no practical use.
因此人们看重它 一定另有原因
So they must have valued it for some other reason.
这些一万年前的雕刻
The carvings they made around 10,000 years ago
向我们透露了史前人类的世界观
give us an idea of how they viewed the world.
特别是 哪种动物对他们最为重要
In particular, which animals mattered most to them.
想象一下 石器时代的猎人认为
Imagine the value of amber to a Stone Age hunter
用琥珀雕刻动物图案
who believed that capturing an animal's spirit
有助于禁锢它们的灵魂
by carving it in amber
从而令抓捕更为容易
made the animal itself easier to hunt.
几千年后 青铜器时代的人们
The people who built the great stone circle at Stonehenge
继续在史前巨石阵 修建巨石圈
lived in the Bronze Age, several thousand years later.
他们同样珍视琥珀
But they, too, treasured amber.
只有最富有的人
None but the wealthiest of them
才买♥♥得起这样的稀世珍宝
could afford a material as rare as this.
这串项链曾有一千颗琥珀珠
Once, there were a thousand beads in this necklace.
虽然历经了3000年的风雨
Over 3,000 years,
它们的表面变得易碎而粗糙
their surfaces have become opaque and crumbly.
但当时 它们刚经打磨 散发出夺目光芒
But when they were new and freshly polished and glowing,
那肯定是一串稀世珍品
it must have been a wondrous piece of jewelry.
一个女人的墓穴里藏有一件更为神秘的东西
One woman's grave contained a rather more mysterious object.
这是块镶着金边的盘状琥珀
A disc of amber, now browned with age,
随时间推移 它已变为褐色
encircled by gold.
这当然是一块典雅非常的个人饰品
It was certainly a remarkable piece of personal decoration.
不过也许 它有着更深远的的意义
But maybe it had a rather deeper significance.
太阳对我们理解巨石阵 至关重要
The sun is central to our understanding of Stonehenge.
这群石碑 可能是太阳历
The monument may have been used as a solar calendar.
而它的建造者珍视琥珀
And it may be that its builders treasured amber