大地震後 意大利小城搶救寶貴歷史
AMATRICE, Italy — The rescuers worked tirelessly under a scorching sun.
意大利阿馬特里切——救援人員在烈日下不知疲倦地工作。
Wearing white masks to fight off the dust, they formed a human chain, passing from hand to hand all they could salvage from the gravelly destruction of the earthquake that struck this region in August. They had to work quickly, fearing the precariousness of an adjacent building splintered by wide fissures.
爲防止吸入塵土而戴着白色口罩的他們組成了一條人鏈，傳遞着能從8月那場地震留下的瓦礫中搶救出來的所有東西。由於擔心旁邊一棟樓不安全——樓體出現了多條很寬的裂縫——他們必須抓緊時間。
It was not lives they were saving on this recent day, nor corpses they were retrieving from the mounds of stone ruins, but the history of Amatrice itself.
在最近幾天，他們不是在搶救生命，也不是從石頭堆裏挖掘遺體。他們是在搶救阿馬特里切本身的歷史。
Working alongside firefighters, the team included a specialized art squad of Italy’s carabinieri police that had been deployed specifically to vacate the city’s municipal archives — 300 years in the making.
和消防員並肩作戰的這支隊伍中，包括意大利憲兵警衛隊派來的一個專業的藝術小組。他們是專門來搜救阿馬特里切市的市政檔案的。相關檔案有300年的歷史。
At least 296 people died in the violent shaking on Aug 24. Many more were left homeless and injured. But those few, fraught and devastating minutes also placed at risk thousands of books, dossiers and folders amassed since past earthquakes destroyed this town in 1639 and 1703.
在8月24日那場強地震中，至少296人死亡。無家可歸者和受傷者更多。但那令人擔憂並造成了毀滅性影響的幾分鐘也讓大量書籍、檔案、卷宗處境危險。它們是從1639年和1703年那兩場地震之後積累起來的。
There were also countless pieces of art and artifacts in churches and museums across the earthquake zone, which touches towns in four Italian regions.
此外，分佈在地震災區的多家教堂和博物館裏還有不計其數的藝術品和手工藝品。此次地震的受災區包括意大利四個地區的城鎮。
“For now, we have secured a trace of Amatrice’s past — that’s the principal thing, that the community has preserved its history,” said Maria Letizia Sebastiani, the Culture Ministry official who oversaw that afternoon’s recovery.
“目前，我們找到了阿馬特里切的過去的痕跡，這個地區保留了自己的歷史，這是主要的，”負責那天下午的搶救工作的意大利文化部官員瑪麗亞•萊蒂齊婭•塞巴斯蒂安(Maria Letizia Sebastiani)說。
The crisis unit of the Culture Ministry was created after an earthquake engulfed central Italy in 1997, severely damaging a number of monuments, including the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi. It has since been deployed in dozens of disasters, both natural and man-made, in Italy and abroad, and last year was formally instituted via a ministerial decree.
1997年，意大利中部發生地震，導致大量歷史遺址，包括阿西西的聖方濟各宗主教聖殿(Basilica of St. Francis)嚴重受損。之後，意大利文化部成立危機應對小組。自那時以來，該小組參與了意大利國內外數十場災難的救災行動，既有自然災害，也有人爲災難。去年，文化部下令，該小組正式成爲一個機構。
This year, the Culture Ministry even created a task force that works with UNESCO to carry Italy’s long-standing restoration expertise to war-torn corners of the world.
今年，意大利文化部甚至還成立了一個工作組，與聯合國教科文組織(UNESCO)合作，將意大利歷史悠久的修復技術帶給全世界遭受戰爭破壞的角落。
United Nations officials had hoped to send it to Syria, where the monumental ruins in Palmyra were badly damaged after the Islamic State entered the ancient city in 2015. But the Syrian conflict has remained too intense for the team to enter.
聯合國官員本希望將其派往敘利亞。伊斯蘭國(Islamic State)在2015年進入敘利亞古城巴爾米拉後，那裏的歷史遺蹟受到了嚴重的破壞。但敘利亞衝突的局勢太緊張，不適合工作組前往。
“We’re operative, ready to go at a moment’s notice,” said Capt. Michelange Stefàno, an official with the carabinieri art squad and a member of the UNESCO-trained task force.
“我們一直在行動，做好了一得到通知就出發的準備，”憲兵隊藝術小組的官員、接受聯合國科教文組織培訓的工作組成員米凱蘭傑•斯特凡諾(Michelange Stefàno)說。
For now, in any case, there is work to be done in Italy.
至少目前在意大利國內有工作要做。
The crisis unit was dispatched in the first hours after the earthquake. As emergency operations were winding down, trained experts began inspecting buildings to assess the damage to the area’s cultural patrimony.
地震發生幾小時後，上述危機應對小組便被派往災區。隨着急救行動逐漸減少，訓練有素的專家開始檢查各建築，並初步評估該地區文化遺產遭受的損失。
Since then, squads of rescuers and Culture Ministry officials have entered churches, museums and town halls, all with an eye to saving the territory’s heritage, and its very memory of its past.
自那時以來，救援人員和文化部官員組成多個分隊進入教堂、博物館和市政廳，一心想搶救該地區的文化遺產及其對過往歷史的記憶。
Paintings, statues and ecclesiastical objects, like crucifixes and processional crosses, have been bundled and sent to what amount to field hospitals for art and artifacts, for preservation and an early evaluation of the damage.
繪畫、雕像以及耶穌十字架受難像和十字架等宗教物品被捆起來，送往特定的地方，接受保護和初步定損。那些地方相當於藝術品和手工藝品的戰地醫院。
The work has been risky and painstaking. Many buildings in Amatrice and elsewhere are still in danger of collapse, and weeks after the quake, aftershocks continued to strain already-weakened structures.
這項工作有風險，也很艱苦。阿馬特里切和其他地方的不少建築仍有倒塌的風險。儘管離地震發生已經過去了數週，但餘震仍威脅着本就遭到削弱的建築結構。
The teams photograph and document artifacts, and recover what can be easily removed from some sites — “those that we can enter; many are still in a bad state,” Stefàno said — with the assistance of firefighters and civil protection rescuers.
各支隊伍會對手工藝品進行拍照和記錄，並在消防員和民事保護救援人員的幫助下拿走容易取下的部分。“我們能進入的建築，很多仍處在危險狀態，”斯特凡諾說。
The crisis unit’s immediate task was to safeguard monuments as best as possible, “to halt any further deterioration,” said Prefect Fabio Carapezza Guttuso, the unit’s leader, who acts as a liaison between art experts and firefighters and civil protection officials.
上述危機應對小組的首要任務是儘可能讓歷史遺蹟得到最好的保護，“防止受損情況進一步惡化，”該小組的組長法比奧•卡拉佩扎•古圖索(Fabio Carapezza Guttuso)說。他也是藝術專家、消防員和民事保護官員之間的聯絡人。
He described it as a complex but harmonious synergy of individual expertise. Experience gained in every disaster that the unit has dealt with “has improved our capacity to intervene,” he said.
他稱這項工作是各種專業技能複雜卻又和諧的融合。該小組從之前參加的每一場災難中獲取的經驗，“都提升了我們參與救援的能力，”他說。
In the weeks since the quake, the crisis unit has emptied Amatrice’s municipal museum, as well as some churches here and in towns including Accumoli and Arquata del Tronto, which were also badly hit.
地震發生後的這幾周裏，危機應對小組清空了阿馬特里切市博物館，還有這裏以及同樣受災嚴重的阿庫莫利(Accumoli)和阿爾誇塔德爾特龍託(Arquata del Tronto)等城鎮的一些教堂。
But thousands of artifacts still need to be salvaged from unsteady churches and palazzos, many in remote areas. “One by one, we will get to them all,” the prefect said.
但仍有成千上萬件手工藝品需要從不穩定的教堂和宮殿裏轉移出來。它們很多地處偏遠地區。“我們會一件一件地把它們都轉移出來，”古圖索說。
Though each operation is being carried out with every possible precaution, an element of urgency prevails. “We’re at 1,000 meters altitude,” Carapezza Guttuso said. “There will be snow in a month.”
每次執行任務時都會盡可能地做足防範措施，但緊迫性依然存在。“我們處於海拔1000米的地方，”卡拉佩扎•古圖索說，“再過一個月就要下雪了。”
Some priorities were identified, the prefect said, like an 18th-century replica of the Shroud of Turin, the linen that faithful believe wrapped the body of Jesus. It was removed from a church in Arquata del Tronto and placed in the Cathedral of Ascoli Piceno.
古圖索說，他們確定了一些優先事項，譬如都靈裹屍布(Shroud of Turin)——據信曾包裹過耶穌屍身的亞麻布——的一件18世紀的複製品。他們把它從阿爾誇塔德爾特龍託村的一座教堂裏轉移出來，放進了阿斯科利皮切諾大教堂(Cathedral of Ascoli Piceno)。
“It was important for the population,” he said. “It had the value of a relic.”
“它對民衆而言非常重要，”他說。“它具有文物價值。”
Restorers with the crisis unit have also begun to pick out ancient stones and bricks from the rubble, which will be reused when possible in a reconstruction.
此外，危機小組的修復人員已經開始從廢墟中挑揀古代磚石，重建工作一啓動就可以派上用場。
“As much as possible, the idea is to build as it was, where it was,” the prefect said. “We want to render the idea that we are salvaging artifacts and construction materials” so that the towns will be as authentic as possible, he added. “That is the profound sense of what we’re doing.”
“我們的理念是儘可能在原地按原貌重建，”古圖索說。“我們想要表達這樣的想法：我們正搶救文物和建築材料”，好讓這些城鎮儘可能地恢復原來的樣子，他補充道。“這正是我們所做之事的深刻意義所在。”
