黑檀象收藏品：追溯历史，探寻珍稀之宝

Collecting things - My Grandmother's elephant 收藏品——我奶奶的黑檀象

By Chris Wilson 克里斯.威尔逊著

My grandmother had a beautiful elephant carved out of sandalwood on her dressing table which I secretly used to covet. I wanted it more than anything in the world. It was about the size of a football and had a cheeky smile. It was inlaid with tiny circular mirrors and mother of pearl, and had real ivory tusks and toenails. One day my sister said “Oh Grandma, please can I have it?” and, to my fury and disbelief, she just gave it to her! I immediately made two resolutions: 1) never to speak to either of them ever again. 2) To find another elephant just like it. 我奶奶的镜架台上，有一头用檀香木雕刻的漂亮的大象，我对这只大象觊觎已久。我对他的渴望，要比拥有这世上的其他东西要来的更强烈。这只大象大概有足球大小，带着一脸卖萌的微笑。这只大象跟小圆镜和贝壳镶嵌在一起，有真象牙和象脚趾甲。一天，我妹妹对奶奶说“噢，奶奶，可以把大象给我吗？”让我愤怒和意想不到是，奶奶竟然真的把大象给了妹妹。我立刻做了两个决定：1）永远不再跟妹妹或者奶奶说话。2）找另一只一模一样的大象。

Ever since I have been scouring the world. I have rummaged round junk shops and antique shops all over Europe, I have been to garage sales and flea markets in America, I have hung about in Arab souks and Indian bazaars, but I have never seen anything quite the same. 从那时候起，我找遍了全世界, 翻遍了欧洲的旧物商店和古董店，美国旧货卖场和跳蚤市场。我也逛过阿拉伯的露天卖场和印度集市，但是还是找不到跟那头大象一模一样的东西。

Along the way, however, I have acquired all sorts of other elephants and my collection has grown and grown. I have got black ebony elephants from Malawi, and a couple of ivory – all, I hasten to add, made a long time ago, before the ebony trees were chopped down and the ivory trade was made illegal. I also have soap stone elephants from Zimbabwe, and an exotic Congolese one carved out of bright green malachite. I have a whole family of wooden Thai elephants marching along the top of my piano – sometimes when I sit and play. I could swear they are marching in time to the music. I have two very heavy, long legged elephants which I bought in Khan el Khalili, in Cairo, which I use as bookends, and an enormous fat one from the Sudan which I use as a coffee table. My search goes on, but it gets more and more difficult to find really good pieces. On recent trips to Africa I have noticed how the quality of the workmanship has deteriorated. In craft markets all over the continent you can find thousands of elephants, but they are nearly all shoddily made, churned out for tourists by people who probably have never seen a real elephant in their lives. 然而一路上，我找到了各种各样的象，收藏品也越来越多。我从马拉维那里得到了一只黑檀大象，还有几个象牙——我迫切地想要补充说明一下，所有的这些藏品都是很久之前制作的，那时黑檀树还未被伐倒，象牙交易还未被视为违法行为。我还有一只津巴布韦的皂石大象，一只很奇异的用鲜亮绿孔雀石雕琢而成的刚果大象藏品。我还有一家子的木制泰国大象，在钢琴盖上一字排开——我发誓，有时我坐下来弹琴，它们就随着音乐行进。我有两只笨重的长腿大象，是我从埃及的汗埃尔哈利利买来的，我用它们来做书挡，还有一只约旦肥壮大象，我把它当咖啡桌用。我不断搜寻着，但要找到好的藏品越来越难了。最近在非洲，我发觉制作大象的工艺质量已经变差了。你可以在整个非洲的工艺品市场找到成千上万只大象藏品，但几乎都是粗制滥造的，这些工艺品都是为了卖给游客而大量生产出来的，那些制作大象的人恐怕还没有在生活中见过真正的大象呢。

Why do people collect things? Probably many, like me, don’t set out to do so. You just acquire something, then another and another and then, once you’ve got a small collection you just keep adding to it. I have an uncle who collects key rings – he has hundreds of them from all over the world – but he can’t remember how it started. Other people collect stamps, stones, beer cans, beer mats, match boxes, all sorts of things. For some it can become a total obsession and they will go to any lengths to get something. One of my colleagues collects Royal memorabilia, which to me is the ultimate in bad taste! Her house is crammed full of kitsch things like Coronation mugs, ashtrays with pictures of Charles and Diana, British flags, tea towels printed with Windsor Castle and even a toilet seat cover with Prince Andrew grinning widely up at you. What is this urge to possess all these things? 为什么人们会收集藏品呢？很可能很多人都像我一样，并非有意为之，仅仅是获得了某一个东西，接着又多了一件，又多了一件，你有了一些藏品后，又不断增加。我有一个叔叔在收集钥匙环——他有全球各地的钥匙环——但他已经记不起出于什么原因开始收藏了。其他人，可能收集邮票，石头，啤酒瓶，啤酒垫子，火柴盒，各种各样的东西。对于某些人来说，收藏可能会让人完全痴迷其中，并竭尽全力地去获得一些藏品。我的一个同事收集皇家纪念品，我觉得这很俗气。她的房子堆满了粗劣的藏品，像加冕杯，带有查尔斯王子和戴安娜王妃头像的烟灰缸，英国国旗，印有温莎城堡的茶布，甚至是印有安德鲁王子对你大笑的马桶盖子。收藏这些东西的动力是什么呢？

I recently discussed this question with a group of students in Mozambique and what rapidly became evident was that few of them had such an urge. “Why not?” I asked. “I don’t know” said Anotonio. “It’s just not in our culture”.“Does that mean you’re not as materialistic as Europeans?”Antonio laughed. “No way! We want cars and houses and fancy things just like anyone else, but we don’t collect knick knacks, things we can’t use”.“I think it’s because of our recent war” said Maria “and the state of the economy. For many years there was nothing to collect, except shells off the beach perhaps”.“Ï collect shoes” said Teresa, who comes from Angola. “I have over seventy pairs. But I buy them to wear, not just for the sake of having them”.“Oh come on!” laughed Antonio. “Anything you don’t actually need you have for the sake of having it, and you can’t possibly need seventy pairs!”“I do, I need every single pair!” she insisted.“So you are a collector!”“No I’m not!”“Yes you are!” shouted the whole class. 最近，我跟莫桑比克的一群学生讨论了这个问题，很快我就明白了，学生中几乎没有人有如此的一个收藏的动力。“为什么没有动力呢？”，我问。“我不知道。”，安东尼奥说道。“我们的文化里并没有收藏。”“这是否意味着，你不像欧洲人那样都是唯物主义者？” 安东尼奥笑了。“绝不是！我们像其他人一样，都想要汽车和房子，还有奇特的东西，但是我们不收藏那些我们不用的小摆设。” “我觉得，那是因为我们近来的战争所致”，玛利亚说道，“还有经济状况。很多年来，也许除了沙滩上的贝壳，我们都没啥好收藏的。” “我收藏鞋”，来自安哥拉的特里纱说道。“我有超过70双鞋。但我买鞋来穿的，不是为了拥有这些鞋而去购买。” “噢，得了吧！”，安东尼笑道。“任何你实际上并不需要的东西，你都会为了拥有而去购买，你是不可能需要70双鞋的。” “我真的需要，我需要这70双鞋中的每一双鞋！”，她坚称。“所以，你是一个收藏家！” “不，我不是” “是的，你是收藏家！”整个班的人都喊了出来。

Paula stuck up her hand. “I’m a collector” she said. “Ï am a fan of Julio Iglesias and I have all his CDs, every one, even the latest which, I have to admit, isn’t very good at all”. “So why did you buy it?” I asked. “Well, because I’ve got all the others of course” she said. “And my son collects those little plastic dinosaurs you find inside cereal packets. He’s only got to get T Rex and then he’s got the whole set.” “They are exploiting you” said Antonio. “They encourage children to become collectors so that you keep buying more and more. This is something new in our country. Soon we will all be fanatically collecting things, just like everyone else in the world”. 宝拉举起手来。“我是一个收藏家”，她说道。“我是胡里奥.伊格莱西亚斯的粉丝，我拥有他所有的唱片，每一张唱片，甚至是我觉得一点儿都不好听的最新的那张。” “为什么你还买呢？” 我问。“因为我已经有了其他所有的唱片。”她说道。“我孩子收藏那些谷物包中的塑料恐龙。他本只想要霸王龙，之后他收集了整个系列的恐龙。” “这些藏品正在剥削你的钱”，安东尼奥说道。“这些塑料恐龙鼓动孩子成为收藏家，这样你就得越买越多。这在我们这还很新鲜。不久后，我们就都会像世界上的其他人一样，狂热地收集各种东西。”

Harshill, who is of Indian origin, had been silent all this time. He cleared his throat. “One good reason to collect things is that a collection is worth more - how do you say in English? More than the sum of its parts. If you sold your elephants one by one you wouldn’t get nearly as much as if you sold the whole collection. So it is a way of saving money, a good investment.” 哈歇尔，这个印籍人从始至终保持沉默。他清了清嗓子，“收集东西的一个有力的理由就是，藏品会值更多钱——怎么用英语来说呢？比藏品各个部分加起来还要贵。如果把你的大象一只只地卖掉，那得到的钱没有一次性把所有的藏品卖出去所得到的钱多。所以，这是存钱的一种方法，一种很好的投资方式。

On the way back to my hotel a young boy was selling a badly carved elephant by the side of the road. I didn’t want it but I bought it because I felt sorry for him. Later I thought I should just have given him some money and let him try to sell it to someone else. It would never be part of my collection, each in its own special place in a different part of my house. I imagined walking round looking at them all and thought about what Harshill had said – it’s a way of increasing the value of what you already have - but as usual there was that niggling feeling that my collection, not matter how valuable, would never be complete. Not without my Grandmother's elephant! What a waste for it to be with my sister when it could be, should be, with me! “Oh well, never mind, try not to be obsessed” I told myself. 回酒店的路上，我看到有一个小男孩在路边卖雕工粗糙的大象。我并不想要，但我还是买了，因为我很同情他。过后，我觉得我应该把钱给他，让他把大象卖给其他人。这头大象永远不会成为我收藏品的一部分。藏品的每一头都放在我房子不同位置，我想象着自己在这些东西周围走走，看着它们，思考着哈歇尔的话——这是增加你所拥有东西的价值的一种方法——但像往常一样，我总有一种感觉，我的藏品，无论多么宝贵，永远无法完整。因为没有我奶奶的那头大象！那只本该跟我在一起的大象，放在我妹妹那里可真是浪费啊。“噢，没关系的，不要被这件事困扰。”我自言道。

Ever since though, I have been lying awake at night, thinking of it standing there on a brass table in her hallway, next to the window she always leaves open for her cat. Her dogs know me, so they won’t be a problem when I climb over the wall in my gloves and balaclava. The whole operation will be over in less than five minutes. The only problem is, having acquired it, what will I do when my sister comes barging in to nose around, as she periodically does, and sees it in pride of place in my house? I’ll have to keep it hidden and then what will be the point of having it? Oh dear. Perhaps I could have a special alarm that would only ring when my sister is on her way. No that’s silly. I’ll just have to move. To another country, under another name, far, far away. But even then, knowing her, she’ll track me down. Oh – dear Reader, what would you do if you were me? 从那以后，我晚上一直不睡觉，想着大象就在她门厅里，在她那总是开着的窗户边的铜桌上站立着，窗是为她的猫开的。她的狗儿认得我，所以，如果我戴上手套，戴上巴拉克拉法帽子，爬墙进去是没问题的，整个过程也不过五分钟。唯一的问题是，妹妹偶尔会来我的房间，如果妹妹突然闯进我的房子，看到它就在我屋子里，那我得怎么办？把它藏起来吗，那我得到这只大象又有什么意义呢？哎呀，天呐！也许我需要一个特殊的警铃，我妹妹来的时候，就会响起来。不，太愚蠢了。我可以逃到另一个很远很远的国家，改名换姓。即使那样，她也会过来找我的。亲爱的读者，如果你是我，你会怎么办呢？

来源：英国使馆文化教育处