音频杂志：Treasure! 宝藏

by Alison Driver 艾莉森•德里弗

When I was a young girl living in Ireland, I was always pleased when it rained, because that meant I could go treasure hunting.
我小时候生活在爱尔兰，下雨的时候我总是很高兴，因为那意味着我可以去寻宝。

What’s the connection between a wet day and a search for buried treasure? Well, it’s quite simple. Ireland, as some of you may already know, is the home of Leprechauns – little men who possess magic powers and, perhaps more interestingly, pots of gold. Now, although Leprechauns are intriguing characters, I have to admit that I was more intrigued by the stories of their treasure hoard. This, as all of Ireland knows, they hide at the end of the rainbow. Leprechauns can be fearsome folk but if you can discover the end of the rainbow, they have to (begrudgingly) surrender their gold to you. So whenever it rained, I would look up in the sky and follow the curve of the rainbow to see where it ended. I never did unearth any treasure, but I did spend many happy, showery days dreaming of what I could do with the fortune if I found it.
雨天和寻宝有什么联系呢？这很简单，也许有些人知道，爱尔兰是矮妖精的家-那些小人拥有魔法，更有趣的是他们有一盆盆的黄金。尽管矮妖精们很奇妙，我必须承认我更多是被他们的宝藏吸引了。所有爱尔兰人所知道的，他们就藏在彩虹的尽头，他们必须（不情愿地）把黄金交给你。 所以下雨时，我都会抬头看彩虹，沿着曲线寻找彩虹的尽头。我从来没有找到过任何宝藏，但是我的确度过了很多开心的下雨天，想着如果找到了宝藏要怎么处置它们。

As I got older, and started working, rainy days came to be just another nuisance and my childhood dreams of finding treasure faded. But for some people the dream of striking it lucky never fades, and for a fortunate few, the dream even comes true! Such is the case of Mel Fisher. His dream of finding treasure also began in childhood, while reading the great literature classics “Treasure Island” and “Moby Dick”. However, unlike myself, he chased his dream and in the end managed to become one of the most famous professional treasure hunters of all time, and for good reason. In 1985, he fished up the priceless cargo of the sunken Spanish galleon Atocha, which netted him an incredible $400 million dollars!
后来我长大开始工作了，下雨天变成了累赘，童年寻找宝藏的梦想也渐渐淡忘了。但对于某些人来说，碰上好运气的梦想永不褪色，少数幸运的人甚至美梦成真了。Mel Fisher的寻宝梦也始于他童年读的 《金银岛》和《白鲸》。不像我，他没有放弃，最终成为了史上最著名的专业寻宝者。1985年，他捞到了价值连城的西班牙大帆船阿托查的货物，大赚了一笔4亿美元。

After the ship sank in 1622 off the coast of Florida, its murky waters became a treasure trove of precious stones, gold bars and silver coins known as “pieces of eight”. The aptly-named Fisher, who ran a commercial salvaging operation, had been trying to locate the underwater treasure for over 16 years when he finally hit the jackpot! His dreams had come true but finding and keeping the treasure wasn’t all plain sailing. After battling with hostile conditions at sea, Fisher then had to battle in the courts. In fact, the State of Florida took Fisher to court over ownership of the find and the Federal government soon followed suit. After more than 200 hearings, Fisher agreed to donate 20% of his yearly findings for public display, and so now there is a museum in Florida which displays hundreds of the artefacts which were salvaged from the Atocha.
1622年，这艘轮船在佛罗里达海岸沉没，这片水域成为宝石，金条和银币的“八片”宝库。从事商业打捞的Fisher，16年来尝试定位水下宝藏，最终找到了宝藏 。他的梦想成真了，但是寻找和保存宝藏并不是一帆风顺的。 和海上恶劣的条件作斗争后，费希尔还要在法庭上作斗争。佛罗里达州因所有权将费希尔告上了法庭，联邦政府紧随其后。200次听证会之后，Fisher同意捐出每年所得文物的20%作为公众展示，现在佛罗里达有个博物馆陈列着几百件从阿托查打捞的文物。

This true story seems like a modern-day fairytale: a man pursues his dream through adversity and in the end, he triumphs over the difficulties - they all live happily ever after, right? Well, not exactly. Archaeologists object to the fact that with commercial salvaging operations like Fisher’s, the artefacts are sold and dispersed and UNESCO are worried about protecting our underwater heritage from what it describes as “pillaging”.
这故事就像是现代童话：一个人追求自己的梦想，经历了逆境，然后最终战胜了困难-他们所有人从此生活得很快乐，对吧？不完全是，考古学家反对像Fisher这样的商业打捞，销售和分散文物，教科文组织对水下遗产被掠夺忧心忡忡。

The counter-argument is that in professional, well-run operations such as Fisher’s, each piece is accurately and minutely recorded and that it is this information which is more important than the actual artefact, and that such operations help increase our wealth of archaeological knowledge. Indeed, as in Fisher’s case, they make history more accessible to people through museum donations and information on web sites.
相反的观点是能像Fisher这样有着专业和良好的操作，精确记录每一件文物和每一分钟，信息比文物实体更重要，这些操作帮我们增加了考古知识。Fisher 这类人使得人们通过博物馆捐赠和网站信息获取历史知识更为便利。

The distinction of whether these treasure hunters are salvaging or pillaging our underwater heritage may not be clear, but what is clear is that treasure hunting is not just innocent child’s play anymore but profitable big business. I have learnt that the end of the rainbow is beyond my reach, but in consolation, with just a click of the mouse, I too can have a share in the riches that the Atocha has revealed. As Friedrich Nietzsche so wisely said:
“Our treasure lies in the beehive of our knowledge”
我们还不清楚这些寻宝者打捞或是掠夺我们水下遗产的区别，但可以确定的是寻宝不再只是孩子的游戏，而是有利可图的商业行为。我知道我无法触及彩虹的尽头，但是让人感到慰藉的是只需要按一下鼠标，我也能看到到阿托查文物。就像尼采所说：“我们的财富藏于我们知识的蜂箱。”