散文欣賞:我爲廷巴克圖哭泣
When I was a child in the late 1960s and early 1970s I lived in Dar es Salaam, Nairobi, and Accra and travelled across Africa, from east to west, marvelling at the range and splendour of the continent's architecture. It was not the easiest time to experience Africa's architectural glories. But I was left with an enduring desire to understand the nature of African buildings and their origins and whether they came into being through expedience, their relationship to colonial power, economics, self-belief or self-identity.
上世紀60年代末70年代初，當我還是個孩子時，我先後居住在達累斯薩拉姆、內羅畢和阿克拉。從東到西，我的足跡遍及整個非洲大陸，我爲非洲建築的豐富多樣和絢麗恢宏所折服。當時並不是易於感受非洲建築之輝煌的時期，但後來我一直希望瞭解非洲建築的本質及其起源，以及在它們的發展形成過程中，方便性、它們與殖民勢力的關係、經濟學、自信、自我認同等因素是否起到了重要作用。It is a passion that has never left me. In the past decade I have documented the 53 capitals of the continent in a bid to understand how regional geography and tradition transcend state boundaries. In that time I have researched the great pyramids of Giza, the temples of Luxor, Libya's Roman ruins at Leptis Magna, the stone walls of great Zimbabwe, the Buganda shrine of Uganda, the medieval Islamic architecture of Fes and Marrakech in Morocco, Ethiopia's churches carved into the rock in Lalibela and much more.
這種激情從未離開過我。過去十年間，我記述了非洲大陸53個國家的首都，以圖理解區域地理和傳統是如何超越國家邊界的。在這段時期，我研究了吉薩的大金字塔、盧克索的神廟、利比亞大萊普提斯(leptis magna)的古羅馬遺址、大津巴布韋的石牆、烏干達的布幹達陵墓、摩洛哥菲斯和馬拉喀什的中世紀伊斯蘭建築，埃塞俄比亞的拉利貝拉岩石教堂，等等。Yet of all these places and more, few if any can rival the shrines and mosques of Timbuktu. Among the more famous are the 15th-century Sidi Yahya mosque and the ancient tombs of Sufi saints. Their desecration over the past week by al-Qaeda-linked militants wielding picks, hoes and, of course, guns is much more than an act of vandalism. It is, as the International Criminal Court's prosecutor says, a war crime.
然而，上述所有建築以及其它建築，鮮有能與廷巴克圖(Timbuktu)的陵墓和清真寺相媲美的。其中比較出名的是15世紀建造的西迪葉海亞(Sidi Yahya)清真寺和蘇菲派聖徒陵墓。近期，與"基地"有關聯的武裝分子用鎬頭、鋤頭，當然還有槍支褻瀆這些古蹟，這絕不僅僅是蓄意毀壞公物行爲。正如國際刑事法庭(International Criminal Court)的檢察官所言，他們犯下了戰爭罪。
The structures in Timbuktu are the remnants of the city's incarnation as one of the world's great commercial and intellectual centres. Known as the "city of 333 saints", Timbuktu was not just a desert commercial crossroads; it was also a centre of learning. Its ancient shrines and mosques include the Djinguereber mosque built from mud in 1327. It is a horizontal city; the shrines and mosques are the punctuation that articulate the skyline. The mud architecture was developed at the high point of the history of Timbuktu. It is unique to the region and represents a distinctive marriage of Islamic and desert architecture – an inimitable Sahel desert aesthetic – not to be found anywhere else in the world.
廷巴克圖曾是世界重要商業和文化中心之一，這些建築就是那個時期遺留下來的古蹟。以"333位聖徒的城市"聞名於世的廷巴克圖，在當時不僅是沙漠中的一個商業樞紐，還是一個學術中心。此地的古蹟包括1327年以泥土建成的津加里貝爾(Djinguereber)清真寺。廷巴克圖是一座呈"水平"走向的城市，陵墓和清真寺成了連接天際的符號。津加里貝爾清真寺建於廷巴克圖鼎盛時期。它在這個地區是獨一無二的，融合了伊斯蘭藝術和沙漠建築的特點——一種不可模仿的薩赫勒(Sahel)沙漠美學——一在全世界都是獨具一格的。In the Sahel cities, the architecture of Islam, with its domes and minarets, is breathtaking. Many times I have stood before them and marvelled at their glory. But also the fact that these civilisations chose to create their monuments out of the mud beneath their feet was an immensely powerful gesture that has resonance today. We live in an age of scarce resources, where ecology and the environment should play an increasingly fundamental role in the way we design our cities.
在薩赫勒地帶的城市，帶着圓屋頂和尖塔的伊斯蘭建築令人歎爲觀止。很多次我站在它們面前都會驚歎其壯麗。同樣令我感到驚歎的是，這些文明選擇用腳底下的泥土建造他們的豐碑，蘊含其中的強大力量在今天依然能夠激盪人心。我們生活在一個資源匱乏的時代，因而在我們的城市規劃中，生態和環境應該發揮越來越重要的作用。Inevitably history's sharp chisel has long been chipping away at these treasures. The monuments of Timbuktu offer a compelling model embracing both the means to build and the very point of building. Mud structures are not only sustainable, but also inherently rebuildable. The Great Mosque of Djenne, further south in Mali, for example, "returns to the earth" every six months when the local population "re-mud" it after the rainy season.
歷史這把鋒利的鑿子不可避免地侵蝕着這些寶藏。廷巴克圖古蹟提供了一個令人歎服的兼重建築方法與建築意義的模式。泥土結構不僅具有可持續性，而且便於重建。比如說，在馬裏廷巴克圖以南的傑內大清真寺(Great Mosque of Djenne)，每當雨季過後，當地人會加以"重新泥砌"，讓這座大清真寺每半年都"重生"一次。So there is the faint possibility that the monuments of Timbuktu might with time be repaired and renewed. But what is happening in Mali is a stark warning that we need more than Unesco World Heritage titles to preserve our story and ensure its retelling for future generations. The latest destruction follows the attack in May on the tomb of Sidi Mahamoud Ben Amer, also in Timbuktu. Now I fear that other sites, not just in Timbuktu but in other Malian cities, are at risk.
因此，廷巴克圖古蹟沒準兒會隨着時間的推移不斷得到修復和翻新。但在馬裏發生的事情卻警示，爲了保護我們的歷史，讓後世子孫也能夠懂得歷史，僅僅是聯合國教科文組織世界遺產(Unesco World Heritage)的頭銜是遠遠不夠的。最近的這次破壞事件之前，西迪•馬哈茂德陵墓在5月份也遭到了破壞，這座陵墓也在廷巴克圖。現在我擔心的是其他古蹟也會有危險——不只是廷巴克圖，還有馬裏其他城市。Even if in time these splendours are rebuilt, their mythology will have died. They are artefacts of an ancient civilisation, not just buildings. So what could and should be done? What about the Gulf states, for example? They spend billions of dollars buying up Islamic art for their new museums, but they don't say anything when some of Islam's finest buildings are destroyed.
即使這些輝煌的建築及時得到重建，但它們的神祕感將會消失。它們是古代文明的工藝品，而不僅僅是建築。那麼，我們能夠、也應該做些什麼呢？比如說海灣國家？他們花費數十億美元購買伊斯蘭藝術品，用以充實各個新建的博物館，但當一些最精美的伊斯蘭建築遭到破壞的時候，他們卻默不作聲。Making a case for the physical protection of buildings when we are unable to protect the citizens of Mali might sound precious. We must make the case for both. If we do not protect the legacies of previous generations, how can we hope that future generations will respect ours?
當我們無法保護馬里居民的時候，談論爲建築提供切實的保護聽上去或許有點矯揉造作。兩個方面我們都應該考慮到。如果我們不保護前輩的遺產，又如何能"奢望"後代人尊重我們將來留下的遺產呢？The writer is the author of "Adjaye Africa Architecture" and is the principal of Adjaye Associates
本文作者是阿德迦耶建築事務所(Adjaye Associates)所長，著有《阿德迦耶非洲建築》（Adjaye Africa Architecture）一書。
