Aerial Tree
Aerial Tree
The tree, at first, seems to rank beside the other plant symbols. By flowering, fruiting, and shedding its leaves it invites reveries of dramatic growth. But cyclical optimism is reinforced in the archetype of the tree, for the tree’s verticality irreversibly orients the process of change and humanizes it by making it comparable with the vertical stance of humankind.
樹木起初似乎和其他植物的符號相並列。開花、結果、落葉、它邀請不斷成長的幻想。但是樹木的原型，仍然可以強化樂觀的圓形循環。因為樹木的直立不可逆轉地指向改變的過程，由於跟人類直立的姿態相匹配，而顯得人性化。
The image of the tree makes us pass imperceptibly from a cyclical to a progressive reverie. There is a whole Messianism underlying the symbolism of foliation, and any budding or flowering tree is tree of Jesse. So obvious is this verticalism that Bachelard classifies the tree among ascensional images and devotes a chapter to the aerial tree.
樹木的影像使我們不知不覺地從圓形循環轉移到進展的幻想。枝葉繁茂的象徵具有救贖的承諾。任何蓓蕾初放或開花的樹，都預示後來的成就，如同古希臘神話中，預示傑西脫險後成為國王。由於樹木直立甚為明顯，巴舍拉就將它列為上昇的影像，傾注一個章節談空中之樹。
Nevertheless, at this point we will demonstrate that the archetypal intention of the tree is merely a complement of its cyclical symbolism, simplified because only the ascendant stage of the cyclical rhythm is preserved.
可是，此時我們將證明樹的原型意圖僅是圓形循環的補充。它之被簡化是因為只有圓形循環上昇的階段被保存。
First of all the tree is isotopic with the agro-lunar symbol. It therefore carries the same symbolic associations as the ophidian symbols mentioned previously. The tree is associated with fertilizing waters, and it is the tree of life. The aquatic plant, the lotus rhizome covered with flowers, becomes arborescent on the columns of Luxor, and the giant lotiform representations in Gupta art. In Semitic legends the tree of life is in the sea or near a stream.
首先，樹木跟土壤及月亮的象徵相同，因此它跟前面所提到的蛇的象徵有相同的聯想。樹跟肥沃的水聯想在一起，而成生命之樹。水生植物的蓮花根莖花葉繁茂，因此被用來當Luxor 堂殿的緣飾，以及在Gupta藝術中，充當巨大激流的表徵。在閃族傳說中，生命之樹處於大海或靠近溪流。
Przyluski thinks that technology caused an evolution from tree to grain worship, with flower worship as an intermediary state. This evolution probably took place when hunting cultures were becoming sedentary and agricultural, with the result that tree worship was transformed into the worship of fermented drinks and wheat.
Przyluski認為科技使得樹木進化到穀物的崇拜，中間階段是花的崇拜。這個進化可能發生在打獵文化漸漸變成定棲文化和農業文化，結果是樹的崇拜被轉變成為對於釀造的酒及燕麥的崇拜。
Accordingly, the dramatization of tree symbolism was more explicit for agricultural cults, and for wheat and corn civilizations. In our opinion however, there has been a divergence of two meanings for the plant symbol, rather than a real evolution.
因此，對於農業的信徒及燕麥穀物的文明，樹的象徵一變再變就更加明確。可是依我之見，植物象徵有兩個差異的意義，不完全是真正的進化
The notion of progressive evolution, used by Pzyluski to explain the movement from the symbolism of the tree to that of the cycle, appears to be derived from, and subordinate to, the archetype of the tree. The cult of the lunar cycle and its plant corollary would seem to be as old as the cult of the tree.
Pzyluski使用進展的進化觀念來解釋樹的象徵，轉變成為循環的變動，似乎是得自及隸屬於樹的原型。月亮圓缺的循環及其植物因果的崇拜似乎跟對樹的崇拜同樣的古老。
Furthermore, as we have seen, xylic symbolism is not only derived from primitive technologies of construction which transform the tree into a beam or a column. It is also the technical means by which, when wood becomes a lighter and the tree a cross, xylic symbolism is transmuted into the creative ritual of fire.
而且，如我所見，火的象徵不但是來自原始的建築科技，將樹轉變成樑柱，而且也是技術的工具。木柴變成打火器，樹木變成橫樑，火的象徵被轉變成為火的創造儀式。
Continuity in the evolution of the tree archetype does not happen in the rational sense that Przyluski believes, his reasoning being that many civilizations seem to have been nomadic before adopting a sedentary way of life. It happens in a completely contingent sense, motivated by the discovery of fire and the means of producing fire.
就理性意義而言，樹的原型沒有繼續進化下去。Przyluski根據推理相信，那是因為許多文明在採取定棲的生活方式之前是遊牧的民族。它純然是偶然發生的，由於火的發現及製造火的工具所啟發。
Possibly the tree, in so far as it is a plant, prepared the way for plant worship. But certainly, in its capacity as wood used for producing and maintaining fire, the tree was immediately annexed by the great schema of rhythmic friction.
可能是樹替植物的崇拜鋪路，因為它畢竟是植物。但確實是因為樹有能力充當柴木，被用來製造及維持火，樹立刻被合併來當韻律磨擦的偉大模式。
P327
Anthropological Structures of the Imaginary
By Gilbert Durand
Translated by Springhero 雄伯
https://springhero.wordpress.com
Aerial Tree 330
Through its verticality, the cosmic tree is humanized. It becomes the symbol of man as vertical microcosm, and Bachelard shows this in an analysis of one of Rilke’s poems.
由於直立的特性，宇宙之樹被人性化。它變成人類作為直立的象徵。巴舍拉在分析里爾克詩集時，表示了這一點。
The Baghavad-Gita also assimilates the tree to man’s destiny, the cosmic tree in this case being integrated with a technique for detachment from cosmic life, symbolized by the counsel to cut off the tree at its root In another passage the tree is really the psycho-physiological totality of human individuality: its trunk is intelligence, its inner cavities sensitive nerves, its branches sense-impressions, its fruits and flowers good and bad actions.
Baghavad-Gita一詩也將樹比擬為人類的命運，宇宙之樹由於特別跟宇宙人生保持隔離而自成天地，象徵著樹必須連根砍掉。在另外一段，樹對於人的個別性，真正具有心理跟生理的完整：其樹幹是智慧，其內部缺口是敏感的神經，樹枝是感官信印象，水果跟花是善惡的行為。
The humanization of the tree could also be studied in iconography: for if the tree becomes a column, the column in its turn becomes a statue, and any human figure sculpted in stone or wood is a reverse metamorphosis. We noted that the transforming role of the plant kingdom is in many cases to extend or suggest the extension of human life.
樹的人性化也可以從肖像學來研究。假如樹成為一根柱子，然後輪到柱子成為雕像，那麼任何被雕刻在石頭或木材的人像就是倒轉的變形。我們注意到，植物界的轉變角色在許多方面都暗示著人類生活的延伸。
The “ circuit” between the plant and the human is facilitated by verticalism because its vector further reinforces images of resurrection and triumph. Descartes compares the totality of human knowledge to a tree, and Bachelard asserts that “ the imagination is a tree.”
植物跟人類之間「交流」由於直立而顯得理所當然，因為它的向量更進一步加強復活跟勝利的影像。笛卡爾將人類的完整性比喻為樹，巴舍拉主張「想像是一棵樹。」
Thus nothing enhances the spiritual or temporal destiny of man more than to be compared to an ancient tree, over which time has no hold and for which aging only heightens the majesty of its foliage and the beauty of its flowering.
因此被比喻為古代的樹最能彰顯人的精神或時間的命運，因為時間對樹無法掌控，而年老只是彰顯其枝葉繁茂的堂皇及其花開富貴的美麗。
It is therefore not surprising to observe that the image of the tree always induces a kind of Messianism, what could be called the “ Jesse complex”. All imaginary progression is arborescent.
因此有人觀察到樹的影像能引起救世主的聯想也就不足為奇。這可稱為「傑生情結」。所有幻奇的進展都是緣飾。
The myth of the three trees, as it appears in certain apocryphal gospels and apocalypses, is merely a doublet of the myth of the three ages. On his way to Paradise to implore the redemption of his father, Seth is visited by a triple vision: first he sees a withered tree above a river, the second time a serpent is coiled around a trunk the third time the tree reaches to the sky bearing a new-born child in its branches.
三棵樹的神話出現在創世紀及末世紀，僅是三個時代神話的對應。到天堂去懇求對其父親的救贖的途中，雪斯遭遇三個幻象：他看到一棵枯萎的樹在河流上，第二次看到一條蛇捲縮在樹幹上，第三次看到樹延伸至天空，懷著一個新生嬰兒在樹枝間。
The angel gives Seth three seeds from the fruit and the fatal tree of which his parents are, and from these three seeds germinate the three trees which, later, will be used to make the cross of torture. This myth has distant repercussions in all the Landscapes with Three Trees, from the beautiful etching by Rembrandt to the fine washdrawing of Victor Hugo.
天使給雪斯三粒他父親的宿命樹及水果的種子。從這三粒種子滋生出三棵樹，後來被用來製成苦刑的十字架。這個神話對於「三棵樹景象」影響非常深遠，從瑞布蘭的美麗鐫刻畫到雨果的水彩潑畫。
What is important is that the tree is mythically associated with three progressively linked stages which symbolize the Messianic history of the Jewish nation, rather than the cycle. For these imaginary reasons, progressive evolution is always represented by the branching tree, whether it be the genealogical trees of historians or the evolutionary biologists’ majestic tree depicting the evolution of the species.
重要的是，樹神秘地跟三個循序漸進的連接階段聯想在一起，象徵著猶太教國家的救贖歷史，而不是圓形循環。為了這些幻奇理由，循序漸進的進化總是由枝幹萌長的樹做代表，無論它是歷史學家的系譜的樹，或是生物學家用於描述品種演化的進化的堂皇的樹。
P330
Anthropological Structures of the Imaginary
By Gilbert Durand
Translated by Springhero 雄伯
https://springhero.wordpress.com
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