Our friend John Green will read a story from his podcast, "The Anthropocene Reviewed".

私たちの友人のジョン・グリーンが、

We hope you enjoy it and we'll be back with a regular video,

彼自身のポッドキャスト「The Anthropocene Reviews」から、あるストーリーを引用します

Soon.

楽しんでもらえたら何よりです

So if you've ever been or had a child, you will likely already be familiar with hand stencils.

我々もいつもの動画に戻るとしましょう

They were the first figurative art made by both our kids somewhere between the ages of 2 and 3.

今すぐに

My children spread the fingers of one hand out across a piece of paper, and then with the help of a parent,

子育ての経験があるか、子ども時代を経験していれば

traced their five fingers.

手型に馴染みがあるだろう

I remember my son's face as he lifted his hand and looked absolutely

それは私の子どもたちが初めて作った具象芸術で

shocked to see the shape of his hand still on the paper - a semi permanent record of himself.

2歳から3歳の頃だった

I am extremely happy that my children are no longer 3

片手の指を紙の上に広げ、

and yet to look at their little hands from those early artworks is to be inundated with a strange,

次に親の助けを借りて、

soul splitting joy.

5本の指をなぞった

Those pictures remind me that they are not just growing up, but also growing away from me, running toward their own lives.

手を持ち上げたとき、息子は強い衝撃を受けていた

But of course that's meaning I am applying to their hand stencils and that complicated

彼の手の形が紙の上にあったからだ それは彼自身の半永久的な記録である

relationship between art and its viewers is never more fraught than when we are looking deeply into the past.

子どもたちがもう3歳ではない事はとても喜ばしいが

In September of 1940, an 18 year old mechanic named Marcel Ravidat

彼らの初期の芸術作品にある小さな手を見ると

was walking his dog Robot in the countryside of southwestern France, when the dog disappeared down a hole.

奇妙な、心の底からの喜びが湧き上がってくる

Robot eventually returned, but the next day Ravidat went to the spot with three friends to explore the hole and

それらは、彼らがただ成長しているのではなく、

after quite a bit of digging they discovered a cave with walls covered with paintings, including over

自分の手を離れ、彼ら自身の人生へと 駆け出していくことを想起させる

900 paintings of animals: horses, stags, bison and also species that are now extinct, including a woolly rhinoceros.

しかし、これは私が彼らの手型に投影したイメージで

The paintings were astonishingly detailed and vivid with

このアートと鑑賞者との複雑な関係も、

red, yellow and black paint made from pulverized mineral pigments that were usually blown through a narrow tube,

過去を深く見つめる際の感慨には及ばない

possibly a hollowed bone, unto the walls of the cave.

1940年9月、18歳の整備士、マルセル・ラビダットは

It would eventually be established that these artworks were at least 17,000 years old.

フランス南西部の田舎を散歩していたところ

Two of the boys who visited the cave that day were so profoundly moved by the art they saw,

犬の「ロボット君」が穴の中に姿を消した

that they camped outside the cave to protect it for over a year.

ロボットは結局戻ってきたものの、翌日 ラビダットは3人の友人と、穴を探検した

After World War II the French government took over protection of the site and the cave was open to the public in 1948.

かなり掘り進んだ後 壁一面に絵が描かれている洞窟を見つけた

When Picasso saw the cave paintings on a visit that year he reportedly said,

900点を超える動物の絵ー 馬、クワガタ、バイソンや

''We have invented nothing.''

ウーリーサイなど 現在では絶滅している種も含まれていた

There are many mysteries at Lascaux. Why, for instance, are there no paintings of reindeer,

絵画は驚くほど詳細で鮮やかで

which we know were the primary source of food for the Paleolithic humans who lived in that cave?

赤、黄、黒の塗料は 鉱物を粉砕した顔料からできており

Why were they so much more focused on painting animals than painting human forms?

おそらく中空の骨などの細い筒から 洞窟の壁面に吹き付けられたのだろう

Why are certain areas of the cave filled with images, including pictures on the ceiling that required the building of scaffolding to create,

最終的に、これらの作品は少なくとも 1万7000年以上前のものだと確認されることになる

while other areas have only a few paintings?

洞窟を訪れた青年のうち2人は この芸術作品に深い感銘を受け

And were the paintings spiritual -- "here are our sacred animals"?

1年以上にわたり洞窟の外でキャンプをして、 作品を守っていた

Or were they practical -- "Here is a guide to some of the animals that might kill you"?

第二次世界大戦後、フランス政府は遺跡の保護を引き継ぎ、洞窟は1948年に一般公開された

Aside from the animals, there are nearly a thousand abstract signs and shapes

その年の訪問で洞窟壁画を見たときの ピカソの発言が報じられている

we cannot interpret, and also several "negative hand stencils" as they are known by art historians.

「私たちは何も発明していない。」

These are the paintings that most interest me.

ラスコーには多くの謎がある

They were created by pressing one hand with fingers splayed against the wall of the cave and then blowing pigment,

たとえば、トナカイの絵がないのはなぜか

leaving the area around the hand painted.

その洞窟に住んでいた旧石器時代の人間は トナカイを主食にしていたはずなのに

Similar hand stencils have been found in caves around the world, from Indonesia to Spain to

なぜ彼らは人間を描くよりも 動物を描くことに強くこだわったのか？

Australia to the Americas to Africa.

なぜ洞窟の特定の領域は、 天井まで絵で満たされているのか

We have found these memories of hands from 15 or 30 or even 40 thousand years ago.

天井には足場を組まないと描けないし

These hand stencils remind us of how different life was in the distant past.

他のエリアは少しの絵だけなのに

Amputations likely from frostbite are common in Europe.

「神聖なる動物たちをここに示す」 などという霊的な意味合いがあったのか

And so you often see negative hand stencils with three or four fingers. And life was short and difficult.

「あなたを殺すかもしれない動物のリストだ」 といった実用的な意味合いだったのか

As many as a quarter of women died in childbirth; around 50% of children died before the age of five.

動物を除くと、約1000個の抽象的な印と形があり それを解釈することは不可能だ

But they also remind us that the humans of the past were as human as we are.

また、美術史家に知られている 「ネガティブハンド」もいくつかあり

Their hands indistinguishable from ours.

個人的には最も興味深い

These communities hunted and gathered and there were no large caloric surpluses.

それらは、洞窟の壁に片手を押し付け、指を広げ

So every healthy person would have had to contribute to the acquisition of food and water, and yet somehow

塗料を吹き付け

they still made time to create art.

塗料まみれの手を離すことで描かれる

Almost as if art isn't optional for humans.

同様のネガティブハンドは世界中で見られる

We see all kinds of hands stenciled on cave walls,

インドネシア、スペイン

children and adults, but almost always the fingers are spread.

オーストラリア、南北アメリカ、アフリカ

Like my kids' hand stencils.

これら手の記録には1万5千年前、3万年前、 さらには4万年前のものさえある

I'm no Jungian.

これらの手型は、遠い昔の生活が 現代とは全く別物であったことを想起させる

But it's fascinating and a little strange that so many Paleolithic humans,

凍傷による切断はヨーロッパでは一般的だった

who couldn't possibly have had any contact with each other,

だから指が3本や4本の手型もよく見かけ

created the same paintings the same way --

人生は短く、困難なものだった

paintings that we are still making.

4分の1もの女性が出産で死亡し

But then again, what the Lascaux art means to me is likely very different from what it meant to the people who made it.

約50％の子どもが5歳未満で死亡した

Some academics theorized that the hand stencils were part of hunting rituals.

しかし、手型はまた、彼らも私たちと同じ人間だったと気づかせてくれる

Then there's always the possibility that the hand was just a convenient model situated at the end of the wrist.

彼らの手は私たちのものと区別がつかない

To me, though,

彼らは狩猟採集生活を営み 大きなカロリーの余剰はなく

the hand stencils at Lascaux say, "I was here." They say, "You are not new."

健康な人は食料と水の確保に貢献すべきであった

And because they are negative prints surrounded by red pigment, they also looked to me like something out of a horror movie.

それなのに、なぜか創作の時間を捻出していた

Like ghostly hands reaching up from some bloody background.

まるで芸術はオマケではないのだと言わんばかりに

They remind me that, as Alice Walker wrote, "All history is current."

洞窟の壁面には年齢問わず あらゆる種類の手をみることができる

The Lascaux cave has been closed to the public for many years now.

しかしほとんどの場合、指は開かれている

Too many contemporary humans breathing inside of it led to the growth of mold and lichens, which has damaged some of the art.

私の子どもの手型と同様に

Just the act of looking at something can ruin it, I guess.

私はユング学派ではないが

But tourists can still visit an imitation cave called Lascaux II, in which the artwork has been

魅力的かつ少々不可解な事実だと思う

meticulously recreated.

互いに連絡をとることができない旧石器時代の人々が

Humans making fake cave art to save real cave art may feel like peak Anthropocene behavior.

同じ絵を同じ方法で作っていたのだ

But I have to confess that even though I am a jaded and cynical

そしてそれは現代でも作られている

semi-professional reviewer of human activity,

しかし改めて、私にとってのラスコー芸術の持つ意味は

I actually find it overwhelmingly hopeful, that four teenagers and a dog named Robot

製作者たちの意図を離れたものだろう

discovered a cave with 17,000-year-old handprints, that the cave was so

一部の学者は、手型は狩猟儀式の一部であると 理論化した

overwhelmingly beautiful that two of those teenagers devoted themselves to its protection.

その場合、手は「手首の先にある便利なもの」 に過ぎなかった可能性もある

And that when we humans became a danger to that caves' beauty, we agreed to stop going.

でも、私にとっては

Lascaux is there. You cannot visit.

ラスコーの手型は「私はここにいた」と伝えるものだ

You can go to the fake cave we've built, and see nearly identical hand stencils. But you will know

「あなたは新しくなんかない」とも

this is not the thing itself,

その手型は赤い塗料で囲まれているため

but a shadow of it.

ホラー映画から飛び出してきたようにも見える

This is a handprint,

幽霊の手が血まみれの背景から伸びてくるように

but not a hand.

それらはアリス・ウォーカーの 「歴史は全て現在のものだ」という言葉を想起させる

This is a memory that you cannot return to.

ラスコー洞窟は何年もの間、一般公開されていない

All of which makes the cave very much like the past it represents.

多くの現代人が洞窟内で呼吸したため

We hope you enjoyed this video even if it was different.

カビやコケが繁茂し、芸術の一部が損傷してしまった

Check out John Green's podcast, "The Anthropocene Reviewed", where he poetically reviews the human world we live in.

観るという行為だけで 滅びるようなものもあるのだと思う

John is a good friend of Kurzgesagt.

しかし、観光客はラスコーIIと呼ばれる 模造洞窟を訪ねることができる

In fact without his channel, Crash Course, that he and his brother Hank started years ago,

そこでは作品が細心の注意をはらって再現されている

Kurzgesagt would not exist, because it was the original inspiration for what we do today.

本物の洞窟芸術を保存するべく、贋作を作った人々は

And over the years, John and Hank have helped us in a multitude of ways, from advice to just being friends.

これ以上なく人新世的な行動をしている、と感じたかもしれない

So check out "The Anthropocene Reviewed" or any of their many channels.

私は偏屈で皮肉屋な人間活動評論家のセミプロだ