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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
You might think at first that these paintings are not very much to look at - they're really just scraps1 of paintings, and the largest is no bigger than a CD disc. They are drawn2 fairly simply, with black outlines on a yellow ochre background, with just a few sketchy3 lines to catch the features. But there are flecks4 of gold in the painting, which give us a hint of their original lavishness5.
Like random6 pieces from a jigsaw7 puzzle, it's difficult to guess what the bigger picture that they once came from might have been, and, indeed, they're not all portraits - some of the fragments show animals, some show bits of clothing and bodies. But the faces that are caught here have, I think, a definite sense of personality - there's a clear air of melancholy8 in the eyes, as they look out at us from a lost world.
These small bits of plaster were excavated9 by archaeologists from the ruins of the Dar al-Khilafah palace - the main residence of the caliph in Samarra and the ceremonial heart of the new purpose-built capital city. And pleasure was built into the very name of the city, which was interpreted at the court as a shortened form of 'Surra Man Ra'a' - 'He who sees it is delighted'.
But beneath the frolicking, there were ominous10 undercurrents. The decision in 836 to move the court from Baghdad to Samarra was taken in order to defuse a tricky11 situation. There were dangerous tensions between the caliph's armed guards and the inhabitants of Baghdad - tensions that had already ignited a string of riots. And Samarra was intended to provide both a haven12 for the court and a safe base for the caliph's army.
1 scraps | |
油渣 | |
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2 drawn | |
v.拖,拉,拔出;adj.憔悴的,紧张的 | |
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3 sketchy | |
adj.写生的,写生风格的,概略的 | |
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4 flecks | |
n.斑点,小点( fleck的名词复数 );癍 | |
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5 lavishness | |
n.浪费,过度 | |
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6 random | |
adj.随机的;任意的;n.偶然的(或随便的)行动 | |
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7 jigsaw | |
n.缕花锯,竖锯,拼图游戏;vt.用竖锯锯,使互相交错搭接 | |
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8 melancholy | |
n.忧郁,愁思;adj.令人感伤(沮丧)的,忧郁的 | |
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9 excavated | |
v.挖掘( excavate的过去式和过去分词 );开凿;挖出;发掘 | |
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10 ominous | |
adj.不祥的,不吉的,预兆的,预示的 | |
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11 tricky | |
adj.狡猾的,奸诈的;(工作等)棘手的,微妙的 | |
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12 haven | |
n.安全的地方,避难所,庇护所 | |
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