美語情景對話 第462期:Butsudan 佛壇

Todd: Now, Carla you have your own website.

託德：卡拉，你擁有自己的網站。

Carla: Yes I, when I first came to Japan, I didn't learn languages because actually I'm quite terrible at learning languages. But I'm very interested in culture, and Japanese traditional culture is fantastic. So, little by little I got interested in butsudan. Now butsudan are Buddhist family alters which the Japanese use in two ways. They pray to Buddha by kneeling in front of them, but they also keep family memorabilia. That's like, wedding certificates, or graduation certificates, photographs, post cards from interesting places. They keep all these in the butsudan and they communicate with the ancestors this way. So they have a kind of dual purpose. And, but truthfully, I'm not particularly interested in Buddhism, and I'm not interested in the furnished butsudan because it's a little bit garish, and not at all the way I imagined the understatement of Japanese culture. But, the making of them is fantastic and the traditional old-fashioned ways of craftsmanship are going out because Japanese craftsmanship is very expensive. And it can be made in China, Vietnam, Taiwan, Korea much cheaper than they can be made in Japan. So, a lot of the traditional craftsman are just not finding the work anymore. No new apprentices are training for the job, and it's difficult to find butsudan that are made in a traditional way. The traditionally made butsudan could cost as much as twenty to thirty million yen. A butsudan made in China and imported into Japan and sold here could be, could sell for about three million yen. That just gives a ratio of the relative price. So, there is, there are three wood working crafts, two metal working crafts, and two lacquering crafts that go into the making of the butsudan. So, my aim really, is to document the traditional craftsmanship before it's completely gone. And no one has ever done this in English before. And it's hardly been done by the Japanese because it's one of these things that Japanese craftsman really don't talk about amongst themselves. So it's all kind of, it's not as if it's secret it's just that they have different vocabulary for the same thing. They do things in slightly different ways. They just never talk about it. When they train an apprentice they don't say do this do that the way we do in the West. The apprentice just has to watch the master and copy. So for many things they don't even have words for them. So it's been quite interesting to document that.

卡拉：是的，我第一次來日本的時候並沒有學習語言，因爲我的語言學習能力非常差。不過我對文化很感興趣，而日本傳統文化非常吸引人。我逐漸對佛壇產生了興趣。現在佛壇對日本佛教家庭來說有兩個用處。他們跪在佛祖面前祈禱，同樣那裏也保存着家庭紀念品。比如結婚證書、畢業證書、照片或是風景名勝的明信片等等。他們會把所有這些紀念品存放在佛壇，用這種方法和祖先交流。所以佛壇有這兩種用途。不過說實話，我對佛教不太感興趣，我對裝飾過的佛壇也不感興趣，因爲那有些過分裝飾了，並不是我所想象的那種含蓄的日本文化。建造佛壇太不可思議了，不過傳統、古老的技藝即將消失，因爲日本技藝的花費非常高。在中國、越南、臺灣和韓國建造的花費要比日本便宜的多。所以許多傳統工匠都找不到工作。沒有新學徒爲這種工作進行培訓，所以很難找到以傳統方法建造的佛壇。傳統佛壇要花費兩三千萬日元。而在中國製造的佛壇，進口到日本只需要三百萬日元。由此可以看到相對價格的對比。建造佛壇需要三種木製加工工藝、兩種加工工藝和兩種塗漆工藝。我想在傳統技藝失傳之前把它記錄下來。此前沒有英國人做過這件事。而且日本人也很難完成，因爲這是日本工匠之間不會談論的事情之一。並不是說這是祕密，只是因爲他們會用不同的詞彙來解釋同一件事。他們用略微有些不同的方法做同一件事。他們之間從來不會談論。他們在培訓學徒時，不會像西方那樣說“做這個，做那個”。學徒只是照着師傅做的方法去模仿。所以有許多事他們甚至都沒有語言來形容。記錄這一過程非常有意思。

Todd: Well, sounds good. We'll have your URL on the bottom. And people will have to go and check out your website.

託德：聽起來不錯。我們會在下面放你的網址，這樣人們就可以訪問你的網站了。

Carla: Ya, that would be good. I'd like that. It's being made now, it's not quite finished yet.

卡拉：那太好了。我喜歡。記錄工作目前正在進行中，還沒有完成。

Todd: Oh ok.

託德：好。

Carla: But, little by little it will be and if anybody is interested it's more of a resource than something that you would sit and read. But you might be interested in the drawings. A friend does the drawings, and I did the photos and the text, and you know it's quite ambitious I think.

卡拉：不過我會完成這項工作，如果有人感興趣，相比於供人們閱讀的材料，它更像是一種資源。也許你會對繪畫感興趣。有個朋友會繪製圖畫，而我負責拍照和文字描述，你知道我認爲這真是野心之作。

Todd: Ok, well thanks.

託德：好，謝謝你。

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重點講解：
1. little by little
逐漸地；一點一點地；
eg. In the beginning he had felt well, but little by little he was becoming weaker.
一開始他感覺很好，但慢慢地就變虛弱了。
eg. I would have to learn, little by little, to exist alone.
我得慢慢學會獨自生活。
2. go out
不復存在；被替代；過時；
eg. Double-breasted suits went out years ago.
雙排扣的套裝好多年前就過時了。
eg. The weapons had gone out of use.
這些武器已經被淘汰了。
3. more of a..A. than B
與其說是B，不如說更像是A；
eg. You would be more of a hind-rance than a help.
你幫不上忙，反倒會礙事。
eg. This is more of a sitting room than a kitchen.
與其說這是一個廚房還不如說這是一個起居室。