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THE POWER OF WRITING 書寫的力量

Joel L. Swerdlow investigates the history and future of one of humanity's most potent forms of artistic and cultural expression. Joel L. Swerdlow 探討了人類最強大的藝術與文化表達形式之一的歷史與未來。

A段

No other invention—perhaps only the wheel comes close—has had a longer and greater impact on humanity's development than writing. 沒有任何一項發明——或許只有輪子能與之相提並論——對人類發展的影響比書寫更深遠、更重大。

Written words have overthrown governments and changed the course of history. 文字曾經推翻過政府，並改變了歷史的進程。

So powerful is writing that the beginnings of civilization and history are most often defined as the moment cultures develop it. 書寫的力量如此強大，以至於文明和歷史的開端，通常被定義為文化發展出文字的那一刻。

The transformation of language into written words has immortalized passion, genius, art, and science. 將語言轉化為文字，使熱情、天賦、藝術和科學得以不朽。

B段

Much of writing's power comes from its flexibility. 書寫的大部分力量來自於它的靈活性。

Ever since the Sumerians began keeping records by carving signs on clay tablets 5,000 years ago, humans have searched for the ideal tool to portray words. 自從五千年前蘇美爾人（Sumerians）開始在泥板上刻下符號來保存紀錄以來，人類就不斷在尋找描繪文字的理想工具。

They have carved symbols in stone and bone and written on leaves, bark, silk, papyrus, parchment, paper, and electronic screens. 他們在石頭和骨頭上雕刻符號，並在樹葉、樹皮、絲綢、紙莎草紙、羊皮紙、紙張和電子螢幕上書寫。

This skill, once known only to a few professional scribes, grew into mass literacy: More than five billion people—over 86 percent of the world's population—can now read and write. 這項曾經只有少數專業抄寫員才懂得的技能，發展成了大眾的讀寫能力：現在有超過五十億人（超過全球人口的 86%）具備讀寫能力。

C段

To understand how writing evolved, I visited Serabit el-Khadim, a flat-topped, wind-eroded mountain of reddish sandstone in the southwestern Sinai Peninsula of Egypt. 為了了解書寫是如何演變的，我參訪了塞拉比特·埃爾·哈迪姆（Serabit el-Khadim），這是一座位於埃及西奈半島西南部，頂部平坦、被風侵蝕的紅砂岩山。

Here, in a turquoise mine dug by Egyptians almost 3,500 years ago, is one of the earliest examples of a phonetic alphabet. 在這裡，在一個近 3500 年前由埃及人挖掘的綠松石礦坑中，有著最早的拼音字母範例之一。

D段

"What do you think?" asked Avner Goren as we stooped to enter a dark hole. 「你覺得呢？」Avner Goren 在我們彎腰進入一個黑洞時問道。

Goren, an archeologist who supervised excavations in the Sinai for 15 years, was pointing to a wall just ahead of us. Goren 是一位在西奈半島監督挖掘工作長達 15 年的考古學家，他指著我們正前方的一面牆。

Carved into the stone were crude sketches of a fish, an ox head, and a square. 石頭上刻著魚、牛頭和正方形的粗糙草圖。

The simplicity of the marks belied their significance. 這些記號的簡單外表，掩蓋了它們的重要性。

The people who made them were among the first to use characters that denote sounds—an alphabet. 製作這些記號的人，是最早使用表示聲音的字元（即字母）的人之一。

The alphabetic symbols each represented the initial sound of an object. 每個字母符號都代表一個物體的字首發音。

The picture of the square—a house—thus stood for the b sound because the word for house was beit. 因此，正方形（房子）的圖片代表了 b 的發音，因為房子的單字是 beit。

單字註解 (頁面下方)

1 The Sumerians were an ancient people in southern Mesopotamia, modern Iraq. 1 蘇美爾人是生活在美索不達米亞南部（現代伊拉克）的古代民族。

2 If one thing belies another, it hides it and gives a false impression of it. 2 如果一件事物 belie（掩飾）另一件事物，這表示它將其隱藏並給人錯誤的印象。