創意之胸襟就是上天予人的恩賜

最近行政院在國家重建計畫推動了創意工業，為能發揮且提昇國人的藝術天份。要能達到預期地發展與成就，則必須要能夠徹底地明白創意的意義。

The bosom of creativity

The divine embodied in men and women

創意之胸襟就是上天予人的恩賜

By Leo R. Maliksi

劉力樹

譯者:林豪

Of all art subjects, nothing draws more curious gaze than the naked human body. Throughout history, rustic and refined artists have sought to embody beauty in either Venus or Apollo and some ancient peoples have found a representation for fertility in a fleshy and buxom Earth goddess.

在藝術題材之中，最能引人側目者，即是赤裸的人體。初學或精修的藝術家追尋著維納斯或太陽神優美的體態，以及一些古人則以體態豐盈的世俗女神為代表。

Only a few masters have managed to convey the profound artistry that is expressed by the human body. For the majority, the naked human body is just the touchstone for sensuality, their paintings or photographs leading to nowhere beyond the excitement and disquiet caused by our eyes gazing on naked humanity.

僅有少數身手不凡的大師，能夠展現裸體的藝術，絕大多數視裸體為只是一種色慾的火種，他們的繪畫及相片直接引導人的目光，因所見的裸體激發出興奮與不安。

Certainly, sensuality stimulates creativity — it expresses itself in art, in love, in the birth of another person. Without sensuality, we are not human. It is so much a part of our bodies that Greek and Roman sculptors and Italian painters have sought to express it in nudity in art.

的確慾望激勵了創造力─它以藝術、愛及孕育另一個生命來詮釋自己，沒有慾望我們就不稱為人類，它與我們的肉體有密切的關係，因此希臘和羅馬的雕刻家及義大利的畫家以裸體藝術來表達它。

But unknown perhaps even to themselves, they were searching for something beyond sensuality — their quest was for the original purity of our human nature. The great masters like Michelangelo Buonarroti, Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Boticelli have succeeded in expressing the pure language of the human body.

但是不知不覺地這些雕刻家，甚至他們自己意識到要尋找超越慾望的事物—他們追求人性純潔的根源。如藝術大師米開蘭基羅，貝尼尼和包提紫里等均成功地以人體表達出純淨的語彙。

We speak not just with words, but with the sometimes more expressive language of our bodies. The eyes can convey love or hate, joy or sadness, welcome or rebuff. The hands are full of meaning—their movements convey different messages.

我們不僅以言語作表達，有時更進一步地以我們的肢體語言作詮釋，眼神可流露出愛或恨，喜或憂，迎或拒。雙手充滿了意義—它的動作帶來了不同的訊息。

Among the meanings expressed by our bodies, nothing is perhaps more profound, totally interactive and ultimately more fruitful than the language of sex. A marriage is consummated with this body language. Great artists and scientists come into being with the sexual union of man and woman. The very homes in which we live, the highways, the offices, knowledge, culture, war and peace trace their origins to men and women who are in turn the fruits of the physical union that is the climax of the body language of love.

在我們的身體所表達的意思中，其中可說是最具豐富內涵的、完全地互動及最終之結果莫過於『性』，偉大的藝術家與科學家皆來自於男女在性中的結合。我們所住的家庭、高速公路、辦公室、知識、文化、戰爭及和平等，追本溯源都來自於男女肉體的結合，也就是『愛』以最高的身體語言所產生的果實。

A great philosopher once said that God continues his work of creation through the offspring of the marital act. If due to some physiological defect, that act is fruitless, the love that they express through their total self-giving to each other reflects the great mystery of love that is the inner life of the Creator.

有一位偉大的哲學家曾說：「造物主藉由『性』來延續創造的工程。」若是由於身體上的缺陷，無法結出果實，他們藉由彼此完全地『自我犧牲』反映出愛的偉大奧秘，也就是造物主偉大的內在生命。

It can even be said that everything God wants to tell us on earth about himself, the meaning of life, the reason for our existence, how we should live, as well as our ultimate destiny, is contained somehow in the meaning of the human body and the call of male and female to become “one body” in marriage.

我們甚至可以這麼說：「在世上造物主願意對我們說明祂自己、生命的意義、我們存在的原因、我們應當如何生活、以及我們最終的目標，在某種角度蘊含於人體的意義及男女在婚姻中『合為一體』的召喚。」

According to Pope John Paul II, by reflecting on the three levels of “experiencing” the body, sexuality, and marriage, we discover the very structure and deepest reality of human identity — we find our place in the cosmos and even penetrate the mystery of God. Hence the question of sexuality and marriage is not a peripheral issue. In fact, he says the call to “nuptial love” inscribed in our bodies is “the fundamental element of human existence in the world.”

依據教宗若望保錄，思考『身體，性，婚姻』這三個階段「經驗」，我們能發現人本身獨特的結構以及最深切的事實。我們能夠明白人在宇宙間地位，甚至洞悉造物主的奧秘。因此有關慾望與婚姻的癥結不只是表面的問題。教宗說:「事實上銘刻於我們身體內對『婚姻愛』的召喚，則是『人存在的基本要素』。」

But this body language can be full of deceit. Just as a handshake can hide an intention to murder, or a smile conceal hatred and indifference, the language of sex can disguise the sickly selfishness of using another person for one’s own pleasure or egotistic amusement instead of the total self-giving it should express.

不過這種身體語言也會充滿著欺詐，就如握手會隱含著笑裡藏刀的意向或一個微笑隱藏恨意與漠不關心，『性』這語言也會偽裝成病態而自私地利用他人達到自我滿足或享樂，取代所應表達的完全『自我犧牲』。

This is the evil of contraception – the castrated expression of love, the incomplete fulfillment of the creativity of the human body, the conversion of this image of the divine into a mere sex object, a piece of merchandise sold to the lusts of men.

這就是避孕的邪惡，阻礙了真正愛的表達，無法實踐人體的創造力，將神聖的意向轉變成洩慾的工具，售予情慾薰心者的商品。

Mature men and women can gaze at an artistic representation of the human body in its naked purity. After all true art seeks to communicate the unchanging qualities of beauty. The great masters succeed in reaching these universals and with unequalled fluency, proclaim them to the world.

成熟的男女能夠以完全純潔的眼光，凝視著為表現藝術的裸體人像，畢竟真正藝術為傳遞不變的美麗本質。偉大的藝術家成功地達到了這些一般特性且以精鍊而流暢的手法，將它們公諸於世。

The works of Michelangelo express the balance, harmony and serene possession of unmerited talent that we find most attractive in a thing or person of beauty. They move us to contemplation, to an acceptance — usually unaware — that beauty itself is beyond us and we have each received uneven portions of this gift.

米開蘭基羅的作品表達了平衡、和諧，以及沈穩地擁有了這非凡的天賦；使我們發現一件事或人的美麗，最吸引人的部分，使我們能冥思、能接受—通常是不知不覺地—美麗本身是超越我們的，而我們或多或少的領受了這項天份。

It is easy to see how pornography naively posing as art incites us not to contemplation, but to possession. It dissipates our sensuality and imprisons our creative impulses within ourselves, preventing us from totally expressing them in our work, in total self-giving to another person or in art. Pornography is the killer of creativity.

顯而易見地色情書刊，如何天真地以藝術的姿態煽惑了我們，而不加以深思，卻將其據為己有。它驅散了我們的感官享受；且壓抑了我們內在創造的衝動，阻礙了我們在工作中完全地，充分地將自我奉獻給他人或在藝術上的表達它們。色情書刊才真正抹煞了創意。

Creativity reaches back to the original integrity of our body and soul, when unhindered by its materiality, our body obeyed the commands of our soul and in so doing opened before us the unlimited creative possibilities of our nature — a nature that is an image of the creator.

當我們未受創意力的物質本性所阻礙時，它拾回我們了身體和靈魂的合一，我們的肉體聽從了靈魂的指揮，開啟了我們本性無限創造的可能性—這本性就是創造者的肖像。

We lament the breakdown of marriages and the ensuing corruption of our societies. In our search for solutions, we fail to recognize that the answer may lie in acknowledging the divine embodied in ourselves. This theology of the body may just be the renaissance our times so badly need.

我們為婚姻的破裂及我們處身的社會；接踵而來的腐敗而悲痛，當我們遍尋解決之道時，我們未能明認答案就是要瞭解這是上天予人的恩賜；這方面的「人體神學」卻是我們這一代迫切需要提倡的「文藝復興」。

劉力樹先生是台灣英文新聞 (Taiwan News) 的特刊主編，暨中華民國文化教育交流協進會的執行長。