The Nanyang Arch is no old beauty languishing over never-to-be-found-again loves and conquests.
It is beautiful, and old, being born around the same time as me, hey, give and take a little, but while love comes and goes, arches, especially those commemorating and celebrating significance, go on forever, if only to dominate landscapes although not necessarily minds.
This is the sad fate of most monuments. After a while, especially after a long while, people forget. Yet monuments are built so that people don't.
Monuments supposedly capture for time immemorial the glory of some achievement, the pride and sometimes pathos of some event, but these are actually past, and as I read somewhere, the “past is a different country”。
This could be because what we value and monumentalise at that time might be different then from now.
Today, for example, we don't seem to need to set things down in stone. We might actually no longer value monuments themselves.
A scary reason could be that we have not had much to monumentalise. What monument would we build to online shopping or the 5Cs？
Monuments can also be named, but whether Ozymandias, or Nanyang Arch, if all we see is a lump of stone if we see at all, if no one remembers, or cares, then whatever its name, the monument would not speak, would trigger off no emotion, not even curiosity.
Names, though, are important to identify and isolate that golden moment in history, and it is to cement this history that the monument is given its proud name.
The splendour of the Arch, then, whether called Nanyang or some other, lies in its standing for the time that brought us to where we are now.
Of course, still having enviably well preserved “shoulders” also helps.
（The author is Asst. Prof., School of Computer Engineering, NTU. This article first appeared in NTU Staff Digest）
啊,宏偉的牌坊
阿琳。巴斯蒂森
南洋大學(xué)的牌坊并不像一位豐韻無存的遲暮美人那樣,在苦苦地等待著一去不再來的愛情和愛情俘虜。
南坊古老而美麗,我差不多在同一時間同它一起誕生,差不多啦。愛情有來有去,但牌坊（特別是那些紀(jì)念或慶祝重要事件的牌坊）卻永遠屹立在那里,大概是為了增添景色,而不一定是為了被人們所緬懷。
這就是大多數(shù)紀(jì)念碑的悲慘遭遇。時間流逝之后,特別是流逝得久遠久遠之后,人們就把它們忘掉了。然而樹立紀(jì)念碑,就是為了不讓人們忘卻。
紀(jì)念碑本來是用來紀(jì)念已經(jīng)過去的某種成就,某種自豪感,有時也用于表達對某種事件的傷感。但這些都已經(jīng)過去。我曾看過這樣的一句話：“往事如過眼煙云。”
這可能是因為,我們過去珍視和立碑紀(jì)念的事物或事件,現(xiàn)在或許已經(jīng)被看成昨日是而今日非。
比如說,我們現(xiàn)在認為,沒有必要用石頭來樹碑立傳。實際上,我們可能不再重視牌坊的作用。
一個可怕的理由可能是,我們不再有那么多值得立碑紀(jì)念的事情。難道要為網(wǎng)上購物或者五個C來樹碑立傳嗎？
牌坊盡可命名,但不管是叫奧茲曼迪亞斯,還是南洋牌坊,如果我們看到的只是一塊石頭,而且確實把它當(dāng)作是一塊石頭,如果沒有人記得它或愛護它,那么不管給它取什么名字,這個牌坊不會說話,也不會激發(fā)人們的情感,甚至也不會激發(fā)人們的好奇心。
盡管如此,名字仍然重要,可以證實歷的某個輝煌時刻。正是要記住這個歷史,人們才給牌坊取個驕傲的名字。
牌坊—不管叫南洋牌坊還是叫其他名字—的光輝在于它的名氣,即它把我們培育成才的名氣。
當(dāng)然啦,完好地保留這個令人羨慕的“肩膀”自然有用處。
。作者是南洋理工大學(xué)電腦工程學(xué)院的助理教授。英文原刊在《南大職員文摘》。
It is beautiful, and old, being born around the same time as me, hey, give and take a little, but while love comes and goes, arches, especially those commemorating and celebrating significance, go on forever, if only to dominate landscapes although not necessarily minds.
This is the sad fate of most monuments. After a while, especially after a long while, people forget. Yet monuments are built so that people don't.
Monuments supposedly capture for time immemorial the glory of some achievement, the pride and sometimes pathos of some event, but these are actually past, and as I read somewhere, the “past is a different country”。
This could be because what we value and monumentalise at that time might be different then from now.
Today, for example, we don't seem to need to set things down in stone. We might actually no longer value monuments themselves.
A scary reason could be that we have not had much to monumentalise. What monument would we build to online shopping or the 5Cs？
Monuments can also be named, but whether Ozymandias, or Nanyang Arch, if all we see is a lump of stone if we see at all, if no one remembers, or cares, then whatever its name, the monument would not speak, would trigger off no emotion, not even curiosity.
Names, though, are important to identify and isolate that golden moment in history, and it is to cement this history that the monument is given its proud name.
The splendour of the Arch, then, whether called Nanyang or some other, lies in its standing for the time that brought us to where we are now.
Of course, still having enviably well preserved “shoulders” also helps.
（The author is Asst. Prof., School of Computer Engineering, NTU. This article first appeared in NTU Staff Digest）
啊,宏偉的牌坊
阿琳。巴斯蒂森
南洋大學(xué)的牌坊并不像一位豐韻無存的遲暮美人那樣,在苦苦地等待著一去不再來的愛情和愛情俘虜。
南坊古老而美麗,我差不多在同一時間同它一起誕生,差不多啦。愛情有來有去,但牌坊（特別是那些紀(jì)念或慶祝重要事件的牌坊）卻永遠屹立在那里,大概是為了增添景色,而不一定是為了被人們所緬懷。
這就是大多數(shù)紀(jì)念碑的悲慘遭遇。時間流逝之后,特別是流逝得久遠久遠之后,人們就把它們忘掉了。然而樹立紀(jì)念碑,就是為了不讓人們忘卻。
紀(jì)念碑本來是用來紀(jì)念已經(jīng)過去的某種成就,某種自豪感,有時也用于表達對某種事件的傷感。但這些都已經(jīng)過去。我曾看過這樣的一句話：“往事如過眼煙云。”
這可能是因為,我們過去珍視和立碑紀(jì)念的事物或事件,現(xiàn)在或許已經(jīng)被看成昨日是而今日非。
比如說,我們現(xiàn)在認為,沒有必要用石頭來樹碑立傳。實際上,我們可能不再重視牌坊的作用。
一個可怕的理由可能是,我們不再有那么多值得立碑紀(jì)念的事情。難道要為網(wǎng)上購物或者五個C來樹碑立傳嗎？
牌坊盡可命名,但不管是叫奧茲曼迪亞斯,還是南洋牌坊,如果我們看到的只是一塊石頭,而且確實把它當(dāng)作是一塊石頭,如果沒有人記得它或愛護它,那么不管給它取什么名字,這個牌坊不會說話,也不會激發(fā)人們的情感,甚至也不會激發(fā)人們的好奇心。
盡管如此,名字仍然重要,可以證實歷的某個輝煌時刻。正是要記住這個歷史,人們才給牌坊取個驕傲的名字。
牌坊—不管叫南洋牌坊還是叫其他名字—的光輝在于它的名氣,即它把我們培育成才的名氣。
當(dāng)然啦,完好地保留這個令人羨慕的“肩膀”自然有用處。
。作者是南洋理工大學(xué)電腦工程學(xué)院的助理教授。英文原刊在《南大職員文摘》。