背景介绍：
始建于1163年、1345年完工的巴黎圣母院是法国最具代表性的文物古迹之一，被联合国教科文组织列入世界遗产名录。但在2019年4月15日，这座历史建筑迎来又一次命运转折。一场突如其来的大火将屋顶和塔尖烧毁，所幸主体建筑得以保存。这场悲剧让法国人甚至全世界都甚为痛心。马克龙2019年表示，希望在五年内重建巴黎圣母院。如今，5年时间过去了，巴黎圣母院也终于迎来了涅槃重生之日。
After the fire
浴火重生
Against the
odds, Notre Dame cathedral will reopen this year
克服万难，巴黎圣母院将在今年重新开放
On an icy January morning,
perched
at a dizzying height of nearly 100
metres above the ground, specialist roofers are covering the rebuilt oak spire
of Notre Dame cathedral with layers of lead sheeting.
一月的一个清晨，天寒地冻。距离地面近100米的高处令人眩晕，专业屋顶工正在那里给巴黎圣母院重建中的橡木尖塔铺上一块块铅板。
Working on platforms reached by a
perilous
flight of narrow steps that cling to the soaring spire, they are putting the final touches on a 1,000-piece, solid-oak structure that will soon restore the cathedral’s familiar
silhouette
.
他们需要惊险地走过一段沿高耸尖塔向上的狭窄扶梯，才能到达各自工作的平台。他们是在对一个由1000块实心橡木组成的结构做最后的修饰。这座大教堂往日的轮廓将很快重现在世人面前。
Designed in 1859 by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, an
architect, and felled by the devastating fire of 2019, the new flèche remains
hidden behind dense scaffolding.
建筑师尤金维奥莱特-勒-杜克于1859年设计的巴黎圣母院尖塔毁于2019年的那场毁灭性大火，如今新的尖塔仍然被密实的脚手架遮挡着。
But five years after the world watched aghast as the gothic cathedral roof was devoured by flames, the project to rebuild Notre Dame is, astonishingly, on schedule. The cathedral doors are due to reopen in December. (Visitors for the Olympics, which Paris will host starting in late July, must wait to glimpse inside.)
但是，在世人目瞪口呆地看着大火吞噬这座哥特式大教堂屋顶的五年之后，人们惊讶地发现，巴黎圣母院的修复工程竟然在按时推进着。这座大教堂定于今年12月重新开放。（7月下旬前往巴黎观看奥运会的游客还得等一等才能一睹其内部风貌。）
The rebuilding of Notre Dame is one of the most complex
and ambitious reconstruction projects that France has ever undertaken on a
historic monument. Fire
engulfed
the entire wooden latticework that made up the medieval roof, before melting
its lead casing and toppling the spire.
巴黎圣母院的修复是法国有史以来对历史遗迹所做的最复杂、最具挑战性的修复工程之一。大火吞噬了这座中世纪教堂屋顶的木质框架，继而导致外面的铅皮熔化和尖塔坍塌。
The cathedral’s nave, choir and transepts were mostly untouched by flames, thanks to the craftsmanship of the 12th- and 13th-century stonemasons. So were the 8,000-tube great organ and stained-glass windows.
不过得益于12、13世纪石匠们的精湛技艺，大教堂的中殿、唱经堂和耳堂的大部分都未受损。有8000根音管的巨型管风琴和花窗也幸免于难。
However, molten lead and charred oak beams crashed
through the roof, spreading embers and lead particles. Religious artefacts,
paintings and sculptures had to be rescued and cleaned; the organ and 39 stained-glass
windows were
dismantled
and washed. It took two years to stabilise the cathedral’s stone structure.
然而，熔化的铅和烧焦的橡木横梁冲破了屋顶，余烬和铅粒四下散落。宗教器物、绘画和雕塑必须抢救和清理，管风琴和39扇花窗被拆下来清洗。加固大教堂的石质结构花费了两年时间。
When a grave-looking President Emmanuel Macron stood
outside Notre Dame on the night of the fire, he described it as “the epicentre
of our lives”. The cathedral would be rebuilt, he vowed, within five years.
火灾当晚，法国总统马克龙站在巴黎圣母院外面，表情凝重地说圣母院是“我们生活的中心”。他誓言将在五年内修复它。
That promise may have sounded “a bit mad”, concedes Philippe Jost, who runs the public body in charge of the reconstruction project. But, he adds, it gave everyone a clear objective.
负责修复工程的公共机构的负责人菲利普·约斯特承认，这个承诺听上去可能“有点疯狂”。但这给了所有人一个明确的目标，他补充道。
That the project is on track is also partly due to the
commanding style of General Jean-Louis Georgelin, who ran it like a military
operation until his death last August. A light management team, freed from
bureaucratic excess has helped, too.
修复工程能够按计划进行，一定程度上也要归功于让-路易·乔治林将军的严格领导——直到去年8月去世前，他都像指挥一项军事行动一样管理这个项目。一支没有繁冗官僚做派的精干的管理团队也很有助益。
Gifts from rich French industrialists—the Arnault, Bettencourt and Pinault families—as well as 340,000 smaller individual donations from around the world amounted to €846m ($921m). Unlike the usual French grands projets, this one is costing the public purse almost nothing.
除了来自世界各地的34万笔小额个人捐款，修复工程还收到了来自阿尔诺、贝当古和皮诺家族等富有的法国实业家的捐赠；全部捐款共计8.46亿欧元(约合9.21亿美元)。与法国一般的大型项目不同，这项修复工程几乎没有动用公共资金。
Today the cramped site on the Île de la Cité, an island
in the River Seine, is a veritable construction village, complete with a
canteen, shower block, offices and sculpture-restoration workshop.
如今，这块塞纳河中西堤岛上的狭窄场地俨然成了个建筑基地，里面配有一个食堂、一个淋浴区、多个办公室和一个雕塑修复车间。
Last summer the first eight triangular oak trusses, crafted for the new transept roof, arrived by river. Passers-by watched in awe as, one by one, each seven-tonne truss was hoisted by crane from a barge and lowered into place.
去年夏天，为新耳堂的屋顶精心制作的第一批八个三角形橡木桁架通过水运抵达。每个桁架重达七吨，起重机将它们逐个从驳船上吊起，再缓缓放落到位。路人心怀敬畏地目睹了这一过程。
The craftsmen working on the project are specialist
artisans, drawn from dozens of small firms from around France. Rather than
contract the rebuilding to one company, over 140 separate tenders were put out,
in order to support traditional craftsmanship.
参与修复工程的工匠都是各有专长的手艺人，来自法国各地几十家小公司。为寻求传统技艺，修复工程经过140多次招标，发包给了不同的公司，而不是只与一家公司签订合同。
The demands were unusually high: a decision was taken to restore the cathedral to its former splendour while remaining faithful both to its original designs and the construction techniques of the time.
各项要求异常之高——因为修复团队决定在恢复大教堂昔日辉煌的同时，还要忠于其初始设计和当时的建筑技艺。
The rebuilding of Notre Dame is both a test and a
showcase for France: of its ability to meet an ambitious deadline, to satisfy
the demanding global gaze of both secularists and spiritualists and to
flaunt
French
craftsmanship. Finishing in time is a matter of “French pride”, says Mr Jost.
巴黎圣母院的修复工程对于法国而言既是考验也是展示：要能在如此紧迫的最后期限前完成任务，经受住来自全世界的宗教或非宗教人士的严苛审视，并一展法国的精工细作。按期完工事关“法国人的自尊自豪”，约斯特表示。
perch
[pɜːrtʃ] n. 栖息处；栖木 v. 栖息；暂歇；坐落于
perilous
[ˈperələs] adj. 充满危险的；濒临灾难（或毁灭）的
silhouette
[ˌsɪluˈet] n. 剪影；轮廓
