For the roof above the medieval nave and choir, 1,200 oak logs were individually selected from forestry plantations in France and hewn by hand into square timber beams.
对于中世纪正厅和唱经楼上方的屋顶,1200根橡木原木从法国的林业种植园中单独挑选出来,并手工切割成方形木梁。
Craftsmen used hand-forged axes, based on late 12th- and early 13th-century models.
工匠们使用手工锻造的斧头,斧头以12世纪末和13世纪初的模型为基础。
On the curved apse roof, finished on January 12th, wooden dowel pegs hold the trusses together without a single industrial metal piece.
在1月12日完工的半圆小室的弧形屋顶上,木榫钉将桁架固定在一起,没有使用一个工业金属部件。
“The idea was to work with tools that are as close as possible to those used in the Middle Ages in order to give the wood the aspect of the time,” says Valentin Pontarollo, a carpenter from Ateliers Perrault, a firm in western France.
“我们的想法是使用尽可能接近中世纪的工具,从而让木头看起来更具历史感。”来自法国西部佩罗工作室的木匠瓦伦丁·庞塔罗洛说。
One of the joys this brought was that there was often “no machinery noise, just the sound of the axe”, he says.
他表示,这带来的乐趣之一是,经常“听不到机器噪音,只有斧头的声音”。
Inside the on-site restoration workshop, sculptors and stonemasons are also working by hand, with chisels and brushes.
在现场修复车间内,雕塑家和石匠也在用凿子和刷子进行手工修复。
On the floor stand some of the near-finished new stone chimeras, the grotesque and menacing beasts installed in the 19th century that look down from the cathedral facade and towers.
地板上立着一些即将完工的新石雕怪兽,这些怪异而恐怖的怪兽于19世纪安置在大教堂上,从正面和塔楼上向下俯瞰。
More than a dozen gargoyles, 80 fleurons, 70 small chimeras and more than 750 crockets (decorative stone hooks) are being entirely rebuilt, as are three cathedral gables.
十多只滴水兽、80块花卉图案、70只小怪兽和750多个卷叶型花饰(装饰性的石钩)正在全部被重建,还有三堵山墙也在被重筑。
At 96 metres above ground level, a new gilt-covered copper rooster tops the needle of the spire, hoisted into place by a crane in December.
在离地96米的地方,一只新的镀金铜公鸡立于尖塔的塔尖上,去年12月由起重机吊装到位。
It replaces the one that miraculously survived the fire, falling to the ground beneath one of the flying buttresses.
这个新公鸡取代了之前奇迹般地在大火中幸存的那个,原来的公鸡摔落到了一个拱形扶壁下的地面上。
(The original is on display at a museum.) )
(原来的公鸡现在在一家博物馆展出。)
Inevitably some modernists decry the project’s conservatism.
不可避免地,一些现代主义者谴责该项目的保守主义。
After the fire, various architects lobbied for an audacious contemporary flourish: a plate-glass spire or roof planted with vegetation.
火灾发生后,许多建筑师都在游说政府去采取大胆的当代华丽风格:尖塔上贴平板玻璃或屋顶上种满植物。
Notre Dame, after all, is an architectural hybrid, the product of different centuries, ransacked during the wars of religion and looted during the revolution.
毕竟,巴黎圣母院本身就是建筑风格的混合体,是不同世纪的产物,在宗教战争期间遭到洗劫,又在大革命期间被劫掠。
Viollet-le-Duc’s spire was added only in the 19th century, not long after Victor Hugo’s novel, “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”, revived respect for what was then an unloved gothic masterpiece.
维奥莱-勒-杜克设计的尖塔是在19世纪才增加的,在此不久之前维克多·雨果的小说《巴黎圣母院》才重新唤起了人们对这座大教堂的尊重,之前这座哥特式杰作并不受人们喜爱。
Today a public debate pits those who contest the authenticity of reconstruction against those who argue that authenticity is guaranteed by respect for the original, with its irregularities as well as its durability.
现在,有两派人士在公共辩论中争执不下,一派人士质疑重建后的圣母院是否还是原来真正的圣母院,另一派人士坚称,真实性是有保证的,重建工作会尊重原来的圣母院,会保留其非常规的风格和经久不衰的能力。
“This is not a monument like any other, and deserves not being distorted,” says Mr Jost: “We are restoring a cathedral that is 860 years old so that it can last for at least another 860 years.”
“这不是随随便便的历史古迹,不应该受到扭曲,”约斯特说,“这座大教堂有860年历史,我们现在修复它,就是为了让它至少还能再留存860年。”
Notre Dame’s overseers are trying to strike a balance.
巴黎圣母院项目的负责人正试图达到平衡。
The pristine, newly cleaned cathedral may take some visitors by surprise.
清扫干净后洁净如新的大教堂可能会让一些游客大吃一惊。
Inside the nave, where much of the scaffolding has come down, the freshly blond stone of the pillars and vaults, as it would have appeared in medieval times, is breathtaking—and a startling contrast to their previous darkened, partly pitted form.
在正厅内,大部分脚手架已经撤走,柱子和拱顶上新修复的金色石头看起来就像它在中世纪时一样,令人叹为观止,与石头之前被熏黑的、局部布满凹坑的样子形成了惊人的对比。
But the cathedral has not rejected modernity altogether.
但大教堂并没有完全拒绝现代性。
The Archbishop of Paris has chosen two contemporary French designers for the furniture.
巴黎大主教选择了两位法国当代设计师来设计家具。
Guillaume Bardet is making the liturgical furnishings, including the altar, with dark bronze, and Ionna Vautrin the new 1,500 solid-oak congregation seats, which will have slatted backs to suggest openness and light.
纪尧姆·巴德正在用深色青铜制作礼拜仪式用的家具(包括祭坛),伊奥娜·魏特林也正在打造由1500块结实橡木做成的会堂新座椅,椅子上有板条靠背,暗示着开阔和明亮。
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.
巴黎圣母院的重建既是对法国的考验,也是对法国能力的展示:法国有能力如期完成一个高要求的项目,能满足全世界教徒和非教徒的苛刻审视,并炫耀法国的精湛工艺。
Finishing in time is a matter of “French pride”, says Mr Jost.
约斯特表示,按时完工关系到“法国人的自豪感”。
For the artisans, completion will be poignant.
对于工匠们来说,完工将会让他们感到离别之痛。
Emile-Armand Benoit, an ornamental roofer on the cathedral’s highest point, says that they are working as quickly as possible so that the scaffolding can come down and the city “can once again see the spire reaching into the sky”.
大教堂最高点的装饰屋顶工人埃米尔-阿尔曼德·伯努瓦说,他们正在以最快的速度工作,以便脚手架可以拆掉,让巴黎“可以再次看到教堂的尖塔耸入云霄”。
Halfway down, the carpenters contemplate the newly finished roof.
进程过半的时候,木匠们凝视着刚刚完工的屋顶。
“It’s a bit heartbreaking to leave,” says Mr Pontarollo, “We’ll never have a project like this again.”
“离开有点令人心碎,”庞塔罗洛说,“我们再也不会有这样宏伟的项目了。”