一梦终了后，梦境能带给我们什么？

In these strange times, many are reporting experiencing more vivid dreams than usual. 

在疫情特殊时期，许多人反映自己的梦境比平时更加丰富。

Dreams have fascinated philosophers and artists for centuries. They have been seen as divine messages, a way of unleashing creativity and, since the advent of psychoanalysis in the 19th Century, the key to understanding our unconscious. As so many of us have been experiencing unusually vivid dreams in recent weeks, it seems an opportune moment to explore the way in which they have been understood and depicted throughout the centuries. In doing so we may even find some intriguing parallels with our own experiences.

几个世纪以来，梦境一直吸引着哲学家和艺术家去探索。自从19世纪精神分析学诞生，梦就被视为神圣的信息，释放创造力的一种方式，以及了解潜意识的关键。最近几周，我们中的许多人一直经历着异常生动的梦境，而现在似乎就是探索几个世纪以来人们对梦境的理解和描绘方式的最佳时机。在这个过程中，我们甚至可能发现一些与我们自己的经历相似的有趣之处。

But why are we dreaming so vividly now? “We’re in a new situation so there’s new emotions to process,” says psychotherapist Philippa Perry, who was inundated with replies when she recently asked her followers to send her their dreams on Twitter. We make up narratives to make sense of those feelings that in dream manifest themselves “not straightforwardly but in metaphors”, she explains.

但是，为什么疫情期间我们的梦变得更生动了? “我们处在一个新的环境中，因此需要处理新的情绪。"心理治疗师菲利帕•佩里说，我们可以用描述梦境来理解梦中那些“不是直接地，而是通过隐喻”表现出来的情感。

Dream Vision (1525) by Albrecht Dürer is the first known depiction of an artist’s personal dream in Western art (Credit: Getty Images)

阿尔布雷特·丢勒的画作《梦的视觉》(1525)是西方艺术中已知的第一次对艺术家个人梦想的描绘(来源:Getty Images)

Perry says that although her training taught her there was no such thing as a dream dictionary, decades of practice have shown her that “certain objects usually stand for a certain thing”, and “if somebody dreams about water that is usually about feelings”.  To her, it sounds as if Dürer was “drowning in feelings”, and although of course she cannot be sure what those feelings were, “most of us, whether we admit it

佩里说，尽管科学告诉她根本没有所谓的“解梦书”，但几十年的实践告诉她，“梦中特定的事物通常代表特定的东西”，“如果有人梦到水，那通常和情绪有关”。对她来说，这听起来就像是丢勒“沉浸在感情中”，尽管她当然不能确定这些感情是什么，“不管我们承认与否，我们大多数人是害怕被湮灭和遗忘的，即使是在醒着的状态下也不易察觉这一点，”她说。

Perhaps it is unsurprising that many of the dreams Perry was sent on Twitter also involved people being engulfed with water, although the woman who dreamt she was surfing on a tsunami was clearly dealing with her emotions better than Dürer.

佩里在推特上发的很多梦都是关于一些人梦到被水吞没，这并不奇怪。不过，那位梦见自己在海啸中冲浪的女人显然比丢勒更善于处理自己的情绪。

Renaissance artists favoured biblical stories such as Jacob’s Dream, painted for a ceiling in the Vatican’s Palazzo Apostolico by Raphael in 1518 (Credit: Getty Images)

文艺复兴时期的艺术家们青睐以圣经故事为题材进行创作，比如拉斐尔1518年为梵蒂冈宫殿的天花板绘制的雅各【1】的梦境。(图片来源:Getty Images)。

【1】雅各，Jacob，以色列十二支派的先祖。《圣经·创世记》人物，根据圣经记载，为亚伯拉罕孙子，以撒儿子，又称以色列。

Dürer’s personal portrayal was, however, very much the exception. Although the Renaissance had stimulated interest in ancient philosophy’s study of dreams, this had to be reconciled with prevailing Christian ideology, which frowned upon pagan interpretations. Most paintings of dreams were biblical in nature.

然而，丢勒对个人梦境的绘画创作却是个例外。虽然文艺复兴激发了人们对古代哲学研究梦的兴趣，但他们的解释必须与当时盛行的基督教意识形态相一致，异教的解释是不被允许的。大多数关于梦的绘画本质上其实是圣经故事。

The dreams of Jacob – as well as those Joseph interpreted for the Pharaoh – were favourite subjects: Raphael painted them on to a ceiling in the Vatican’s Palazzo Apostolico in 1518. The vivid metaphors of the dreams are shown in spheres floating in the sky as if to emphasise that their comprehension was beyond mortal man.

雅各的梦境和约瑟【2】为法老解的那些梦是最受欢迎的主题。拉斐尔在1518年把它们画在梵蒂冈的阿波斯托里克宫的天花板上。梦的生动隐喻表现在漂浮在天空中的球体上，仿佛在强调他们的理解超越了凡人。

【2】约瑟（希伯来语 : יוֹסֵף）；（约前1767年－约前1657年）是雅各与拉结所生之子，因聪颖得其父偏爱而遭众弟兄嫉恨，众兄便将其卖掉，而后被带到埃及当奴隶。因给埃及法老释梦得到重用，被任为宰相。任职期间埃及仓满粮足。后因其故乡迦南遇饥荒，与前来埃及买粮的弟兄相认而和解，并接其父前往埃及。与其兄弟一起被视为以色列十二列祖之一。

Mythological themes, such as Lorenzo Lotto’s Sleeping Apollo and the Muses with Fame (1549)【3】, could, however, give artists licence to suggest the relationship between dream and inspiration. Apollo’s slumber appears to have given the muses free rein to throw off their clothes and frolic naked in the neighbouring meadow, suggesting the uninhibited creativity that sleep can unleash.

然而，神话主题，如洛伦佐·洛托的《睡眠阿波罗、缪斯和法玛》(1549年)，可以让艺术家们有理由提出梦和灵感之间的关系。沉睡的阿波罗似乎让诸女神们可以随心所欲地脱掉衣服，在附近的草地上一丝不挂地嬉戏。艺术家用这样的画面来表明睡眠可以释放出无拘无束的创造力。

【3】原文当中的画作名称有误，应该为Sleeping Apollo, Muses and Fama

The nightmarish contents of paintings by Hieronymus Bosch resonated with a far greater number of people. Their imagery was almost certainly understood not simply as the artist’s representations of paradise and hellfire, but as representations of admonitory nightmares that might be visited on sinners to warn them of what awaited them should they not repent. This is made explicit in The Vision of Tundale (c 1520-30) by a follower of Bosch, in which the sinful knight is seen hovering above his own nightmare vision of hell.

波希作品中噩梦般的内容引起了更多人的共鸣。几乎可以肯定的是，这些意象不仅被理解为艺术家对天堂和地狱之火的描绘，而且还被理解为一种警告，可能会降临在罪人身上的噩梦。警告着如果他们不忏悔，等待他们的将是什么。这一点在通代尔(1520-30年)的幻象【4】中由博世的一个追随者表现得很明显，在幻象中，这位罪恶的骑士被困在他自己的地狱梦境中。

【4】The Vision of Tundale是爱尔兰的骑士故事。故事的主人公骑士廷代尔（Tundale）陷入三天的假死状态，一位天使带领着他来到了天国和地狱。在他看到了地狱中可怕的惩罚之后，对自己做过的错事十分后悔。在这幅作品中，左下角是骑士和天使，画面中间描绘了有罪者的各种惩罚。

Grotesque depictions of heaven and hell were painted by Bosch and his followers – one of whom created The Vision of Tundale (c 1520-30) (Credit: Alamy)

博世和他的追随者描绘了天堂和地狱的怪诞景象，其中一人创作了《廷代尔的见闻》(1520-30)(资料来源:Alamy)。

Dreams as artistic subject matter largely fell out of favour in the rational era of the Enlightenment but the late 18th Century saw the creation of one of the most famous depictions – The Nightmare (1781) by Henry Fuseli. Without literary, biblical or art-historical precedent, it has continued to defy interpretation, although some see it as prefiguring Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytical theories.

作为艺术主题的梦境在启蒙运动的理性时代失去了人气，但到了18世纪晚期，亨利·福塞利【5】创作了最著名的画作之一——《噩梦》(1781)。这幅作品没有文学、圣经或艺术历史为创作背景，尽管有人认为这幅作品反映了西格蒙德·弗洛伊德的精神分析理论，但它仍然难以解释。

【5】福塞利（henry fuseli 1741-1825）：瑞士画家。1741年2月7日出生于苏黎世艺术家族，最初跟从父亲学艺，而后转向神学，又从神学转入研究文学，最后文学作品给了他艺术上的灵感

The Nightmare (1781) by Henry Fuseli is one of the most famous depictions of a dream – it continues to defy interpretation (Credit: Getty Images)

亨利·福塞利的《噩梦》（1781）是对梦最著名的描绘之一,它至今无法被人完全解读。（图片来源：华盖创意）

Perry doesn’t view the painting as a straightforward portrayal of nocturnal horrors. Instead, she sees in the defenceless pose of the woman, the horse’s unhealthy interest in her crotch, and the pose of the gremlin – which might suggest he is about to defecate on her – a “degradation of woman wet dream that many a man might have”. Or, she adds, “a woman… our dreams and our sex fantasies are rarely politically correct, whatever gender we are.”

佩里并不认为这幅画直接描绘了夜间的恐怖。相反，她看到了女人毫无防备的姿势，马对她的胯部不洁的欲望，还有小精灵的姿势——他可能要在她身上大便——这是“许多男人可能会有的关于女人的堕落春梦”。或者，她补充道，“一个女人……我们的梦想和性幻想很少是政治正确的，无论我们是什么性别。”

The Eye, like a Strange Balloon, Mounts toward Infinity (1882) by Redon made an impact on the Surrealists (Credit: Getty Images)

眼睛，就像一个奇怪的气球，朝着无尽的远方飞去，雷登对超现实主义者产生了影响（图片来源：华盖创意）

It was the Symbolists who returned dreams to the forefront of artistic expression. For artists such as Gustave Moreau and Odilon Redon, dreams were a method of deciphering reality and the mysteries of existence. Redon’s The Eye Like a Strange Balloon Mounts Towards Infinity (1882), in which a hot air balloon in the form of an eye appears to be lifting a man’s head into the clouds, suggests the often incongruous imagery of dreams. It comes as no surprise that the movement had an impact on the Surrealists.

正是象征主义者将梦境重新带回了艺术表达的最前沿。对于居斯塔夫·莫罗【6】和奥迪隆·雷东【7】等艺术家来说，梦是一种解密现实和存在之谜的方法。《雷敦的眼睛》(1882)中，一只眼睛形状的热气球似乎在把一个人的头托举到云里，这暗示了梦境中的意象通常是不协调的。毫无疑问，这场运动对超现实主义者产生了影响。

【6】Gustave Moreau，1826年4月6日-1898年4月18日），法国象征主义画家。生于巴黎，死于巴黎。莫罗的绘画主要从基督教传说和神话故事中取材。正是出于这个原因，莫罗的绘画作品中往往包含着文学要素，因此莫罗往往被同时代的象征主义作家和艺术家尊为先驱。

【7】奥迪隆·雷东(Odilon Redon,1840--1916)法国画家，生于波尔多，19世纪末象征主义画派的领军人物。雷东在美学上主张发挥想象而不依靠视觉印象。法国作家于斯曼称雷东的画是"病和狂的梦幻曲"。

The Surrealists saw dreams as a means of unleashing uninhibited creative expression

Surrealism’s primary inspiration came from Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams. According to Freud, dreams are an expression of wish fulfilment distorted by self-censorship into imagery that makes no sense to the dreamer upon waking. By unlocking their hidden meaning, he believed that psychoanalysis could cure patients of whatever was afflicting them.

超现实主义者将梦视为一种释放，一种不受约束的创造性表达方式,超现实主义的主要灵感来源于弗洛伊德的《梦的解析》。根据弗洛伊德的理论，梦是一种愿望实现的表达，被自省扭曲成梦者醒来时便毫无意义的想象。他相信，通过解开梦境隐藏的意义，精神分析可以治愈任何折磨病人的痛苦。

However, where Freud saw dreams as something to be deciphered in order to cure, the Surrealists saw them as a means of unleashing uninhibited creative expression; a reaction against the bourgeois culture of Europe they had come to loathe in the aftermath of World War One.

然而，弗洛伊德认为梦是一种需要破译才能治愈痛苦的东西，超现实主义者却将梦视为释放无拘束的创造性表达的一种手段，这是他们在第一次世界大战后开始反抗欧洲资产阶级文化的一种表现。

In Surrealist art, the dreamer is not usually depicted. Instead the viewer is directly confronted with the inner workings of the dream. In Giorgio de Chirico’s anxiety laden dreamscapes or Max Ernst’s curious paintings, collages and multimedia works dreams take the form of puzzles that challenge the viewer’s perceptions of reality.

在超现实主义艺术中，梦者通常不被描绘出来。取而代之的是观赏者直面梦的内部运作。在乔治·德·奇里科充满焦虑的梦境或马克斯·恩斯特充满好奇的绘画作品中，梦境以谜题的形式出现，挑战观众对现实的感知。

Surrealist dream paintings, such as Metamorphosis of Narcissus (1937) by Salvador Dalí, depict the inner workings of a dream (Credit: Alamy)

超现实主义梦境画作，例如萨尔瓦多·达利的《水仙的变形》（1937），描绘了梦境在脑内的运作模式（来源：Alamy）

Freud, it has to be said, was bewildered by their ideas, although he did slightly change his tune when he met Salvador Dalí in 1938. Dalí had brought with him his painting Metamorphosis of Narcissus (1937), in which the form of Narcissus gazing into a pool is duplicated by a finger and thumb clutching a cracked egg from which a Narcissus flower appears. Previously Freud had seen the Surrealists as “absolute (let us say 95%, like alcohol), cranks” – but Dalí, with his “undeniable technical mastery”, made him reconsider his opinion.

不得不说，弗洛伊德对他们的想法感到困惑，尽管他在1938年遇到萨尔瓦多·达利时确实稍微改变了论调。达利带来了他的画作《水仙花的变形》（1937年），画中水仙花（自恋的少年那喀索斯）凝视水池，一个其它手指和拇指抓着一个破裂的鸡蛋，水仙花就从中出现。以前弗洛伊德认为超现实主义者是“绝对的（可以说是95%，像酒精一样），古怪的”，但是达利以他“无可否认的技术高超”使他重新考虑他的观点。

Perry herself explored the Surrealist approach to dreams when she made the BBC Four documentary How to be a Surrealist with Philippa Perry in 2017. Like them, she set up a Bureau of Surrealist Research and asked the public to tell her their dreams before asking them to draw them. “What is so moving is what they got from it when they relived their dreams,” she says.

2017年佩里制作BBC四集纪录片《如何成为一个超现实主义者》时，自己探索出了以超现实主义了解梦境方法。就像前面提到的艺术家们一样，她设立了一个超现实主义研究所，并要求公众先告诉她梦境的内容，再画下来。“很触动人的一点是，当他们重温梦境时，从中获得了什么，”佩里说。

With patients, Perry generally uses Gestalt therapy, pioneered by the German psychiatrist Fritz Perls, which involves retelling your dreams to yourself from the point of view of all the objects in the dream. The idea is that everything in your dream is a part of you, so you’ll know what they’re going to say and will thus gain a better understanding of yourself.

对于病人，佩里通常使用由德国精神病学家弗里茨·珀尔斯首创的格式塔疗法，其内容包括从梦中出现的事物的角度出发，向自己复述梦境。其想法是，你梦中的一切都是你的一部分，所以你知道他们会说什么，因此你能更好的了解自己。

In our current situation Perry thinks multiple approaches will have benefit. “Draw your dreams; write the dreams down. All these things help you process the emotion and the feeling in the dream. You take ownership and therefore you take control,” she says.

在目前的情况下，佩里认为许多方法都是有效的。“画出梦境，写下梦境。所有的这些都有助于你处理梦中的情感和情绪。你掌握了所有权，因此掌握了控制权，”佩里说。

And, who knows, in the process we might unleash our own, hitherto unknown, creativity.

而且，谁知道在这个过程中，我们有没有可能会突然释放出自己迄今未知的创造力，不是吗？