Portals to Eden

This is matriculation season at American colleges and universities, which means that on many campuses, it is a season of gates—specifically, the ritual of passing through them (or posing in front of them) to celebrate the rich range of possibilities and relationships associated with the life of the mind.

这是美国学院和大学的入学季，这意味着在许多校园里，这是一个大门的季节——具体来说，这是穿过大门（或在大门前摆姿势）的仪式，以庆祝与心灵生活相关的丰富的可能性和关系。

The passage, crucially, is spatial as well as temporal.

至关重要的是，这段通道既是空间的，也是时间的。

Gates aren’t mere entrances and exits—neutral dividers between town and gown, street A and quad B.

大门不仅仅是入口和出口，而是城镇和长袍、A 街和 B 街之间的中立分隔线。

At their best, from Harvard’s Johnston Gate to the University of Chicago’s Cobb Gate to Berkeley’s Sather Gate, they’re extraordinary objects and stirring thresholds, charged with powerful meaning and leavened by campus lore.

从哈佛的约翰斯顿门到芝加哥大学的科布门再到伯克利的萨瑟门，它们在最好的状态下都是非凡的物体和激动人心的门槛，充满了强大的意义并受到校园传说的启发。

Many ungated European universities, like the Sorbonne in Paris, are interspersed with the business and busyness of city life.

许多没有大门的欧洲大学，如巴黎的索邦大学，都散布在城市生活的商业和忙碌中。

Other institutions, however, are tranquil refuges.

然而，其他机构却是宁静的避难所。

At Trinity College, Oxford, one enters through delicate iron gates flanked by muscular stone piers.

在牛津三一学院，人们通过精致的铁门进入，两侧是坚固的石墩。

Affording a view of the college’s lush lawns and picturesque buildings, Trinity’s Broad Street gates are at once an imposing portal and an inviting picture frame.

从三一学院的宽街大门可以看到学院郁郁葱葱的草坪和风景如画的建筑，它既是一个雄伟的门户，又是一个诱人的相框。

In the same vein, at Harvard, the formidable brick piers and lacy ironwork of Johnston Gate frame an enticing view of the Edenic precinct of Harvard Yard.

同样，在哈佛，约翰斯顿门的巨大砖墩和花边铁制品构成了哈佛庭院伊甸园区的迷人景色。

The broad outlines are similar enough to the Trinity portal to make you wonder whether it influenced the Harvard gate’s architect, Charles McKim of the celebrated McKim, Mead & White firm.

其大致轮廓与三一门户非常相似，让你怀疑它是否影响了哈佛大门的建筑师、著名的 McKim, Mead & White 公司的查尔斯·麦金 (Charles McKim)。

Almost all gates, of course, exist for practical reasons.

当然，几乎所有的门都是出于实际原因而存在的。

Railroads need them to prevent trains from colliding with vehicles and pedestrians.

铁路需要它们来防止火车与车辆和行人相撞。

Ranchers need them to keep livestock in.

牧场主需要它们来饲养牲畜。

The reverse was true at rural American institutions in the mid-19th century; some built utilitarian gates and fences to keep livestock out, lest roving cattle chew up campus lawns.

19 世纪中叶，美国乡村机构的情况恰恰相反。一些人建造了实用的大门和栅栏来防止牲畜进入，以免流浪的牛啃咬校园草坪。

Then, as America urbanized in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, city campuses may have sought to build gates to shield their placid, leafy quadrangles from screeching streetcars and other hurly-burly.

然后，随着美国在 19 世纪末和 20 世纪初的城市化，城市校园可能会寻求建造大门，以保护其平静、绿树成荫的四合院免受刺耳的有轨电车和其他喧嚣的影响。

But in all likelihood, there was more to it than that.

但很可能，事情的真相远不止于此。

The campuses themselves were being transformed from small, colonial-era colleges into huge, modern research institutions.

校园本身正在从殖民时代的小型学院转变为大型的现代化研究机构。

Their old borders—at Harvard, a simple post-and-rail fence—no longer expressed their identity and aspirations.

他们的旧边界——在哈佛，是一道简单的柱栅栏——不再表达他们的身份和愿望。

Campuses needed a new architectural declaration—not just monumental buildings within their boundaries, but impressive entryways at their edges.

校园需要一个新的建筑宣言——不仅是其边界内的纪念性建筑，而且是其边缘令人印象深刻的入口。

The impulse behind this shift dates back to the time of ancient walled cities, when gates, by virtue of their prominence, assumed heightened, symbolic significance.

这种转变背后的推动力可以追溯到古代城墙城市的时代，当时的城门因其突出的地位而具有更高的象征意义。

Consider that when Moses reiterated God’s commandments to the Israelites in Deuteronomy 6:6–9, he urged not only that the commandments be obeyed but also that they be put on public display: “Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.”

想一想，当摩西在申命记 6:6-9 中重申上帝对以色列人的诫命时，他不仅敦促人们遵守这些诫命，而且还要求将这些诫命公开展示：“把它们写在你们房屋的门框和大门上。”

McKim’s Johnston Gate, completed in 1889, did much to set the modern American template for such portals with its breathtaking composition of brick, stone, and wrought iron.

麦金 (McKim) 的约翰斯顿门 (Johnston Gate) 于 1889 年竣工，其由砖、石和锻铁组成的令人惊叹的组合，为此类门户树立了现代美国模板。

Like the tablets of the Ten Commandments, stone panels that adorn the gate’s brick piers express Harvard’s reverence for truth, evident in the three-book shield that spells out “VE-RI-TAS.” To enable the gate to fit in with nearby Massachusetts Hall, constructed nearly 170 years earlier in 1720, McKim chose overburnt bricks, called “culls,” whose varied colors and weathered textures made the new gate seem as old and authentic as its colonial-era neighbor.

就像十诫的石板一样，装饰大门砖墩的石板表达了哈佛对真理的崇敬，这在写着“VE-RI-TAS”的三本书盾牌中显而易见。为了使大门与附近建于近 170 年前的 1720 年的马萨诸塞州大厅 (Massachusetts Hall) 相协调，麦金选择了被称为“剔除砖”的过度烧制砖块，其不同的颜色和风化的纹理使新大门看起来像其殖民时代的邻居一样古老而真实。

This very American process—call it instant aging—accentuated the sense of authority.

这种非常美国化的过程——称之为瞬间衰老——强化了权威感。

Johnston Gate’s Georgian revival style and “Harvard brick” became the university’s design DNA.

约翰斯顿门的乔治亚复兴风格和“哈佛砖”成为了该大学的设计 DNA。

In the next quarter century, other major universities—among them Berkeley, Brown, Chicago, Columbia, Penn, and Princeton—built their own grand entrance gates.

在接下来的四分之一个世纪里，其他主要大学——其中包括伯克利大学、布朗大学、芝加哥大学、哥伦比亚大学、宾夕法尼亚大学和普林斯顿大学——建造了自己的宏伟大门。

Women’s colleges including Radcliffe, Smith, and Mount Holyoke joined the trend.

包括拉德克利夫学院、史密斯学院和曼荷莲学院在内的女子学院也加入了这一趋势。

A tune sung at the formerly all-male Amherst College may have referenced the portals at nearby Smith and Mount Holyoke with these romance-tinged lyrics: “First she gave me candy, / And then she gave me cake, / And then she gave me gingerbread, / For kissing her at the gate.”

在以前全男性的阿默斯特学院演唱的一首曲子可能参考了附近史密斯和曼荷莲学院的门户，其中带有浪漫色彩的歌词：“首先她给了我糖果，/然后她给了我蛋糕，/然后她给了我姜饼，/因为在门口亲吻了她。”

Designed by and named for architect Henry Ives Cobb, the University of Chicago’s Cobb Gate further reveals how such sentries have insinuated themselves into campus life and lore.

芝加哥大学的科布门由建筑师亨利·艾夫斯·科布设计并以他的名字命名，它进一步揭示了这些哨兵如何渗透到校园生活和传说中。

New students process through the Gothic revival structure to signify their entrance into the university community.

新生穿过哥特式复兴建筑，标志着他们进入大学社区。

Over the decades, as the architecture writer Jay Pridmore has observed, campus wits have assigned meanings to the mysterious stone figures that line the gate’s steep gable.

正如建筑作家杰伊·普里德莫尔（Jay Pridmore）所观察到的那样，几十年来，校园里的智者们为大门陡峭山墙上排列的神秘石像赋予了意义。

At the base are “dragon-like concoctions with long necks and predatory expressions” (admissions officers).

底部是“长着长脖子和掠夺性表情的龙状混合物”（招生官员）。

Then come grotesques climbing the gable with increasing confidence (first- , second- , and third-year students).

然后，怪诞的人们越来越自信地爬上山墙（一年级、二年级和三年级的学生）。

Finally, you see a large griffin at the top, “enjoying the position of a fourth-year upperclassman, basking briefly in his success before taking hypothetical flight.”

最后，你会在顶部看到一只巨大的狮鹫，“享受着四年级高年级生的地位，在假想的飞行之前短暂地享受着自己的成功。”

To this day, lighthearted mythology attends many campus portals.

直到今天，许多校园门户网站上仍然充斥着轻松愉快的神话故事。

After entering the main gate for the first time, such superstitions hold, a student should pass through again only after graduation.

学生第一次进入正门后，就有这样的迷信，只有毕业后才能再次通过。

To do otherwise is supposedly bad luck.

否则的话，据说会带来霉运。

Despite such froth, campus gates can occasion a genuinely toxic mix of anticipation and trepidation.

尽管有这样的泡沫，校园大门可能会引起真正有毒的期待和恐惧的混合。

(“I’m glad I made it through these gates, but when will everyone realize I’m an imposter?”) They’ve also turned into political battlegrounds.

（“我很高兴我能通过这些大门，但是什么时候每个人都会意识到我是一个冒名顶替者？”）它们也变成了政治战场。

Columbia shut its gates following pro-Palestinian demonstrations in 2023, and the following year, Harvard locked gates in response to a pro-Palestinian encampment.

哥伦比亚大学在 2023 年发生亲巴勒斯坦示威后关闭了校门，次年，哈佛大学因亲巴勒斯坦营地而锁门。

Also in 2024, demonstrators locked Chicago’s Cobb Gate and blocked Berkeley’s Sather Gate, long a site of picketing and protests.

同样是在 2024 年，示威者封锁了芝加哥的科布门，并封锁了伯克利的萨瑟门，这里长期以来一直是纠察和抗议的场所。

Such closures invariably divide opinion.

这种关闭总是会引起意见分歧。

On one hand, when an institution locks its gates, outsiders lose the opportunity to join students and protest on previously open university grounds.

一方面，当一所机构锁上大门时，外来者就失去了与学生一起在以前开放的大学场地上抗议的机会。

On the other hand, members of a university community who oppose or feel threatened by demonstrations might welcome such a closure.

另一方面，反对或感到受到示威威胁的大学社区成员可能会欢迎这样的关闭。

There are two sides to every gate controversy, which is fitting because, in Roman mythology, Janus was the two-faced god of doorways and ceremonial gateways.

每个门的争论都有两个方面，这是恰当的，因为在罗马神话中，雅努斯是掌管大门和仪式大门的双面神。

That many protestors chose gates as the platform for their views speaks to the symbolic power of these portals.

许多抗议者选择大门作为表达观点的平台，这说明了这些门户的象征力量。

Although gates typically occupy the campus edge and are diminutive compared with the massive university buildings to which they lead, they’re often central to a university’s identity.

虽然大门通常占据校园边缘，并且与它们通向的大型大学建筑相比很小，但它们往往是大学身份的核心。

At Penn’s Class of 1893 Memorial Gate, the iron arch proclaims, Inveniemus viam aut faciemus —“We will find a way or we shall make one.” The three columns of the Arch at the University of Georgia are said to represent the state motto of “Wisdom, Justice, Moderation.” Harvard’s Dexter Gate, built in 1901 as a mother’s memorial to a son who died of cerebrospinal meningitis only four years after his Harvard graduation, bears similar symbolic weight.

在宾夕法尼亚大学 1893 届毕业生纪念门上，铁拱门上写着“Inveniemus viaam aut faciemus”——“我们会找到一条路，否则我们就会创造一条路。”佐治亚大学拱门的三根圆柱据说代表着“智慧、正义、节制”的州训。哈佛大学的德克斯特门 (Dexter Gate) 建于 1901 年，是一位母亲为纪念一位儿子而建的，儿子在哈佛毕业仅四年后就因脑脊髓膜炎去世，也具有类似的象征意义。

Harvard President Charles William Eliot composed its noble, often-quoted, outward-facing inscription: “Enter to Grow in Wisdom.” The gate’s inward-facing inscription, however—“Depart to Serve Better Thy Country and Thy Kind”—reads like something from another time.

哈佛大学校长查尔斯·威廉·艾略特 (Charles William Eliot) 撰写了其崇高的、经常被引用的、面向外的题词：“进入智慧中成长”。然而，大门朝内的铭文——“出发去更好地服务你的国家和你的同类”——读起来就像来自另一个时代的东西。

It’s worth asking: Are gates anachronistic holdovers from a more formal, less egalitarian age?

值得一问的是：大门是否是一个更正式、更不平等的时代的不合时宜的遗留物？

A 2025 New York Times story about the Columbia shutdown suggested as much, asserting that the “gates were mere emblems of exclusivity and elitism, of the wealthy and powerful whose names adorn the university’s buildings.”

2025 年《纽约时报》一篇关于哥伦比亚大学停课的报道也表明了这一点，声称“大门只是排他性和精英主义的象征，是富有和有权势的人的象征，他们的名字装饰着大学的建筑。”

Recent campus construction suggests that there’s much more to gates than this two-dimensional, journalistic caricature would have it.

最近的校园建设表明，大门的意义远不止这张二维新闻漫画所描绘的那样。

Gates continue to resonate, though they are now often built without lockable, hinged doors and are valued more as symbolic passageways than as security-related protectors.

大门继续引起共鸣，尽管它们现在通常没有可上锁的铰链门，并且更多地被视为象征性的通道，而不是安全相关的保护装置。

Indiana University’s Sample Gates, dedicated in 1987, provide a setting for graduation photos and protests, not to mention a showcase for Indiana’s limestone industry.

印第安纳大学的样品门于 1987 年落成，为毕业照和抗议提供了场所，更不用说展示印第安纳州的石灰石工业了。

Similarly, Northwestern’s Weber Arch, completed in 1994, each fall hosts a rite of passage known as “March Through the Arch,” which features a marching band, cheering onlookers, and the campus mascot.

同样，西北大学的韦伯拱门于 1994 年竣工，每年秋天都会举办一场名为“穿过拱门游行”的仪式，其中包括游行乐队、欢呼的旁观者和校园吉祥物。

And at Harvard, a playful gate built in 2020 and inspired by beloved children’s books like The Tale of Peter Rabbit and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was designed to be left in the open position—more a bridge between town and gown than a barrier between them.

在哈佛，受《彼得兔故事》和《爱丽丝梦游仙境》等深受喜爱的儿童读物启发，于 2020 年建造的一扇俏皮的大门被设计为保持开放状态——更多的是一座城镇和礼服之间的桥梁，而不是它们之间的障碍。

Such examples remind us that campus gates can bring us together as well as separate us.

这些例子提醒我们，校园大门可以将我们聚集在一起，也可以将我们分开。

The finest display exemplary beauty, articulate an institution’s highest ideals, and endow otherwise undifferentiated space with a memorable framework for essential human transitions.

最优秀的作品展示了典范之美，阐明了机构的最高理想，并为原本没有差异的空间赋予了令人难忘的框架，以实现基本的人类转变。