好英语网2021年度色彩：迎接隧道尽头的亮光
There is general agreement on very little in this world, save, perhaps, for one thing: This year has been a mess, and the next one cannot come fast enough.
在这个世界上，很少有事情能获得大家的一致同意，可能除了一件事：今年一团糟，等不及要进入下一年了。
So it should be a surprise to no one that the prognosticators at Pantone — those trend forecasters who scour the globe for months noting developments in clothing, cars, kitchens, coffee (the stuff that surrounds us) and translate it into a color they claim will be the dominant shade of the coming year — have chosen, as the color of the year for 2021 … two colors!
所以潘通(Pantone)的预测师将两种颜色选为2021年度颜色，也就不足为奇了。这些趋势预测员会在全球搜寻好几个月，关注服装、汽车、厨房、咖啡（等等我们身边的东西），将其转化为某种据称将是明年色彩主宰的颜色。
“亮丽黄”和“极致灰”是潘通选择的2021年度颜色。
Which does not represent indecisiveness, but a metaphor. Get ready for Ultimate Gray and Illuminating. Or, in normal-speak: the light at the end of the tunnel.
这一决定并不意味着这些预测师举棋不定，而是一种隐喻。准备好迎接极致灰(Ultimate Gray)和亮丽黄(Illuminating)。用直白的话说就是：隧道尽头的亮光。
After Living Coral in 2019 and Classic Blue in 2020, this may not be what anyone expected (that might have been “grim black”), but it might be what everyone needs.
在2019年的珊瑚橙(Living Coral)和2020年的经典蓝(Classic Blue)之后，这可能不是大家所期待的（期待的可能是“黯淡黑”），但这可能正是大家所需要的。
“No one color could get across the meaning of the moment,” Laurie Pressman, the vice president of the Pantone Color Institute, said on a call. “We all realized we cannot do this alone. We all have a deeper understanding of how we need each other and emotional support and hope.”
“没有一种颜色能传达这一时刻的意义，”潘通色彩研究所(Pantone Color Institute)副所长劳里·普莱斯曼(Laurie Pressman)在电话采访中说。“我们都意识到是，这一点是无法独立实现的。对于我们如何需要彼此，需要精神支持和希望，我们都有了更为深刻的理解。”
Hence, said Leatrice Eiseman, the executive director of the Pantone Color Institute, the decision to select “two independent colors really coming together.”
潘通色彩研究所执行董事执行董事莱亚特丽斯·艾斯曼(Leatrice Eiseman)说，因此，选择“两个独立颜色的”决定“就是这样形成的”。
No one ever pretended color theory was subtle. Besides, the choice does represent a step forward, of sorts.
没有人会假装颜色理论很隐晦。另外，这一选择确实代表了某种进步。
This is only the second time in the 22 years that Pantone has been choosing a color of the year that two colors have been selected. The first time was in 2015, when Rose Quartz and Serenity were chosen (which is to say, pink and blue for 2016). That year, the two shades were meant to blend into each other, reflecting the recognition of gender fluidity and social progress. But this year, the two shades are meant to stand on their own, as complementary tones, supporting each other.
这是22年来第二次潘通在选择年度颜色时选中两种颜色。第一次是在2015年，当时被选中的是蔷薇石英粉(Rose Quartz)和宁静蓝(Serenity)，也就是说2016年度颜色是粉色和蓝色。那一年，这两种颜色意在融入彼此，体现出对性别流动性和社会进步的认可。但今年，这两种颜色是要代表自己，作为互补，衬托彼此。
It is also the first time that a gray has earned the honor, and only the second time for a yellow. As it happens, both shades were added to the Pantone color wheel earlier this year, along with Period Red. Imagine if that one had won out.
这也是灰色首次获此殊荣，而黄色是第二次被选中。巧的是，两种颜色都是今年初和月经红(Period Red)一起被加入潘通色卡的。
Both Ms. Eiseman and Ms. Pressman said they did not start the process with a two-color result in mind, but they realized early on that the stakes around the choice of color for 2021 were very high and might demand a new approach.
艾斯曼和普莱斯曼都说，在开始选择年度颜色时，一开始并没有要最终选两个颜色，但他们在初期就意识到关于2021年度颜色的选择意义重大，可能需要一个新方式。
Not just because choosing a single anything to represent what’s next after a year of historic crisis could seem a fool’s errand. (Who knows what’s next?!) But because the question of consumption, which is intrinsically linked to Pantone’s choice, and its status as a marketing stunt, is itself fraught. Also because no one could move around as they had in the past to sleuth out what was happening in the color universe. Ms. Eiseman, for example, said she had not been on a plane since February.
这不只是因为在历史性灾难的一年过后，选择任何一个事物来代表来年都可能都会是徒劳。（谁知道之后会发生什么？！）也因为与潘通的选择息息相关的是消费，以及其作为一个营销事件的本身就是个问题。此外，没有人能像过去一样四处奔波，侦查颜色世界里的各种动态也是一个原因。比如，艾斯曼说她从2月开始就没有搭乘过飞机了。
Still, between the internet and the Pantone teams in almost 30 countries, the direction things were going was fairly certain by midsummer.
但在互联网和在大约30个国家的潘通团队的合作下，到了仲夏，年度颜色的选择便有了一个比较肯定的方向了。
The prognosticators began by acknowledging the shades of gray in which we have all been immersed. Indeed, of all the grays in the palette, Ultimate Gray is a determinedly neutral kind of gray. It is not the dark gray of gathering storm clouds or the dour gray of institutional sameness or the dim gray of skulking in the shadows or the soft, luxurious dove gray of Dior, but a more solid, granite-like gray. The kind of gray of wisdom (gray beards!) and intelligence (gray matter!) and construction.
预测师开始认可我们都沉浸其中的灰调。确实，在色卡上的所有灰色里，极致灰是一种明确的中性灰。它不是乌云滚滚的深灰，并非人们习以为常、千篇一律的单调灰，也不是隐匿在阴影里的黯淡灰，或是迪奥(Dior)的那种柔软、奢华的鸽子灰，而是一种更为坚实、花岗岩一般的灰色。是一种智慧之灰（灰色胡须！）和智力之灰（脑灰质！），还有建筑之灰。
“It’s a dependable gray,” Ms. Eiseman said.
“这是一种可靠之灰，”艾斯曼说。
One person’s dependable is another person’s depressing, however, which is where Illuminating comes in. It’s not the egg yolk-like yellow of Mimosa, the color of the year of 2009, nor an acidic or highlighter yellow, nor the “go into the light” yellow of the afterlife, or sci-fi adventure, but more of a sunshine, or smiley face, yellow.
然而，对某人来说的可靠之灰，对另一个人来说可能是抑郁之灰，这时候就需要亮丽黄了。它不像是2009年度颜色含羞草黄(Mimosa)那样是蛋黄色，也不是酸性黄或是荧光黄，也不是来世或科幻冒险里的那种“走向那束光”的黄色，而是一种阳光、笑脸黄。
Together, Ms. Eiseman said, “the color combination presses us forward.” It has been popping up everywhere, from Nike to the Marks & Spencer Pornstar Martini cans.
艾斯曼说，这两个颜色“组合在一起让我们前行”。从耐克(Nike)到玛莎百货(Marks and Spencer)的艳星马提尼酒罐子，它在各个地方都已经出现。
It would be easy to think that the whole “working together” aspect of the messaging includes a quasi-political subtext, as we come out of an administration marked by party standoffs, rather than compromise, but Ms. Pressman said that was not the point.
在我们即将结束一个充满政党对峙而非妥协的政府之时，人们很容易会认为该信息“齐心协力”的方面包括了某种准政治潜台词。但普莱斯曼说他们的意图并非如此。
“It’s about our minds resetting to what’s really important,” she said.
“它关乎于让我们的注意力回归真正重要的事物，”她说。
The choice is also, of course, about selling. Get ready for the “Get the color of the year look!” emails that inevitably ensue.
当然，这一选择也关乎于销售。准备好迎接肯定会接着来的“打造年度颜色造型吧！”的邮件吧。
Still, news of the coronavirus vaccine has reinforced Pantone’s selection. Even in the gray sameness of our current days, the future does look a whole lot brighter. Illuminated, even.
但新冠疫苗的新闻为潘通的选择提供了支持。即便是在我们目前千篇一律灰色的生活里，未来确实看起来要光明得多，甚至是亮丽的。