Baron Pierre de Coubertin， founder of the modern Olympics， was a French aristocrat with an enormous waxed mustache that hung on his face like a rogue accent mark. In 1914， the baron announced that he had designed a symbol for the 20th anniversary of the Games. “This， truly， is an international emblem， ” he wrote of the five rings， linked together to suggest the unity of humankind. But where did the baron get his idea for the design? In 1984， a sports historian named Robert Barney was exploring a Greek archaeological site when he leaned over to tie his shoe and noticed a symbol etched into a weather-beaten stone: five linked rings. His heart fluttered. As it happened， Barney specialized in the history of the Olympics， and he believed that he had just stumbled across a breakthrough: Had Baron Coubertin — decades before — seen this same etching? Had it been his inspiration?

皮埃爾·德·顧拜旦男爵(Baron Pierre de Coubertin)是現代奧林匹克運動會的創(chuàng)始人。他是一位法國貴族，臉上留著濃密的、好像上過蠟似的小胡子，看起來像是個重音符號。1914年，這位男爵宣布他為紀念現代奧林匹克運動會20周年設計了一個標志?！斑@真的可以稱得上是一個國際性的標志，”他描述說，這個標志以五個圓環(huán)為素材，相套連成一體，象征著人類團結。那么，男爵的靈感是從哪里獲得的呢？

1984年，體育歷史學家羅伯特·巴尼(Robert Barney)正在勘察一處希臘考古遺跡，當他俯身系鞋帶時，注意到一塊已經風化的石頭上蝕刻著五個相連的圓環(huán)。這個發(fā)現讓他的心臟砰砰直跳。巴尼專門研究奧林匹克運動史，他相信自己剛剛無意間發(fā)現了一個突破點：幾十年前，顧拜旦是否也見過同樣的圖案？是否就是它帶給他靈感？

Actually， it had not. The “ancient” carving， which fooled historians before， turned out to be a relic of Nazi filmmakers. When Leni Riefenstahl passed through Greece to document the torch ceremony for the 1936 Olympic Games， she stage-crafted a mythic backdrop. Someone — perhaps a set designer — hacked that stone into an ersatz relic of antiquity. It was pure Goebbels-style kitsch: the Nazis would have liked us to believe that the Olympic symbol emerged from the mists of Delphi.

事實并非如此。這塊糊弄了歷史學家的“古老的”石刻，實際上是位納粹制片人留下的。當年雷妮·瑞芬舒丹(Leni Riefenstahl)要錄制1936年的奧林匹克運動會火炬儀式，中途路過希臘，她在這里搭建了一個神秘的舞臺背景。有人——也許是個布景設計師，雕刻了這塊石頭，來冒充古跡。這塊石頭純粹是戈培爾式的玩意兒。納粹本打算迷惑我們，讓我們以為奧運五環(huán)標志起源于希臘古城特爾斐(Delphi)。

In fact， the design simply burst forth from the imagination of a baron with effulgent facial hair. Baron Coubertin believed in sport as a kind of religion “with its own church， dogmas and ritual. ” And when he cast about for a logo， he may have been inspired by — of all things — an advertisement for Dunlop tires. The baron had been perusing a magazine illustrated with five bicycle tires at around the same time that he invented his design， according to the historian Karl Lennantz.

事實上，五環(huán)設計是留著考究胡子的顧拜旦男爵靈光一現的想法。顧拜旦相信體育是一種“有著它自己的教堂、信條和儀式的信仰。”據歷史學家卡爾·里南茲(Karl Lennantz)介紹說，在顧拜旦考慮設計標志時，最有可能帶給他啟發(fā)的，應該是當時的一則鄧祿普(Dunlop)輪胎廣告。

The Olympic rings were inaugurated in June 1914， the same month that a bullet felled an archduke and sent the world tumbling into war. It has since become one of the most-recognized logos in the world and a symbol for peace.

奧運五環(huán)誕生于1914年6月，同月一位皇位繼承人被槍殺（指奧匈帝國皇位繼承人斐迪南——譯注），世界就此卷入戰(zhàn)爭中。此后，奧運五環(huán)成了全世界辨識度最高的標志之一，也成為和平的象征。?