CULTURE

Ahoy there, mateys, welcome to the Stone Skull island! Here, all yer dreams and wishes can come true, though ye must forfeit yer gold, yer soul an’ yer travel sickness tablets. Argh, here be vomit on me trainers!
嘿呀，小伙子们，欢迎来到石头骷髅岛！在这里，所有的梦想和远望都会实现，但代价是你必须舍弃你的黄金、灵魂还有你的晕车药瓶。噫呃，别吐在我的鞋子上！

Okay, I’m not a very good pirate. Sea-sickness, soft hands and burning hatred of seagulls make me a pretty sub-par Jack Tar . Turns out that the only good thing to come of this otherwise horrendous seafaring escapade was my tour of Stone Skull Island, a hub for multiplayer Minecraft servers. It’s beautiful, mystical and I can feel my soul slowly seeping out of my body every time I gaze foolishly into the hollow sockets of the skulls’ eyes.
好吧，其实我并不算是一个很棒的海盗。晕船，手软还有对海鸥的冲**火注定我会是一个相当差劲的水手。事实上，这次可怕的航海之旅唯一的一点慰藉就是将我带上了这座石头骷髅岛，这个岛是一个游戏的主城。它有着美丽又神秘的气质。每当我犯蠢深望着它那深邃的眼窝的时候，我都有一种灵魂被汲取的感觉。
It’s basically everything you’re looking for in a holiday island getaway.
这基本上就是岛屿上度假的一切必需品了。

You might look at this island and think that it must have been created by a malevolent force; a ghost captain still searching the seas for his sunken vessel, or a tortured kraken from the deeps, but you’d be wrong! This was made by the lovely ByMrCraft, a longtime Minecraft builder who first got into Minecraft through a school project.
当你看到这个岛的时候，你或许会去想着，这个岛大概是由什么邪恶之力创造的，比如说一个一直在海里搜寻沉船的幽灵船长，又或者是某个深海中的痛苦海怪。但你一定想错了，这个岛的作者是我们可爱的ByMrCraft，他是一位我的世界的老建筑师了，想当初是通过学校的项目入的这个坑。

“It was a project in which we had to recreate a Roman city,” ByMrCraft tells me. “We had to include all its most popular buildings. I loved building in the game because it was a way of expressing how I feel. It’s a way of doing what you want to do, and nobody can tell you where you have to place a block.”
“当初的那个项目要求我们重建一座罗马城，”ByMrCraft和我说到，“我们不得不将所有大受欢迎的建筑都加进去。我喜欢在游戏中建筑，因为这是一种表达我感受的方式。用这种方式，你想做什么就做什么，没有人会对你指手画脚要求在哪里放方块。”

Naturally, ByMrCraft kept on building. And this freeform building style allowed him to explore new ideas and different parts of his own imagination. “I had the idea of making a large structure, in which the main material used was stone, creating a dark environment,” ByMrCraft explains. “It just arose from my mind, a dark and tenebrous place.”
当然了，ByMrCraft一直致力于建筑，这样自由的建筑风格让他能够不断的探寻新点子，以及他想象力的其他部分。“我本想建造一个大型框架，主要用的是石头，营造一种黑暗的氛围，”ByMrCraft解释道。“它就这样在我的脑海中浮现，这样一个幽邃深暗的地方。”

While the build may make you think of ancient pirate myths and sinister seafaring tales, ByMrCraft’s inspirations were visual - pulling ideas from illustration and observation of the natural landscape. That was as important a part of the design as the buildings themselves: without the rocks, birds and trees, the architecture itself wouldn’t make sense, he says.
尽管这建筑会让你想起某些古老的海盗传说或者是凶恶的海上故事，但ByMrCraft的灵感来源其实是从眼睛来的——将思维沉浸于插图与自然景观的观察。这对设计建筑本身来说非常重要：没有石头与鸟树的建筑本身就是没有意义的，ByMrCraft说到。

The skulls were a late addition, an attempt to further differentiate the build and add an extra, immediately striking feature. “The same with the birds,” says ByMrCraft, “which were added to the finalised structure to give colour and create a more mysterious environment.”
而这些头骨则是之后添加进去的，目的是进一步的区分建筑并且创造夺目的点。“那些鸟也一样，”ByMrCraft这么说道，“它们在建筑的最终版本被加入，目的在于调整颜色并且创造一个更加神秘的氛围。”

Of course, being a multiplayer hub, loads of people can enjoy the island of madness simultaneously - an important consideration for ByMrCraft. “Most of my constructions are built for multiplayer mode, so others can enjoy them,” ByMrCraft tells me. “I think the aesthetics of a server is one of the most important things for the players to enjoy.”
当然啦，作为一个多人游戏大厅，很多人都能够共同观瞻这样一个疯狂的岛屿——ByMrCraft当时也将这点纳入了考虑之中。“我大多数建筑都是为了多人游戏而建的，就是让大家都能欣赏。”ByMrCraft和我说道。“我认为服务器的美观性是玩家享受游戏的最重要的要素之一。”

When it comes to building these places, he says, “I just need time and imagination. Neither I, nor anyone else, has any limitation when building in Minecraft. It’s so special, you can build anything you want, how you want.” This translates into his advice for newer builders, too; “Never try to copy something already done. Be yourself. Every builder has his or her own style of building, and his or her own way of doing things.”
说到建造这些建筑的时候，他说道：“我所需要的只是时间与想象力罢了。在这个游戏中，不仅我，每位玩家都可以放开手去创造，这很奇妙，你可以按照自己的想法与方式去建造任何东西。”这点也化为了他对新建筑师的建议：“永远不要去试着重现已完成的作品。做自己就好。每个建筑师都有着自己的建筑风格与方式。“

So get out there, builders! Go build me a special seagull-splatting cannon! Or, y’know, whatever you want I guess.
所以动手吧，建筑师们！来给我建一个特制海鸥发射大炮！或者，你懂的，随便建点什么吧。

If you want to see more of ByMrCraft’s builds you can do so over on his website, and keep an eye on his Twitter for updates on his future endeavours!
如果你想要看到更多的ByMrCraft的建筑，你可以去他的网站上看到，你也可以关注他的社交账号来持续关注！

【我 译自官网 2017 年 08 月 22 日发布的 Stone Skull Island；原作者 Emily Richardson】
【本文排版借助了：SPX】