月亮与六便士【中英字幕】

The rogue, like the artistand perhaps the gentleman, belongs to no class. He is not embarrassed by thesans gene of the hobo, nor put out of countenance by the etiquette of theprince. But Mrs. Nichols belonged to the well-defined class, of late becomevocal, which is known as the lower-middle. Her father, in fact, was apoliceman. I am certain that he was an efficient one. I do not know what her holdwas on the Captain, but I do not think it was love. I never heard her speak,but it may be that in private she had a copious conversation. At any rate,Captain Nichols was frightened to death of her. Sometimes, sitting with me onthe terrace of the hotel, he would become conscious that she was walking in theroad outside. She did not call him; she gave no sign that she was aware of hisexistence; she merely walked up and down composedly. Then a strange uneasinesswould seize the Captain; he would look at his watch and sigh.

"Well, I must be off, " he said.

Neither wit nor whisky could detain him then. Yet he was aman who had faced undaunted hurricane and typhoon, and would not have hesitatedto fight a dozen unarmed niggers with nothing but a revolver to help him.Sometimes Mrs. Nichols would send her daughter, a pale-faced, sullen child ofseven, to the hotel.

"Mother wants you, " she said, in a whining tone.

"Very well, my dear, " said Captain Nichols.

He rose to his feet at once, and accompanied his daughteralong the road. I suppose it was a very pretty example of the triumph of spiritover matter, and so my digression has at least the advantage of a moral.

社会油子和艺术家或者绅士相同，是不属于哪一个阶级的；无业游民的粗野无礼既不会使他感到难堪，王公贵人的繁文缛节也不会叫他感到拘束。但是尼柯尔斯太太却出身于一个最近名声渐着的阶层，就是人们称之为中下层（这个名称叫得好！）的社会阶层。她的父亲是个警察，而且我敢说还非常精明能干。我不知道她为什么要抓住船长不放，我不相信是因为爱情。我从来没听她开口讲过话，也许同她丈夫单独在一起的时候她的话很多。不管怎么说，尼柯尔斯船长怕她怕得要死。有时候他同我坐在旅馆的露台上会突然意识到自己的老婆正在外面马路上走动，她从来不叫他，她好象根本不知道他在这里，只是安详自若地在街头踱来踱去。这时候船长就浑身不安起来；他看了看表，长叹一口气。

“唉，我该走了。”他说。

在这种时候，说笑话也好，喝威士忌也好，再也没有什么能把他留住了。要知道，尼柯尔斯船长本是个经十二级风暴也面不改色的人，只要有一把手枪，就是一打黑人上来，他也有胆量对付。有时尼柯尔斯太太也派他们的女儿，一个面色苍白、总是耷拉着脸的七岁孩子，到旅馆来。

“妈妈找你。”她带着哭音地说。

“好，好，亲爱的孩子。”尼柯尔斯船长说。

他马上站起身来，陪同女儿走回家去。我想这是精神战胜物质的一个极好的例证，所以我这段文章虽然写得走了题，却还是具有一些教训意义的。

I do not knowwhy Captain Nichols first left England. It was a matter upon which he was reticent,and with persons of his kind a direct question is never very discreet. Hehinted at undeserved misfortune, and there is no doubt that he looked uponhimself as the victim of injustice. My fancy played with the various forms offraud and violence, and I agreed with him sympathetically when he remarked thatthe authorities in the old country were so damned technical. But it was nice tosee that any unpleasantness he had endured in his native land had not impairedhis ardent patriotism. He frequently declared that England was the finestcountry in the world, sir, and he felt a lively superiority over Americans,Colonials, Dagos, Dutchmen, and Kanakas.

But I do notthink he was a happy man. He suffered from dyspepsia, and he might often beseen sucking a tablet of pepsin; in the morning his appetite was poor; but thisaffliction alone would hardly have impaired his spirits. He had a greater causeof discontent with life than this. Eight years before he had rashly married awife. There are men whom a merciful Providence has undoubtedly ordained to asingle life, but who from wilfulness or through circumstances they could notcope with have flown in the face of its decrees. There is no object moredeserving of pity than the married bachelor. Of such was Captain Nichols. I methis wife. She was a woman of twenty-eight, I should think, though of a typewhose age is always doubtful; for she cannot have looked different when she wastwenty, and at forty would look no older. She gave me an impression of extraordinarytightness. Her plain face with its narrow lips was tight, her skin wasstretched tightly over her bones, her smile was tight, her hair was tight, herclothes were tight, and the white drill she wore had all the effect of blackbombazine. I could not imagine why Captain Nichols had married her, and havingmarried her why he had not deserted her. Perhaps he had, often, and hismelancholy arose from the fact that he could never succeed. However far he wentand in howsoever secret a place he hid himself, I felt sure that Mrs. Nichols,inexorable as fate and remorseless as conscience, would presently rejoin him.He could as little escape her as the cause can escape the effect.

我不知道尼柯尔斯船长最初为什么要离开英国。这是一个他讳莫如深的话题；对于象他这样的人直接问这类事也是很不谨慎的。从他的话语里听得出来，他曾经受了不白之冤。毫无疑问，他把自己看作是执法不公的牺牲品。我的想象却总爱把他同某种诈骗或暴行联系起来。当他谈到英国当局执法过于机械时，我非常同情地表示同意。令人高兴的是，即使他在家乡有过什么不愉快的遭遇，他的爱国热情却并未因此受到任何损伤。他常对我说，英国是全世界最了不起的国家，他觉得自己比哪国人都优越得多，不管什么美国人、殖民地人、达哥人、荷兰人，或是卡纳加人，全不在他眼里。

然而我认为他生活得并不幸福。他长期患消化不良症，嘴里经常含着一片胃蛋白酶药片。每天上午他的胃口都不很好，但是如果只是这一病痛还不致于使他的精神受到伤害。他的生活还有一桩更大的不幸：八年以前他轻率地同一个女人结了婚。有一些男人，慈悲的天意注定叫他们终生作个单身汉，但是他们有的人由于任性，有的人由于拗不过环境，却违背了上帝的意旨。再没有谁比这种结了婚的单身汉更叫人可怜了。尼柯尔斯船长就是这样一个人。我看见过他的老婆；我想，她的年龄不过二十七八岁，但是她是那种永远让人摸不清究竟多大岁数的女人，这种人二十岁的时候不比现在样子年轻，到了四十岁也不会显得更老。她给我的印象是皮紧肉瘦，一张并不标致的面孔紧绷绷的，嘴唇只是薄薄的一条线，全身皮肤都紧包着骨头。她轻易不露笑容，头发紧贴在头上，衣服瘦瘦的，白斜纹料子看去活象是黑色的邦巴辛毛葛。我想象不出，为什么尼柯尔斯船长要同她结婚，既然结了婚为什么又不把她甩掉。也许他已经不止一次这样做过，他的悲哀就来源于哪次都没有成功。不论他跑多么远，不论他藏身多么隐秘，尼柯尔斯太太就象命运一样无可逃避，象良心一样毫无怜悯，马上就会来到他身边。他逃不脱她，就象有因必有果一样。

My friend'sappearance suggested that he was now in the same predicament, and I preparedmyself to cultivate an agreeable acquaintance. The society of beach-combersalways repays the small pains you need be at to enjoy it. They are easy ofapproach and affable in conversation. They seldom put on airs, and the offer ofa drink is a sure way to their hearts. You need no laborious steps to enterupon familiarity with them, and you can earn not only their confidence, buttheir gratitude, by turning an attentive ear to their discourse. They look uponconversation as the great pleasure of life, thereby proving the excellence oftheir civilisation, and for the most part they are entertaining talkers. Theextent of their experience is pleasantly balanced by the fertility of theirimagination. It cannot be said that they are without guile, but they have atolerant respect for the law, when the law is supported by strength. It ishazardous to play poker with them, but their ingenuity adds a peculiar excitementto the best game in the world. I came to know Captain Nichols very well beforeI left Tahiti, and I am the richer for his acquaintance. I do not consider thatthe cigars and whisky he consumed at my expense (he always refused cocktails,since he was practically a teetotaller), and the few dollars, borrowed with acivil air of conferring a favour upon me, that passed from my pocket to his,were in any way equivalent to the entertainment he afforded me. I remained hisdebtor. I should be sorry if my conscience, insisting on a rigid attention tothe matter in hand, forced me to dismiss him in a couple of lines. 从我这位朋友的仪表来看，今天他的境遇一点也不比那时好；我决定同他交个朋友。同这些在南海群岛的流浪汉相处，尽管得付出一点小代价，但总不会叫你吃亏的。这些人很容易接近，谈起话来很殷勤。他们很少摆架子，只要一杯水酒，就一定能把他们的心打动。要想同他们混熟，用不着走一段艰辛的路途，只要对他们的闲扯洗耳恭听，他们就不但对你非常信任，而且还会对你满怀感激。他们把谈话看做是生活的最大乐趣，用以证明自己出色的修养。这些人大多数谈话都很有风趣。他们的阅历很广，又善于运用丰富的想象力。不能说这些人没有某种程度的欺诈，但是他们对法律还是非常容忍，尽量遵守，只要法律有强大靠山的时候。同他们玩牌是件危险的勾当，但是他们那种头脑敏捷会使这一最有趣的游戏平添了极大的刺激。在我离开塔希提之前，已经同尼柯尔斯船长混得很熟了，我同他的这段交情只有使我的经验更加丰富。尽管我招待了他许多雪茄和威士忌（他从来不喝鸡尾酒，因为他实际上是个戒酒主义者），尽管他带着一副施恩于人的温文有礼的神气向我借钱，好几块银币从我的口袋转到了他的口袋里去，我还是觉得他让我享受到的乐趣大大超过了我付出的代价。自始至终他都是我的债主。如果我听从作者的良心，不肯走离本题，只用几行简单的文字就把尼柯尔斯打发掉，我会感到对不起他的。

Had not been inTahiti long before I met Captain Nichols. He came in one morning when I washaving breakfast on the terrace of the hotel and introduced himself. He hadheard that I was interested in Charles Strickland, and announced that he wascome to have a talk about him. They are as fond of gossip in Tahiti as in anEnglish village, and one or two enquiries I had made for pictures by Stricklandhad been quickly spread. I asked the stranger if he had breakfasted.

"Yes; Ihave my coffee early, " he answered, "but I don't mind having a dropof whisky. "

I called theChinese boy.

"You don'tthink it's too early?" said the Captain.

"You andyour liver must decide that between you, " I replied.

"I'mpractically a teetotaller, " he said, as he poured himself out a goodhalf-tumbler of Canadian Club.

When he smiledhe showed broken and discoloured teeth. He was a very lean man, of no more thanaverage height, with gray hair cut short and a stubbly gray moustache. He hadnot shaved for a couple of days. His face was deeply lined, burned brown bylong exposure to the sun, and he had a pair of small blue eyes which wereastonishingly shifty. They moved quickly, following my smallest gesture, andthey gave him the look of a very thorough rogue. But at the moment he was allheartiness and good-fellowship. He was dressed in a bedraggled suit of khaki,and his hands would have been all the better for a wash.

"I knewStrickland well, " he said, as he leaned back in his chair and lit thecigar I had offered him. "It's through me he came out to the islands."

"Where didyou meet him?" I asked.

"InMarseilles. "

"What wereyou doing there?"

He gave me aningratiating smile.

"Well, Iguess I was on the beach. "

我在塔希提没有待几天便见到了尼柯尔斯船长。一天早晨，我正在旅馆的露台上吃早饭，他走进来，作了自我介绍。他听说我对查理斯·斯特里克兰德感兴趣，便毛遂自荐，来找我谈谈思特里克兰德的事。塔希提的居民同英国乡下人一样，很喜欢聊天，我随便向一两个人打听了一下思特里克兰德的画儿，这消息很快就传到每个人的耳朵里去了。我问这位陌生的来客是否吃过早点。

“吃过了，我一起床就喝过咖啡了，”他回答说，“但是喝一口威士忌我并不反对。”

我把旅馆的中国侍者喊过来。

“你是不是认为现在喝酒太早了点？”船长说。

“这该由你同你自己的肝脏做出决定，”我回答说。

“我其实是个戒酒主义者，”他一边给自己斟了大半杯加拿大克拉伯牌威士忌，一边说。

尼柯尔斯船长笑的时候露出一口很不整齐的发黑的牙齿，他生得瘦小枯干，身材不到中等，花白的头发剪得很短，嘴上是乱扎扎的白胡子碴。尼柯尔斯船长已经有好几天没有刮脸了。他的脸上皱纹很深，因为长年暴露在阳光下，晒得黎黑。他生着一双小蓝眼睛，目光游移不定；随着我的手势，他的眼睛很快地转来转去，叫人一望而知是个社会上的老油子。但是这时候他对我却是一片热诚和真情实意。他身上穿的一套卡其衣裤邋里邋遢，两只手也早该好好洗一洗了。

“我同思特里克兰德很熟，”他说，他身体往椅子背上一靠，点上我递给他的雪茄烟。“他到这个地方来还是通过我的关系。”

“你最早是在什么地方遇到他的？”我问。

“马赛。”

“你在马赛做什么？”

他象要讨好我似地赔了个笑脸。

“呃，我当时没在船上，境遇很糟。”

Tahiti is alofty green island, with deep folds of a darker green, in which you divinesilent valleys; there is mystery in their sombre depths, down which murmur andplash cool streams, and you feel that in those umbrageous places life fromimmemorial times has been led according to immemorial ways. Even here issomething sad and terrible. But the impression is fleeting, and serves only togive a greater acuteness to the enjoyment of the moment. It is like the sadnesswhich you may see in the jester's eyes when a merry company is laughing at hissallies; his lips smile and his jokes are gayer because in the communion oflaughter he finds himself more intolerably alone. For Tahiti is smiling andfriendly; it is like a lovely woman graciously prodigal of her charm andbeauty; and nothing can be more conciliatory than the entrance into the harbourat Papeete. The schooners moored to the quay are trim and neat, the little townalong the bay is white and urbane, and the flamboyants, scarlet against theblue sky, flaunt their colour like a cry of passion. They are sensual with anunashamed violence that leaves you breathless. And the crowd that throngs thewharf as the steamer draws alongside is gay and debonair; it is a noisy,cheerful, gesticulating crowd. It is a sea of brown faces. You have animpression of coloured movement against the flaming blue of the sky. Everythingis done with a great deal of bustle, the unloading of the baggage, theexamination of the customs; and everyone seems to smile at you. It is very hot.The colour dazzles you.

塔希提却是另外一番景象，它是一个高耸海面的绿葱葱的岛屿，暗绿色的深褶使你猜到那是一条条寂静的峡谷。这些幽深的沟壑有一种神秘气氛，凄冷的溪流在它深处琤琤鸣溅，你会感到，在这些浓荫郁郁的地方，远自太古以来生活就一直按照古老的习俗绵绵不息地延续到现在。塔希提也存在着某些凄凉、可怖的东西。但这种印象并没有长久留在你的脑中，这只能使你更加敏锐地感到当前生活的欢乐。这就象一群兴高采烈的人在听一个小丑打浑，正在捧腹大笑时，会在小丑的眼睛里看到凄凉的眼神一样；小丑的嘴唇在微笑，他的笑话越来越滑稽，因为在他逗人发笑的时候他更加感到自己无法忍受的孤独。因为塔希提正在微笑，它一边微笑一边对你表现出无限的情谊，它象一个美丽的妇人，既娴雅又浪漫地向你展示她的全部美貌和魅力，特别是在船只刚刚进入帕皮提港口的时候，你简直感到心醉神驰。泊在码头边的双桅帆船每一艘都那么整齐、干净，海湾环抱着的这座小城洁白、文雅，而法国火焰式建筑物在蔚蓝的天空下却红得刺目，象激情的呼喊一般，极力炫示自己鲜艳的色彩。它们是肉感的，简直大胆到不顾廉耻的地步，叫你看了目瞪口呆。当轮船靠近码头时，蜂拥到岸边的人群兴高彩烈而又彬彬有礼。他们一片笑语喧哗，人人挥舞着手臂。从轮船上望去，这是一个棕色面孔的海洋。你会感到炎炎碧空下，色彩在炫目地旋转移动。不论从船上往下卸行李也好，海关检查也好，做任何事都伴随着大声喧闹，而每个人都象在向你微笑。天气非常热。绚烂的颜色耀得你睁不开眼睛。

I did notaltogether believe my eyes. The days that had passed since I left Wellingtonseemed extraordinary and unusual. Wellington is trim and neat and English; itreminds you of a seaport town on the South Coast. And for three days afterwardsthe sea was stormy. Gray clouds chased one another across the sky. Then thewind dropped, and the sea was calm and blue. The Pacific is more desolate thanother seas; its spaces seem more vast, and the most ordinary journey upon ithas somehow the feeling of an adventure. The air you breathe is an elixir whichprepares you for the unexpected. Nor is it vouchsafed to man in the flesh toknow aught that more nearly suggests the approach to the golden realms of fancythan the approach to Tahiti. Murea, the sister isle, comes into view in rockysplendour, rising from the desert sea mysteriously, like the unsubstantialfabric of a magic wand. With its jagged outline it is like a Monseratt of thePacific, and you may imagine that there Polynesian knights guard with strangerites mysteries unholy for men to know. The beauty of the island is unveiled asdiminishing distance shows you in distincter shape its lovely peaks, but itkeeps its secret as you sail by, and, darkly inviolable, seems to fold itselftogether in a stony, inaccessible grimness. It would not surprise you if, asyou came near seeking for an opening in the reef, it vanished suddenly fromyour view, and nothing met your gaze but the blue loneliness of the Pacific.

我不太敢相信自己的眼睛。自从离开威灵顿以后，日子似乎过得非常奇特。威灵顿整齐有序，富于英国风味，使人想到英国南岸的一座滨海城市。这以后我在海上航行了三天，波浪滔天，乌云在空中互相追逐。三天以后风停了，大海变得非常寂静，一片碧蓝。太平洋看来比别的海洋更加荒凉，烟波浩渺，即使在这个水域上作一次最普通的旅行也带有冒险意味。你吸到胸中的空气象是补身的甘香酒，叫你精神振奋，准备经历一些你从来未料到的事。但是你除了知道已经驶进塔希提，朦胧中感到走近一块黄金的国土外，它绝不向你泄露别的秘密。与塔希提构成姊妹岛的莫里阿岛进入你的视野，危崖高耸，绚烂壮丽，突然从茫茫的海水里神秘地一跃而出，象魔棍召唤出的一幅虚无飘渺的彩锦。莫里阿巉岩嶙峋，有如蒙特塞拉特岛①被移植到太平洋中。面对这幅景象，你会幻想波利尼西亚的武士正在那里进行奇特的宗教仪式，用以阻止世俗凡人了解某些秘密。当距离逐渐缩小，美丽的峰峦形状愈加真切时，莫里阿岛的美丽便完全呈现出来，但是在你的船只从它旁边驶过时，你会发现它仍然重门深锁，把自己闭合为一堆人们无法接近的阴森可怖的巨石，没有人能闯入它那幽森的奥秘中去。谁也不会感到惊奇：只要船只驶到近处，想在珊瑚礁寻觅一个入口，它就会突然从人们的视线里消失，映入你眼帘的仍是太平洋一片茫茫碧波。

①   蒙特塞拉特岛是英属西印度群岛中的一个岛屿。

I have saidalready that but for the hazard of a journey to Tahiti I should doubtless neverhave written this book. It is thither that after many wanderings CharlesStrickland came, and it is there that he painted the pictures on which his famemost securely rests. I suppose no artist achieves completely the realisation ofthe dream that obsesses him, and Strickland, harassed incessantly by hisstruggle with technique, managed, perhaps, less than others to express thevision that he saw with his mind's eye; but in Tahiti the circumstances werefavourable to him; he found in his surroundings the accidents necessary for hisinspiration to become effective, and his later pictures give at least asuggestion of what he sought. They offer the imagination something new andstrange. It is as though in this far country his spirit, that had wandereddisembodied, seeking a tenement, at last was able to clothe itself in flesh. Touse the hackneyed phrase, here he found himself.

It would seemthat my visit to this remote island should immediately revive my interest inStrickland, but the work I was engaged in occupied my attention to theexclusion of something that was irrelevant, and it was not till I had beenthere some days that I even remembered his connection with it. After all, I hadnot seen him for fifteen years, and it was nine since he died. But I think myarrival at Tahiti would have driven out of my head matters of much moreimmediate importance to me, and even after a week I found it not easy to ordermyself soberly. I remember that on my first morning I awoke early, and when Icame on to the terrace of the hotel no one was stirring. I wandered round tothe kitchen, but it was locked, and on a bench outside it a native boy wassleeping. There seemed no chance of breakfast for some time, so I sauntereddown to the water-front. The Chinamen were already busy in their shops. The skyhad still the pallor of dawn, and there was a ghostly silence on the lagoon.Ten miles away the island of Murea, like some high fastness of the Holy Grail,guarded its mystery.

我在前面已经说过，如果不是由于偶然的机缘到了塔希提，我是肯定不会写这本书的。查理斯·思特里克兰德经过多年浪迹最后流落到的地方正是塔希提；也正是在这里他创作出使他永远名垂画史的画幅。我认为哪个艺术家也不可能把昼夜萦绕在他心头的梦境全部付诸实现，思特里克兰德为掌握绘画的技巧，艰苦奋斗、日夜处于痛苦的煎熬里，但同其他画家比较起来，他表现自己幻想中图景的能力可能更差，只有到了塔希提以后，思特里克兰德才找到顺利的环境。在这里，他在自己周围处处可以看到为使自己的灵感开花结果不可或缺的事物，他晚年的图画至少告诉了我们他终生追寻的是什么，让我们的幻想走入一个新鲜的、奇异的境界。仿佛是，思特里克兰德的精神一直脱离了他的躯体到处漫游，到处寻找寄宿，最后，在这个遥远的土地上，终于进入了一个躯壳。用一句陈腐的话说，他在这里可谓“得其所哉”。

我一踏上这个偏远的岛屿，就应该立刻恢复对思特里克兰德的兴趣，这似乎是一件很自然的事；但事实是，我手头的工作却占据了我的全部精神，根本无暇顾及与此无关的事；直到在塔希提住了几天以后，我才想到这个地方同思特里克兰德的关系。我毕竟同他分手已经十五年了，他逝世也已有九年之久了。现在回想当时的情况，在我到塔希提之后，不论手头的事多么重要，我本来应该立刻把它抛诸脑后的；但事实却不是这样，甚至一周以后我仍然无法从冗杂的事务中脱身出来。我还记得头一天早上，我醒得很早。当我走到旅馆的露台上时，周围一点动静也没有。我围着厨房转了一圈，厨房的门还上着锁，门外一条长凳上，一个本地人，旅馆的一个侍者，睡得正酣，看来一时我还吃不上早饭。于是我漫步到滨海的街道上。侨居在这里的中国人已经在他们开的店铺里忙碌起来了。天空仍然呈现出黎明时分的苍白，环礁湖上笼罩着死一样的沉寂。十英里之外，莫里阿岛伫立在海面上，象是一座圣杯形状的巍峨要塞，深锁着自己的全部秘密。

I amdisappointed that I cannot report any extravagances in his opinions on the oldmasters. There is so much in his character which is strange that I feel itwould complete the picture if his views were outrageous. I feel the need toascribe to him fantastic theories about his predecessors, and it is with acertain sense of disillusion that I confess he thought about them pretty muchas does everybody else. I do not believe he knew El Greco. He had a great butsomewhat impatient admiration for Velasquez. Chardin delighted him, andRembrandt moved him to ecstasy. He described the impression that Rembrandt madeon him with a coarseness I cannot repeat. The only painter that interested himwho was at all unexpected was Brueghel the Elder. I knew very little about himat that time, and Strickland had no power to explain himself. I remember whathe said about him because it was so unsatisfactory.

"He's allright, " said Strickland. "I bet he found it hell to paint. "

When later, inVienna, I saw several of Peter Brueghel's pictures, I thought I understood whyhe had attracted Strickland's attention. Here, too, was a man with a vision ofthe world peculiar to himself. I made somewhat copious notes at the time,intending to write something about him, but I have lost them, and have now onlythe recollection of an emotion. He seemed to see his fellow-creaturesgrotesquely, and he was angry with them because they were grotesque; life was aconfusion of ridiculous, sordid happenings, a fit subject for laughter, and yetit made him sorrowful to laugh. Brueghel gave me the impression of a manstriving to express in one medium feelings more appropriate to expression inanother, and it may be that it was the obscure consciousness of this thatexcited Strickland's sympathy. Perhaps both were trying to put down in paintideas which were more suitable to literature.

Strickland atthis time must have been nearly forty-seven.

我感到很失望，不能写下他在评论一些老派画家时的谬论。他的性格既然如此怪异，如果他在品评绘画时也有一些奇谈怪论，我笔下的这个形象就更加完美了。我觉得我很需要叫他对过去的一些画家发表些荒诞的理论，但是我还是得讲老实话，他同一般人一样，对这些画家也是赞不绝口，这叫我非常失望。我看他根本不知道谁是埃尔·格列柯。他对委拉斯凯兹相当敬佩，尽管怀有某种厌烦不耐的情绪。他喜欢夏尔丹，伦勃朗则使他感到入迷。他给我讲伦勃朗的绘画给他的印象时，用的语言极其粗鄙，我在这里无法引述。谁也想不到他最喜爱的一位画家竟是老布鲁盖尔②。我当时对老布鲁盖尔不太了解，而思特里克兰德也没有能力表达自己。我之所以记得他对布鲁盖尔的评论是因为他这句话实在太词不达意了。

②彼得·布鲁盖尔（1522？—1569），佛兰德斯画家；其子扬·布鲁盖尔（1568—1625）亦为画家。

“他的画不错，”思特里克兰德说，“我敢说他发现画画儿是件受罪的事。”

后来我在维也纳看过彼得·布鲁盖尔的几幅画以后，我想我才懂得为什么这位画家引起了思特里克兰德的注意。这是另一个对世界怀着自己独特幻觉的画家。我当时作了大量笔记，准备将来写一本关于布鲁盖尔的书，但是这些材料后来都遗失了，留下来的只是一种感情的回忆。在布鲁盖尔的眼睛里，人们的形象似乎是怪诞的，他对人们这种怪诞的样子非常气愤；生活不过是一片混乱，充满了各种可笑的、龌龊的事情，它只能给人们提供笑料，但是他笑的时候却禁不住满心哀伤。布鲁盖尔给我的印象是，他想用一种手段努力表达只适合于另一种方式表达的感情，思特里克兰德之所以对他同情，说不定正是朦胧中意识到这一点。也许这两个人都在努力用绘画表现出更适合于通过文学表达的意念。

思特里克兰德这时大概已经四十七岁了。

A certainimportance attaches to the views on art of painters, and this is the naturalplace for me to set down what I know of Strickland's opinions of the greatartists of the past. I am afraid I have very little worth noting. Stricklandwas not a conversationalist, and he had no gift for putting what he had to sayin the striking phrase that the listener remembers. He had no wit. His humour,as will be seen if I have in any way succeeded in reproducing the manner of hisconversation, was sardonic. His repartee was rude. He made one laugh sometimesby speaking the truth, but this is a form of humour which gains its force onlyby its unusualness; it would cease to amuse if it were commonly practised.

Strickland wasnot, I should say, a man of great intelligence, and his views on painting wereby no means out of the ordinary. I never heard him speak of those whose workhad a certain analogy with his own -- of Cezanne, for instance, or of Van Gogh;and I doubt very much if he had ever seen their pictures. He was not greatlyinterested in the Impressionists. Their technique impressed him, but I fancythat he thought their attitude commonplace. When Stroeve was holding forth atlength on the excellence of Monet, he said: "I prefer Winterhalter. "But I dare say he said it to annoy, and if he did he certainly succeeded.

对于其他大师的绘画艺术看法如何，是一件相当重要的事；我在这里自然要记叙一下思特里克兰德对过去一些伟大艺术家的意见。我怕值得我写下的东西实在不多。思特里克兰德不善讲话，他根本不会把自己想要说的用精辟的言辞讲出来，给听的人留下较深的印象。他说话没有风趣。如果说我多少还成功地记录下他的一些话语，从中可以看出他的某些幽默感，这种幽默也主要表现为冷嘲热讽。他辩驳别人话的时候非常粗野，有时候由于直言不讳，会叫你发笑；但是这些话之所以让你觉得滑稽，只是因为他的话说得不多。如果他一开口就是这样的话，人们也就不觉得有什么好笑的了。

我应该说，思特里克兰德并不是一个智力超群的人，他对于绘画的见解也丝毫没有什么独到之处。我从来没有听他谈论过那些绘画风格与他类似的画家，例如塞尚，凡·高等人；我很怀疑他是否看过这些画家的作品。他对于印象派画家似乎不怎么感兴趣，这些人的技巧留给他一定的印象，但是我猜想他也许认为他们对待艺术的态度是平庸无奇的。有一次施特略夫正仔细评论莫奈的卓越艺术，思特里克兰德突然插口说：“我更喜欢温特尔哈尔特①。”我敢说他说这句是有意气一气施特略夫；如果他确实有这个意思，他算成功了。

①弗朗兹·伊可萨维尔·温特尔哈尔特（1805？— 1873），德国宫廷画家。

I think, even, he hated the inevitable partner in his debauchery. When he had regained command over himself, he shuddered at the sight of the woman he had enjoyed. His thoughts floated then serenely in the empyrean, and he felt towards her the horror that perhaps the painted butterfly, hovering about the flowers, feels to the filthy chrysalis from which it has triumphantly emerged. I suppose that art is a manifestation of the sexual instinct. It is the same emotion which is excited in the human heart by the sight of a lovely woman, the Bay of Naples under the yellow moon, and the Entombment of Titian. It is possible that Strickland hated the normal release of sex because it seemed to him brutal by comparison with the satisfaction of artistic creation. It seems strange even to myself, when I have described a man who was cruel, selfish, brutal and sensual, to say that he was a great idealist. The fact remains.

He lived more poorly than an artisan. He worked harder. He cared nothing for those things which with most people make life gracious and beautiful. He was indifferent to money. He cared nothing about fame. You cannot praise him because he resisted the temptation to make any of those compromises with the world which most of us yield to. He had no such temptation. It never entered his head that compromise was possible. He lived in Paris more lonely than an anchorite in the deserts of Thebes. He asked nothing his fellows except that they should leave him alone. He was single-hearted in his aim, and to pursue it he was willing to sacrifice not only himself -- many can do that -- but others. He had a vision.

Strickland was an odious man, but I still think he was a great one.

我想他甚至讨厌他在淫逸放纵中那必不可少的伴侣；在他重新控制住自己以后，看到那个他发泄情欲的女人，他甚至会不寒而栗。他的思想这时会平静地飘浮在九天之上，他对那个女人感到又嫌恶又可怕，也许那感觉就象一只翩翩飞舞于花丛中的蝴蝶，见到它胜利地蜕身出来的肮脏的蛹壳一样。我认为艺术也是性本能的一种流露。一个漂亮的女人、金黄的月亮照耀下的那不勒斯海湾，或者提香①的名画《墓穴》，在人们心里勾起的是同样的感情。很可能思特里克兰德讨厌通过性行为发泄自己的感情（这本来是很正常的），因为他觉得同通过艺术创造取得自我满足相比，这是粗野的。在我描写这样一个残忍、自私、粗野、肉欲的人时，竟把他写成是个精神境界极高的人，我自己也觉得奇怪。但是我认为这是事实。

①提香（1490—1576），意大利威尼斯派画家。

作为一个艺术家，他的生活比任何其他艺术家都更困苦。他工作得比其他艺术家也更艰苦。大多数人认为会把生活装点得更加优雅、美丽的那些东西，思特里克兰德是不屑一顾的。对于名和利他都无动于衷。我们大多数人受不住各种引诱，总要对世俗人情做一些让步；你却无法赞扬思特里克兰德抵拒得住这些诱惑，因为对他说来，这种诱惑是根本不存在的。他的脑子里从来没有想到要做任何妥协、让步。他住在巴黎，比住在底比斯沙漠里的隐士生活还要孤独。对于别的人他没有任何要求，只求人家别打扰他。他一心一意追求自己的目标，为了达到这个目的他不仅甘愿牺牲自己——这一点很多人还是能做到的——，而且就是牺牲别人也在所不惜。他自己有一个幻境。

思特里克兰德是个惹人嫌的人，但是尽管如此，我还是认为他是一个伟大的人。