旅行的藝術(shù):Ⅷ 對美的擁有-8

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羅斯金的語言描畫十分有力，因為他不僅描繪場景看上去像什么（“草是綠色的，大地是灰棕色的”），而且還用心理學的語言分析它們的力量（“草地很張揚，土地則怯生生的”）。他承認許多場景因為美麗而打動我們，但這并不是建立在美學標準基礎(chǔ)之上——因為色彩搭配協(xié)調(diào)或者事物之間呈現(xiàn)的比例和對稱，而是建立在心理學標準的基礎(chǔ)之上，因為它們體現(xiàn)了一種對于我們而言十分重要的價值或心境。

The effectiveness of Ruskin's word-painting derived from his method of not only describing what places looked like ('the grass was green, the earth grey-brown'), but also of analysing their effect on us in psychological language ('the grass seemed expansive , the earth timid '). He recognized that many places strike us as beautiful not on the basis of aesthetic criteria-because the colours match or there is symmetry and proportion-but on the basis of psychological criteria, because they embody a value or mood of importance to us.

在倫敦的一個早晨，羅斯金透過窗戶看到了一些積云。如果只是描述事實，可以說它們形成了一堵墻，幾乎全是白色的，其中有幾個缺口，使得一些陽光可以穿過。但羅斯金以更豐富的心理語言來看待他的對象：“真正的積云，是云中最宏偉的……是最不受風勢影響的；它的整體移動顯得沉重、連續(xù)不斷、無法說明，是一種穩(wěn)定的前進或是后退，似乎它們被一種內(nèi)在的意愿所驅(qū)動，或被一種看不見的力量所操縱?！?

One morning in London, he watched some cumulus clouds from his window. A factual description might have said that they formed a wall, almost completely white, with a few indentations allowing some sun through. But Ruskin approached his subject more psychologically: 'The true cumulus, the most majestic of clouds … is for the most part windless; the movements of its masses being solemn , continuous, inexplicable , a steady advance or retiring, as if they were animated by an inner will , or compelled by an unseen power ［my italics］.'

在阿爾卑斯山，他用類似的心理語言描繪松樹和巖石：“我無法不長時間懷著敬畏感，面對阿爾卑斯山的這一堵峭壁。抬頭仰望它的松樹，它們矗立在可望而不可即的險境，靜靜地站成一片，每一棵都像是它身邊的那一棵的影子——直立、牢固、不識彼此。你無法觸及到它們，無法對它們大喊——那些樹永遠聽不見人類的聲音；它們不可能聽到人類的聲音，耳邊只有風聲。沒有任何力量可以驚動它們，震落它們的葉子。這樣的站立是辛苦的，然而這樣鋼鐵般的意志，使得旁邊的巖石都甘拜下風，自嘆弗如——巖石與松樹相比顯得脆弱、無力，而且很不協(xié)調(diào)。松樹呈現(xiàn)出一種深沉的生命力，沉浸在高傲中，不以單調(diào)為苦。”

In the Alps, he described pine trees and rocks in similarly psychological terms: 'I can never stay long without awe under an Alpine cliff, looking up to its pines, as they stand on the inaccessible juts and perilous ledges of an enormous wall, in quiet multitudes, each like the shadow of the one beside it-upright, fixed, not knowing each other . You cannot reach them, cannot cry to them;-those trees never heard human voice; they are far above all sound but of the winds. No foot ever stirred fallen leaf of theirs. All comfortless they stand, yet with such iron will that the rock itself looks bent and shattered beside them-fragile, weak, inconsistent , compared to their dark energy of delicate life and monotony of enchanted pride.'

通過這樣的心理描述，我們似乎更加接近于一個問題的答案，這個問題就是為什么一個場景可以打動我們。我們更加接近了羅斯金式關(guān)于有意識地去理解我們所愛之物的目標。

Through such psychological descriptions, we seem to come closer to answering the question of why a place has stirred us. We come closer to the Rnskinian goal of consciously understanding what we have loved.