before long, I would like to live in a small cottage in the Himalayas. There I will grow vegetables and read books and walk in the mountains- and perhaps write, but not in anger. I may grow old there, and wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled and measure out my life in coffee spoons. But l will be able to walk outside on a cold silent night and touch the moon.
以后,我打算住在喜馬拉雅山里的一間小農(nóng)舍,我要在那里種菜、看書、漫步山間,或許寫點(diǎn)東西,但不是在生氣的情況下。我會(huì)在那里變老,卷著褲管,伴著咖啡度過余生。但在寒冷的靜夜,我會(huì)走出屋子,走近月亮。
Nature contains the elements, in colour and form, of all pictures, as the keyboard contains the notes of all music.
But the artist is born to pick, and choose, and group with science, these elements, that the result may be beautiful—as the musician gathers his notes, and forms his chords, until he brings forth from chaos glorious harmony.
To say to the painter, that Nature is to be taken as she is, is to say to the player, that he may sit on the piano…
The dignity of the snow-capped mountain is lost in distinctness, but the joy of the tourist is to recognize the traveller on the top. The desire to see, for the sake of seeing, is, with the mass, alone the one to be gratified, hence the delight in detail.
And when the evening mist clothes the riverside with poetry, as with a veil, and the poor buildings lose themselves in the dim sky, and the tall chimneys become campanili, and the warehouses are palaces in the night, and the whole city hangs in the heavens, and fairy-land is before us—then the wayfarer hastens home; the working man and the cultured one, the wise man and the one of pleasure, cease to understand, as they have ceased to see, and Nature, who, for once, has sung in tune, sings her exquisite song to the artist alone, her son and her master—her son in that loves her, her master in that he knows her.
To him her secrets are unfolded, to him her lessons have become gradually clear. He looks at her flower, not with the enlarging lens, that may gather facts for the botanist, but with the light of the one who sees in her choice selection of brilliant tones and delicate tints, suggestions of future harmonies.
He does not confine himself to purposeless copying, without thought, each blade of grass, as commended by the inconsequent, but, in the long curve of the narrow leaf, corrected by the straight tall stem, he learns how grace is wedded to dignity. How strength enhances sweetness, that elegance shall be the result.
In the citron wing of the pale butterfly, with its dainty spots of orange, he sees before him the stately halls of fair gold, with their slender saffron pillars, and is taught how the delicate drawing high upon the walls shall be traced in tender tones of orpiment, and repeated by the base in notes of graver hue.
In all that is dainty and lovable he finds hints for his own combinations, and thus is Nature ever his resource and always at his service, and to him is naught refused.
大自然,就色彩和形狀而論,包含所有圖畫的元素,就像鍵盤包含所有音樂的音符一樣。
藝術(shù)家的天職就是對這些元素進(jìn)行選擇,將它們科學(xué)地組織起來,結(jié)果可能是一幅美麗的圖畫——就像音樂家用聲音譜成和音,從混亂無序的聲音中創(chuàng)作出動(dòng)人和諧的樂曲一樣。
如果對畫家說他可以照大自然本來的樣子作畫,就等于對演奏家說他可以一屁股坐在鋼琴的鍵盤上……
白雪皚皚的高山若是變得清晰可見就失去了它的威嚴(yán),但觀光者卻因?yàn)槟芸匆娚巾斏系挠慰投残斡谏?。大多?shù)人是為了看見而要看見,只是為了使這個(gè)愿望得到滿足而已,因此他們以能看見細(xì)節(jié)而感到快樂。
當(dāng)傍晚的迷霧以其柔紗般的詩意籠罩著河邊,破舊的建筑消失在朦朧的天空,高高的煙囪變成一座座孤立的鐘樓,大大小小的倉庫恍如夜間的宮殿,整個(gè)城市懸在了空中,宛若仙境展現(xiàn)在我們眼前,那時(shí)候,路上的人們匆匆走路回家;勞動(dòng)者和文化人,智者和浪子,因?yàn)樗麄兪煲暉o睹,他們也就不能理解,而只在此時(shí)才開始歌唱的大自然便把自己美妙的歌唱給藝術(shù)家——她的兒子和她的主人;說他是兒子是因?yàn)樗麗鬯?,說他是主人是因?yàn)樗斫馑?/p>
只有對他,她才展示她的秘密,只有對他,她的教誨才逐漸變得清晰。他觀察著她的花朵,不是用為植物學(xué)家采集實(shí)據(jù)的放大鏡,而是用一種眼光,她用這種眼光在她精選的燦爛色調(diào)和精妙色彩中看見孕育和諧的跡象。
他并非不假思索地描摹每一片草葉,如同那些微不足道的人們所贊揚(yáng)的那樣,而是在又高又直地莖干上的細(xì)長葉彎里,他發(fā)現(xiàn),優(yōu)雅和尊嚴(yán)融為一體,力量使它更加溫柔,而后才產(chǎn)生了高雅。
在蝴蝶那淡淡的香櫞色并布滿雅致的橘黃斑點(diǎn)的翅膀上,他看見莊嚴(yán)的金色大廳就在眼前,還有又細(xì)又高的金黃頂柱,他懂得了那高墻上精巧的圖畫要用輕柔的雄黃色調(diào)來描繪,并要以更加莊重的色調(diào)為底色將其繪制下來。
在所有這些雅致和可愛的元素里,他得到如何進(jìn)行融合的啟示,這樣,大自然就成了他取之不盡的源泉,隨時(shí)為他服務(wù),對他從不拒絕。