第四十二章
I did not know why Strickland had suddenly offered to show them to me. I welcomed the opportunity. A man's work reveals him. In social intercourse he gives you the surface that he wishes the world to accept, and you can only gain a true knowledge of him by inferences from little actions, of which he is unconscious, and from fleeting expressions, which cross his face unknown to him. Sometimes people carry to such perfection the mask they have assumed that in due course they actually become the person they seem. But in his book or his picture the real man delivers himself defenceless. His pretentiousness will only expose his vacuity. The lathe painted to look like iron is seen to be but a lathe. No affectation of peculiarity can conceal a commonplace mind. To the acute observer no one can produce the most casual work without disclosing the innermost secrets of his soul.
我不知道為什么思特里克蘭德突然主動提出來要讓我看他的畫，但是對這樣一個機會我是非常歡迎的。作品最能泄露一個人的真實思想和感情。在交際應酬中，一個人只讓你看到他希望別人接受他的一些表面現象，你只能借助他無意中作出的一些小動作，借助不知不覺中掠過他臉上的一些表情對他作出正確的了解。有些時候，人們把一副假面裝得逼真，時間久了，他們真會變成他們裝扮的這樣一個人了。但是在他寫的書、畫的畫里面，他卻毫無防范地把自己顯露出來。如果他作勢唬人，那只能暴露出他的空虛。他那些涂了油漆冒充鐵板的木條還會看出來只不過是木條。假充具有獨特的個性無法掩蓋平凡庸俗的性格。對于一個目光敏銳的觀察者，即使一個人信筆一揮的作品也完全可以泄露他靈魂深處的隱秘。
As I walked up the endless stairs of the house in which Strickland lived, I confess that I was a little excited. It seemed to me that I was on the threshold of a surprising adventure. I looked about the room with curiosity. It was even smaller and more bare than I remembered it. I wondered what those friends of mine would say who demanded vast studios, and vowed they could not work unless all the conditions were to their liking.
我必須承認，當我走上思特里克蘭德住處的無窮無盡的樓梯時，我感到有一些興奮。我似乎馬上就要步入一場奇異的冒險。我好奇地環顧了一下他的小屋子。這間屋子好象比我記憶中的更小、家具什物也更少了。我有些朋友總需要寬大的畫室，堅持要條件必備才能作畫，我倒想知道他們對這間畫室作何感想。
"You'd better stand there," he said, pointing to a spot from which, presumably, he fancied I could see to best advantage what he had to show me.
“你最好站在這兒，”他指著一塊地方說，他可能認為在他把畫拿給我看的時候，這是一個最適合觀賞的角度。
"You don't want me to talk, I suppose," I said.
“我想你不愿意我說話吧，”我說。
"No, blast you; I want you to hold your tongue."
“這還用問，他媽的。我要你閉住你的嘴巴。”
He placed a picture on the easel, and let me look at it for a minute or two; then took it down and put another in its place. I think he showed me about thirty canvases. It was the result of the six years during which he had been painting. He had never sold a picture. The canvases were of different sizes. The smaller were pictures of still-life and the largest were landscapes. There were about half a dozen portraits.
他把一幅畫放在畫架上，叫我看一兩分鐘，然后取下來再放上另一張。我估計他一共給我看了三十來張。這是他作畫以來六年的成績。他一張也沒有出售。畫幅小一些的是靜物，最大的是風景。有半打左右是人物、肖像。
"That is the lot," he said at last.
“就是這些，”最后他說。
評論
打印
