The Moon And Sixpence 26.5

In a few daysStrickland began to get up. He was nothing but skin and bone. His clothes hungupon him like rags on a scarecrow. With his untidy beard and long hair, hisfeatures, always a little larger than life, now emphasised by illness, he hadan extraordinary aspect; but it was so odd that it was not quite ugly. Therewas something monumental in his ungainliness. I do not know how to expressprecisely the impression he made upon me. It was not exactly spirituality thatwas obvious, though the screen of the flesh seemed almost transparent, becausethere was in his face an outrageous sensuality; but, though it sounds nonsense,it seemed as though his sensuality were curiously spiritual. There was in himsomething primitive. He seemed to partake of those obscure forces of naturewhich the Greeks personified in shapes part human and part beast, the satyr andthe faun. I thought of Marsyas, whom the god flayed because he had dared torival him in song. Strickland seemed to bear in his heart strange harmonies andunadventured patterns, and I foresaw for him an end of torture and despair. Ihad again the feeling that he was possessed of a devil; but you could not saythat it was a devil of evil, for it was a primitive force that existed beforegood and ill.几天以后，思特里克兰德就下地了。他瘦得只剩下皮包骨头，衣服穿在身上就象稻草人披着一件破褂子似的。他的胡须凌乱，头发很长，鼻子眼睛本来就生得比一般人大，因为害过这场病，更显得大了一号；他的整个外表非常奇特，因为太古怪了，反而不显得那么丑陋。他的笨拙的形体给人以高大森严之感。我真不知道该如何确切地表达他给我的印象。最触目的一点倒不一定是他的裸露无遗的精神世界（虽然屏蔽着他精神的肉体几乎象是透明的），而是他脸上的那种蛮野的欲念。说来也许荒谬，这种肉欲又好象是空灵的，使你感到非常奇异。他身上散发着一种原始性；希腊人曾用半人半兽的形象，象生着马尾的森林之神啊，长着羊角、羊腿的农牧神啊，来表现大自然的这种神秘的力量，思特里克兰德身上就有这样一种力量。他使我想到马尔塞亚斯①，因为他居然敢同大神比赛音乐，所以被活剥了皮。思特里克兰德的心里好象怀着奇妙的和弦同未经探索过的画面。我预见到他的结局将是遭受痛苦的折磨和绝望。我心里又产生了一种他被魔鬼附体的感觉；但你却不能说这是邪恶的魔鬼，因为这是在宇宙混沌、善恶未分之前就存在的一种原始的力量。①马尔塞亚斯是古代小亚细亚弗里吉亚国的一个吹笛人，同阿波罗比赛吹笛失败，被大神杀死。