The Moon And Sixpence 57.2

"Iscarcely know. It was strange and fantastic. It was a vision of the beginningsof the world, the Garden of Eden, with Adam and Eve -- que sais-je? -- it was ahymn to the beauty of the human form, male and female, and the praise ofNature, sublime, indifferent, lovely, and cruel. It gave you an awful sense ofthe infinity of space and of the endlessness of time. Because he painted thetrees I see about me every day, the cocoa-nuts, the banyans, the flamboyants,the alligator-pears, I have seen them ever since differently, as though therewere in them a spirit and a mystery which I am ever on the point of seizing andwhich forever escapes me. The colours were the colours familiar to me, and yetthey were different. They had a significance which was all their own. And thosenude men and women. They were of the earth, and yet apart from it. They seemedto possess something of the clay of which they were created, and at the sametime something divine. You saw man in the nakedness of his primeval instincts,and you were afraid, for you saw yourself. "Dr. Coutrasshrugged his shoulders and smiled."You willlaugh at me. I am a materialist, and I am a gross, fat man -- Falstaff, eh? --the lyrical mode does not become me. I make myself ridiculous. But I have neverseen painting which made so deep an impression upon me. Tenez, I had just thesame feeling as when I went to the Sistine Chapel in Rome. There too I was awedby the greatness of the man who had painted that ceiling. It was genius, and itwas stupendous and overwhelming. I felt small and insignificant. But you areprepared for the greatness of Michael Angelo. Nothing had prepared me for theimmense surprise of these pictures in a native hut, far away from civilisation,in a fold of the mountain above Taravao. And Michael Angelo is sane andhealthy. Those great works of his have the calm of the sublime; but here,notwithstanding beauty, was something troubling. I do not know what it was. Itmade me uneasy. It gave me the impression you get when you are sitting nextdoor to a room that you know is empty, but in which, you know not why, you havea dreadful consciousness that notwithstanding there is someone. You scoldyourself; you know it is only your nerves -- and yet, and yet. . . In a littlewhile it is impossible to resist the terror that seizes you, and you arehelpless in the clutch of an unseen horror. Yes; I confess I was not altogethersorry when I heard that those strange masterpieces had been destroyed. "“我说不太清楚。他的画奇异而荒诞，好象是宇宙初创时的图景——伊甸园，亚当和夏娃……我怎么知道呢①？是对人体美——男性和女性的形体——的一首赞美诗，是对大自然的颂歌；大自然，既崇高又冷漠，既美丽又残忍……它使你感到空间的无限和时间的永恒，叫你产生一种畏惧的感觉。他画了许多树，椰子树、榕树、火焰花、鳄梨……所有那些我天天看到的；但是这些树经他一画，我再看的时候就完全不同了，我仿佛看到它们都有了灵魂，都各自有一个秘密，仿佛它们的灵魂和秘密眼看就要被我抓到手里，但又总是被它们逃脱掉。那些颜色都是我熟悉的颜色，可是又有所不同；它们都具有自己的独特的重要性。而那些赤身裸体的男男女女，他们既都是尘寰的、是他们揉捏而成的尘土，又都是神灵。人的最原始的天性赤裸裸地呈现在你眼前，你看到的时候不由得感到恐惧，因为你看到的是你自己。”①原文为法语。库特拉斯医生耸了一下肩膀，脸上露出笑容。“你会笑我的。我是个实利主义者，我生得又蠢又胖——有点儿象福斯塔夫②，对不对？——抒情诗的感情对我是很不合适的。我在惹人发笑。但是我真的还从来没有看过哪幅画给我留下这么深的印象。说老实话③，我看这幅画时的心情，就象我进了罗马塞斯廷小教堂一样。在那里我也是感到在天花板上绘画的那个画家非常伟大，又敬佩又畏服。那真是天才的画，气势磅礴，叫人感到头晕目眩。在这样伟大的壁画前面，我感到自己非常渺小，微不足道。但是人们对米开朗基罗的伟大还是有心理准备的，而在这样一个土人住的小木房子里，远离文明世界，在俯瞰塔拉窝村庄的群山怀抱里，我却根本没想到会看到这样令人吃惊的艺术作品。另外，米开朗基罗神智健全，身体健康。他的那些伟大作品给人以崇高、肃穆的感觉。但是在这里，虽然我看到的也是美，却叫我觉得心神不安。我不知道那究竟是什么，但它确实叫我不能平静。它给我一种印象，仿佛我正坐在一间空荡荡的屋子隔壁，我知道那间屋子是空的，但不知为什么，我又觉得里面有一个人，叫我惊恐万状。你责骂你自己吧；你知道这只不过是你的神经在作祟——但是，但是……过一小会儿，你就再也不能抗拒那紧紧捕捉住你的恐惧了。你被握在一种无形的恐怖的掌心里，无法逃脱。是的，我承认当我听到这些奇异的杰作被毁掉的时候，我并不是只觉得遗憾的。”②莎士比亚戏剧《亨利四世》中人物，身体肥胖，喜爱吹牛。③原文为法语。