Dr. Coutras shrugged his shoulders and smiled.
庫特拉斯醫(yī)生聳了一下肩膀,臉上露出笑容。
"You will laugh 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 never seen painting which made so deep an impression upon me. Tenez, I had just the same feeling as when I went to the Sistine Chapel in Rome. There too I was awed by the greatness of the man who had painted that ceiling. It was genius, and it was stupendous and overwhelming. I felt small and insignificant. But you are prepared for the greatness of Michael Angelo. Nothing had prepared me for the immense 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 and healthy. 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. It made me uneasy. It gave me the impression you get when you are sitting next door to a room that you know is empty, but in which, you know not why, you have a dreadful consciousness that notwithstanding there is someone. You scold yourself; you know it is only your nerves—and yet, and yet... In a little while it is impossible to resist the terror that seizes you, and you are helpless in the clutch of an unseen horror. Yes; I confess I was not altogether sorry when I heard that those strange masterpieces had been destroyed."
“你會笑我的。我是個實利主義者,我生得又蠢又胖——有點兒象福斯塔夫(莎士比亞戲劇《亨利四世》中人物,身體肥胖,喜愛吹牛),對不對?——抒情詩的感情對我是很不合適的。我在惹人發(fā)笑。但是我真的還從來沒有看過哪幅畫給我留下這么深的印象。說老實話,我看這幅畫時的心情,就象我進了羅馬塞斯廷小教堂一樣。在那里我也是感到在天花板上繪畫的那個畫家非常偉大,又敬佩又畏服。那真是天才的畫,氣勢磅礴,叫人感到頭暈目眩。在這樣偉大的壁畫前面,我感到自己非常渺小,微不足道。但是人們對米開朗基羅的偉大還是有心理準備的,而在這樣一個土人住的小木房子里,遠離文明世界,在俯瞰塔拉窩村莊的群山懷抱里,我卻根本沒想到會看到這樣令人吃驚的藝術作品。另外,米開朗基羅神智健全,身體健康。他的那些偉大作品給人以崇高、肅穆的感覺。但是在這里,雖然我看到的也是美,卻叫我覺得心神不安。我不知道那究竟是什么,但它確實叫我不能平靜。它給我一種印象,仿佛我正坐在一間空蕩蕩的屋子隔壁,我知道那間屋子是空的,但不知為什么,我又覺得里面有一個人,叫我驚恐萬狀。你責罵你自己吧;你知道這只不過是你的神經(jīng)在作祟——但是,但是……過一小會兒,你就再也不能抗拒那緊緊捕捉住你的恐懼了。你被握在一種無形的恐怖的掌心里,無法逃脫。是的,我承認當我聽到這些奇異的杰作被毀掉的時候,我并不是只覺得遺憾的。”
"Destroyed?" I cried.
“怎么,毀掉了?”我喊起來。
"Mais oui; did you not know?"
“是啊。你不知道嗎?”
"How should I know? It is true I had never heard of this work; but I thought perhaps it had fallen into the hands of a private owner. Even now there is no certain list of Strickland's paintings."
“我怎么會知道?我沒聽說過這些作品倒是事實,但是我還以為它們落到某個私人收藏家手里去了呢。思特里克蘭德究竟畫了多少畫兒,直到今天始終沒有人編制出目錄來?!?/p>