月亮和六便士 第四十二章(2)

 I wish I could say that I recognised at once their beauty and their great originality 1. 我真希望当时我就能看出这些画如何美、具有如何伟大的独创的风格。

Now that I have seen many of them again and the rest are familiar to me in reproductions, 这些画里面有许多幅我后来又有机会重新欣赏过，另外一些通过复制品我也非常熟悉了；
I am astonished that at first sight I was bitterly disappointed. 我真有些奇怪，当我初次看画的时候，为什么居然感到非常失望。
I felt nothing of the peculiar 2 thrill which it is the property of art to give. 我当时丝毫也没有感到艺术品本应该给我的那种奇异的激动。
The impression that Strickland's pictures gave me was disconcerting; 我看到思特里克兰德的绘画，只有一种惶惑不安的感觉；
and the fact remains 3, always to reproach me, that I never even thought of buying any. 实际上，我当时根本没有想到要购买一幅，这是我永远不能原谅自己的。
I missed a wonderful chance. 我真是失去了一个大好的机会。
Most of them have found their way into museums, and the rest are the treasured possessions of wealthy amateurs. 这些画大多数后来都被博物院收买去了，其余的则成为有钱的艺术爱好者的珍藏品。
I try to find excuses for myself. 我努力给自己找一些辩解。
I think that my taste is good, but I am conscious that it has no originality. 我认为我还是有鉴赏力的，只不过我认识到自己缺少创见。
I know very little about painting, and I wander along trails that others have blazed for me. 我对于绘画了解得不多，我只是沿着别人替我开辟的路径走下去。
At that time I had the greatest admiration 4 for the impressionists. 当时我最佩服的是印象派画家，
I longed to possess a Sisley and a Degas, and I worshipped Manet. 渴望弄到一张西斯莱（阿尔弗雷德·西斯莱（1839—1899），法国画家）或德加（埃德迦·德加（1834—1917），法国画家）的作品，另外，我对马奈也非常崇拜，
His Olympia seemed to me the greatest picture of modern times, and Le Dejeuner sur l'Herbe moved me profoundly. 他的那幅《奥林庇亚》我觉得是当代最伟大的绘画，《草地上的早餐》也使我非常感动。
These works seemed to me the last word in painting. 我认为在当代绘画中再也没有别的作品能超过这几幅画了。
I will not describe the pictures that Strickland showed me. 我不准备描写思特里克兰德拿给我看的那些画了。
Descriptions of pictures are always dull, and these, besides, are familiar to all who take an interest in such things. 对绘画进行描述是一件枯燥乏味的事，再说，所有热衷此道的人对这些画早已了如指掌了。
Now that his influence has so enormously affected 5 modern painting, 今天，当思特里克兰德对近代绘画已经产生了这么大的影响，
now that others have charted the country which he was among the first to explore, 当他同少数几个人首先探索的那块蛮荒之地已经测绘了详细地图之后，
Strickland's pictures, seen for the first time, would find the mind more prepared for them; 再有谁第一次看到他的画，早已有了心理准备了，
but it must be remembered that I had never seen anything of the sort. 而我则是破题儿第一遭看见这类作品，这一事实请读者务必记住。
First of all I was taken aback by what seemed to me the clumsiness of his technique. 首先，我感到震骇的是他画法的笨拙。
Accustomed to the drawing of the old masters, and convinced that Ingres was the greatest draughtsman of recent times, 我看惯了的那些古老画师的作品，并且坚信安格尔是近代最伟大的画家，
I thought that Strickland drew very badly. 因此就认为思特里克兰德画得非常拙劣。
I knew nothing of the simplification at which he aimed. 我根本不了解他所追求的简朴。
I remember a still-life of oranges on a plate, 我还记得他画的一张静物，一只盘子上放着几只桔子，
and I was bothered because the plate was not round and the oranges were lop-sided. 我发现他画的盘子并不圆，桔子两边也不对称，我就感到迷惑不解。
The portraits were a little larger than life-size, and this gave them an ungainly look. 他画的头像比真人略大一些，给人以粗笨的感觉。
To my eyes the faces looked like caricatures. 在我的眼睛里，这些头像画得象是一些漫画，
They were painted in a way that was entirely 6 new to me. 他的画法对我说来也完全是新奇的。
The landscapes puzzled me even more. 我更看不懂的是那些风景画。
There were two or three pictures of the forest at Fontainebleau and several of streets in Paris: 有两三张画的是枫丹白露的树林，另外一些是巴黎市街；
my first feeling was that they might have been painted by a drunken cabdriver. I was perfectly 7 bewildered. 我的第一个感觉是，这些画好象是出自一个喝醉酒的马车夫的手笔。我完全被弄糊涂了。
The colour seemed to me extraordinarily 8 crude. 他用的色彩我也觉得出奇地粗犷。
It passed through my mind that the whole thing was a stupendous, incomprehensible farce 9. 我当时心想，这些绘画简直是一出没有谁能理解的滑稽戏。
Now that I look back I am more than ever impressed by Stroeve's acuteness. 现在回想起来，施特略夫当时真称得起独具慧眼了。
He saw from the first that here was a revolution in art, 他从一开始就看到这是绘画史上的一个革命，
and he recognised in its beginnings the genius which now all the world allows. 今天全世界都已承认的伟大天才，他早在最初的那些年代就已辨视出来了。