Nature and Art天然与艺术
By James Abbott McNeill Whistler
Nature contains the elements, in colour and form, of all pictures, as the
keyboard contains the notes of all music.
无论从色彩照旧外形来讲，大天然都蕴涵着全部的绘画因素，就犹如键盘包括着全部音乐的音符一样。
But the artist is born to pick, and choose, and group with science, these
elements, that the result may be beautiful – as the musician gathers his notes,
and forms his chords, until he brings forth from chaos glorious harmony.
而艺术家生成便具有这种才能，从这些因素加以选择，并奇妙的团结起来，绘一幅瑰丽的画卷。这就比如是音乐家从无序的声音中选择音符，形本钱身的和弦之音，创作出美妙调和的乐章。
To say to the painter, that Nature is to be taken as she is, is to say to
the player, that he may sit on the piano .., The dignity of the snow-capped
mountain is lost in distinctness, but the joy of the tourist is to recognize the
traveller on the top. The desire to see, for the sake of seeing, is, with the
mass, alone the one to be gratified, hence the delight in detail.
假如说画家是以大天然的本貌去创作，那么对付演奏家而言，他便可以坐在钢琴旁了……高山巍立，白雪皑皑，却因过于清楚而失去了威严，然而攀爬者却因能一睹登颠者之风范而独享一份爱好。与世人登高一望，满意极目远眺之愿，然爱好却也只表此刻一睹细枝小节而已。
And when the evening mist clothes the riverside with poetry, as with a
veil, and the poor buildings lose themselves in the dim sky, and the tall
chimneys become campanili, and the warehouses are palaces in the night, and the
whole city hangs in the heavens, and fairy-land is before us – then the wayfarer
hastens home; the working man and the cultured one, the wise man and the one of
pleasure, cease to understand, as they have ceased to see, and Nature, who, for
once, has sung in tune, sings her exquisite song to the artist alone, her son
and her master – her son in that he loves her, her master in that he knows
her.
黄昏，诗般迷雾如面纱覆盖溪边，破旧的衡宇隐遁于暗淡的夜色中，高耸的烟囱恰似一座座钟楼，间间库房宛如夜里的宫殿，整座都市悬于天宇，统统如瑶池般出此刻我们面前。此时，旅人疾步踏归程;而无论是劳动者，有学识者，智者，照旧享乐之人，均因再看不见这统统而无顿悟。曾经称赞的大天然，周末看电影，而今只为艺术家吟唱美好的旋律，他既是她的儿子也是她的主人——爱而为其子，知而为其主。
To him her secrets are unfolded; to him her lessons have become gradually
clear. He looks at her flower, not with the enlarging lens, that he may gather
facts for the botanist, but with the light of the one who sees in her choice
selection of brilliant tones and delicate tints, suggestions of future
harmonies.
为艺术家，大天然展示着她的机密;也只因他，电影，其内在才徐徐得以展现。艺术家对花的调查，不是用植物学家网络实证的放大镜，而是用一屡光，透过它便可以看到由光辉灿烂的色调及美好的色彩所将描画出的调和画面。
He does not confine himself to purposeless copying, without thought, each
blade of grass, as commended by the inconsequent, but, in the long curve of the
narrow leaf, corrected by the straight tall stem, he learns how grace is wedded
to dignity, how strength enhances sweetness, that elegance shall be the
result.
他不会像那些于此不搭调的人那样，不假思考，毫无目标地誊摹每一片叶子;相反地，他却从卷曲的叶脉和细长的茎干中，明确到其肃静中透着优雅，力气中透着甜蜜，最终创作出雅致美好的作品。
In the citron wing of the pale butterfly, with its dainty spots of orange,
he sees before him the stately halls of fair gold, with their slender saffron
pillars, and is taught how the delicate drawing high upon the walls shall be
traced in tender tones of orpiment, and repeated by the base in notes of graver
hue.
一只淡色的蝴蝶，柚色的同党上嵌有精细的橘色黑点，而出此刻他面前的却是金碧光辉的殿堂上竖着细长金黄立柱，并意识到那誊于高墙上的精细画卷，是以柔和的雄黄色配以更淡的底色描画而成。
In all that is dainty and lovable he finds hints for his own combinations,
and thus is Nature ever his resource and always at his service, and to him is
naught refused.
全部的这些精细可爱的色彩都给以他创作的灵感。大天然成了他创作的源泉，为他处事，无丝毫拒绝。
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