本帖最后由 retro 于 2014-12-13 09:58 PM 编辑
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诗歌，画卷，静思，遑论何时，俱予心灵以其永恒之启迪，诉崇敬于凡俗一生。夫山水自然，悟其妙处，道其类也。盖慧泉之水可饮，日月风塑之物能激越潜智，垂万象之色纵景仰耳。然无常识求之，唯诗画者可及至臻奇幻瑰丽。至于日事实惠肤浅，或巧言令色，疏忽天地大爱，皆无知斯谐美矣。(原文：Poetry and Painting sublime and purify thought, by grasping the past, the present, and the future--they give the mind a foretaste of its immortality, and thus prepare it for performing an exalted part amid the realities of life. And rural nature is full of the same quickening spirit--it is, in fact, the exhaustless mine from which the poet and the painter have brought such wondrous treasures--an unfailing fountain of intellectual enjoyment, where all may drink, and be awakened to a deeper feeling of the works of genius, and a keener perception of the beauty of our existence. For those whose days are all consumed in the low pursuits of avarice, or the gaudy frivolities of fashion, unobservant of nature's loveliness, are unconscious of the harmony of creation.) ——摘自《浅论美国人文景观》(Essay on American Scenery)
1848年2月8日，托马斯死于肺部感染，享年仅47岁。他虽生不在美国，却要比许多“美国人”更眷恋这块土地：“It is his own land; its beauty, its magnificence, its sublimity, all are his; and how undeserving of such a birthright, if he can turn towards it an unobserving eye, an unaffected heart! ”(这是你的土地，她的美丽，她的壮丽，她的瑰丽，全都是你的；如果你待她无以关怀的目光，无以感激的心情，何以享有这里出生权利！)文章在1836年《美国人月刊》杂志上发表。当时卡茨基尔山上正兴建铁路，伐木砍树，这使他十分痛心。
文中，托马斯以第三人称作自我陈述：
他待自然以“关爱眼神”，即使闹市里看见蓝天白云，也满怀敬意。若远离滚滚红尘，仅为天空和水土的自由无垠，在阳光云影里欢畅，让他到那可爱的地方。那里山重水复，还有落日辉映，花环锦簇常常光耀人间。他如饮甘醇，真是快乐无比。经历了如此快乐，人不可以甘愿平庸，或以自私，不可以让这享受水过无痕。他凝视大能造物之贞洁，灵魂流出来的是神圣安祥的声音。当他转身面向同行者的时候，嘻嘻哈哈的响乐沉静下来，不再有熙熙攘攘。(原文：He who looks on nature with a "loving eye," cannot move from his dwelling without the salutation of beauty; even in the city the deep blue sky and the drifting clouds appeal to him. And if to escape its turmoil--if only to obtain a free horizon, land and water in the play of light and shadow yields delight--let him be transported to those favored regions, where the features of the earth are more varied, or yet add the sunset, that wreath of glory daily bound around the world, and he, indeed, drinks from pleasure's purest cup. The delight such a man experiences is not merely sensual, or selfish, that passes with the occasion leaving no trace behind; but in gazing on the pure creations of the Almighty, he feels a calm religious tone steal through his mind, and when he has turned to mingle with his fellow men, the chords which have been struck in that sweet communion cease not to vibrate.)
以此切看托马斯的作品，神圣审美色彩，在“他”画里表现极其丰富。他也极其自信，是信自其内心景愿：“And in looking over the yet uncultivated scene, the mind's eye may see far into futurity. Where the wolf roams, the plough shall glisten; on the gray crag shall rise temple and tower--mighty deeds shall be done in the now pathless wilderness; and poets yet unborn shall sanctify the soil.”(在瞭望一块未开垦的景区时，心灵目光可以看到遥远的将来：野狼将会在那儿出没；犁刀将会闪闪发亮；庙宇将会在灰岩上耸立。现无人迹的荒野里，奇迹将会出现；现仍未出生的诗人，到时将会在这片土地上歌唱。) ——称之为“灵目视野”(mind's eye vision) ——成为托马斯审视事物，判断色调的主观臆想。托马斯的巅峰时期：1833–36年，创作了大型组画《帝国之道》(The Course of Empire)，1842年《生命的航程》(The Voyage of Life)，被誉为史诗般(allegorical)的艺术家。当时两者俱属宏大作品，现在看来有所局限，视觉上的局限，是人所俱有之局限。
现在欣赏托马斯的人不多，他的具象写实意境不能图解现代人们复杂的心理现象——那种“超验”(transcendentalism)多第次的意识层变化。在一个静止的画面里，他极力透视事物的线性变化过程，并赋之生命体现在他的“山水”里，固执地表现他的兴亡宗教意识：In the Kaaterskill we have a stream, diminutive indeed, but throwing itself headlong over a fearful precipice into a deep gorge of the densely wooded mountains. . . which it would be easy to imagine crumbling and "time disparting towers."(卡茨基尓山的水流，近于涸竭，仍毫无畏惧地穿过峋岩，跌入密林深谷……这令人容易想到(物体)破碎和时间消亡。)就这点来说，以观察力而言，托马斯的眼光固然要比他人独到，因而他的画现仍自有其历史价值。 |
发表于 2014-11-13 09:18:18
楼主
发表于 2014-11-14 09:25:10
