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去告诉所有的人吧 Tell them all.
1840年5月 May, 1840.
该年皇家艺术学院在伦敦举行的展览 The annual exhibition of the Royal Academy in London
可谓是非常的成功 has been a great success.
所有的观众都认为 On display, all the reviewers agree,
其中展出的一幅作品是毋庸置疑的杰作 is one indisputable masterpiece.
该作品名为“发号施令” 画家名叫埃德温.兰西尔 Painted by Edwin Landseer, it's called Laying Down the Law.
作品里的主角是一只狮子狗 And it features, as the learned judge, a poodle.
评论家们都对这幅作品赞叹不已 It is, the critics chorus, perfect.
其表现度 辛辣程度以及技巧性都堪称绝品 Perfect in execution, taste and refinement.
但是在当年那场展览中还有另一幅作品 But there's another painting hanging in the 1840 show
评论家们却一致性的 about which the critics are also absolutely unanimous
表现出了沮丧又轻蔑的态度 in dismay and scorn.
JMW.透纳的“奴隶船” JMW Turner's Slave Ship.
虽然评论家们把它比喻为一场发生在厨房的闹剧 How is it that we can see a masterpiece,
甚至毫无是处 while the critics compared it to a kitchen accident
可我们还是把这幅作品看的很高 这是为什么呢 or the contents of a spittoon?
对于这个想象中的奴隶们在海上被残忍的杀害场景 Had Turner gone over the top with this voyage into a sweaty nightmare,
透纳会因此而做噩梦吗 this fantastical image of slaves cruelly murdered at sea?
透纳原本是希望人们会为此而哭泣流泪 Why had a work Turner had hoped would make people weep,
而事实却是 instead move them to describe it
人们认为作品完全是在胡说八道 令人厌恶至极 as a detestable absurdity?
透纳本来这幅作品会成为他的里程碑之作 What was it about this particular painting, the consummation of Turner's career,
但是最终却招致众人的非难 这是为什么呢 that brought down on his head such a storm of abuse?
艺术的力量: 透纳
我们认为我们很了解透纳 不是吗 We all think we know Turner, don't we?
他看起来就像一个安乐舒适的英国人 就像一杯茶 He seems as comfortably British as a cup of tea.
毕竟 他可是国家画廊长时间以来钟爱的画家 He is, after all, the National Gallery's all-time favourite.
但是含有另外一个不为外人所知的透纳 But there was another Turner, the Turner you don't know.
“他”的作品充满了混乱 战争和大灾难 The painter of chaos, conflagration and apocalypse,
画风狂野不羁 其用意昭然若揭 wild and ambitious paintings,
人们把这些作品称为“空洞的作品” that one critic called ''a picture of nothing, and very like.''
好吧 这就是我说的另一个透纳 处于极端状态下的透纳 Well, this is my Turner, extreme Turner.
这位伦敦诗人缺少的就是疯狂的气质 The Cockney poet just short of madness.
我们不但应当去深入的了解他 而且也应该去敬畏他 The Turner we ought to know, the Turner we really ought to revere.
这个透纳进行了一次旅行 但是旅客却处于疯癫的状态之中 This Turner was on a delirious visionary trip
他十九世纪的作品“奴隶船” that would culminate in the greatest British painting
将会使他达到英国绘画历史的顶峰 of the nineteenth century, The Slave Ship.
啊 天空为什么会如此美丽 Why, that is very fine.
在作品“奴隶船”带给他那场失败的四十年前 Forty years before the heroic fiasco of The Slave Ship,
年轻的透纳并没有犯过什么错 young Turner could do no wrong.
在他二十几岁时 这个理发员的儿子 In his twenties, the barber's son had already been tipped
已经被认为将会成为英国绘画史上的下一位天才 as the next great thing in British painting.
他手中的画刷轻轻的一划 With a dab of his brush, he could wave fairy dust
就能为英国乡村的天空带来富有灵性的景色 over the genteel British countryside.
于是这个地方仿佛也被施上了魔法而变得庄严起来 And it would turn into a place of sublime enchantment.
而且质量也非常高 And the quality it up.
英法两国正在进行一场殊死战争 Britain was fighting for its life against the French,
而且此时英格兰的浪漫主义情怀 and the romance of Albion
从来没有深入体现到民族想象力之中 had never bitten deeper into the national imagination.
此时的透纳已经得到一个很大的荣誉 Turner, meanwhile, had been granted a great honour.
他在26岁时就成为了皇家美术学院的会员 Fellowship of the Royal Academy at just 26.
如今他要做的只是交上一份入门作业 Now, he had to present them with a picture to mark his entry.
这就是他的作品 He gave them this.
这幅作品可以说是令人十分的震惊 Which was to say, a shock.
雪墩山峰上的Dolbadern城堡 Dolbadern Castle in Snowdonia
威尔士王子欧文.高夫就是在那里走到了人生的尽头 was where a medieval Welsh prince, Owen Gough, had met his end.
事实上 那个城堡只不过是在山坡上的一堆石头 In reality, it was just a modest pile of stones on a hillside,
但是透纳却营造出了一幕情景剧 背景光线照亮了那堵荒凉的崖壁 but Turner pumps up the melodrama, backlights the desolate crag,
所以那座城堡就成了那个狂傲不羁的王子的化身 so that the castle becomes a personification of the defiant prince himself.
被囚禁的自由的悲剧性象征 The tragic symbol of imprisoned liberty.
考虑到如果万一人们不了解 他还附上了一首诗 Just in case people didn't get it, he added a little poem.
荒寂的沉默是如此的令人敬畏 How awful is the silence of the waste
大自然耸起高山直插云霄 Where nature lifts her mountains to the sky
庄严肃穆的孤独 Majestic solitude
注视着城堡 Behold the tower
囚禁在此的倒霉王子日渐憔悴 Where hapless Owen long imprisoned pined
徒劳的紧握双手祈求自由 And wrung his hands for liberty in vain
看来不是济慈(英国诗人)而是透纳在探寻这段传奇 Okay, so it's not exactly Keats, but it is Turner reaching for the epic.
表面上 作品描绘的都是关于没有过分特意强调的大气现象和地形 It's all about atmospherics, not finicky, topographical description.
因为那其实就是英国适合于透纳的东西 一种生理情感 'Cause that's what Britain was for Turner, a biological sentiment,
一种流淌在他血液中的本能 an instinct in the blood,
一种对光 大气 水 自然力（指四种元素：水火土气） an irresistibly operatic arrangement of light, air and water.
以及英雄和传奇的不可抗拒的戏剧式组合排列 Elemental, heroic, legendary.
这幅作品提高了他在皇家艺术学院的地位 The painting smoothed the way for the young man into the ranks of the Academy.
但是我们要提醒人们注意 But it should have put everyone on notice
透纳可不是一位满足于优雅美丽的画家 that this was a painter who'd never settle for the charming and the pretty.
在这个悠闲惬意的行当里 Turner could have made a perfectly decent living,
透纳完全可以过上舒适安逸的生活 raking it in from the pleasure and leisure industry.
但是在他那汹涌澎湃的充满想象的世界里 But in his fertile imagination,
一些盛大血腥的东西已经开始躁动了 something grand and bloody was already stirring.
但是这并不妨碍他获得财富 But he still had a fortune to make.
他还没有准备好成为黑暗史诗的创造者 He wasn't ready yet to be the maker of dark epics.
如今正是身为皇家艺术学院会员的JMW.透纳享受的时候 It was time to enjoy being JMW Turner, RA.
他财源滚滚 合同不断 He's rolling in money and commissions,
他为自己的作品 自己以及老爸在伦敦西区置下了一幢房产 and he buys a West End house for his pictures, himself and his old dad,
在那里 老父亲成为了他的全职仆人 whom he shamelessly turns into his all-purpose servant.
为儿子展平画布 Old Dad would stretch and prime canvasses.
负责巡视画廊 Old Dad would patrol the gallery.
照看河边的蔬菜园子 Old Dad would tend the vegetable garden out by the river
纵情享受儿子带来的富贵 and revel in his son's fame and fortune.
这个老爹可真不错 Good old Dad.
但是父子之间的那种传统家庭纽带在透纳心中渐渐变得不那么重要了 But then, conventional family ties don't seem to mean much to Turner.
家里仍然没有女主人 There's no dutiful Mrs T at home.
透纳认为婚姻与艺术是不能共存的 Marriage and art don't go together, he said.
所以他找了一个情妇 她是透纳一个朋友的妻子 现在是个寡妇 名叫莎拉.丹碧 So instead, he takes as a lover the widow of a friend, Sarah Danby,
他把丹碧安置在附近 and installs her round the corner.
他们甚至还有了两个孩子 He even has two children by her.
二人的关系并不名正言顺 莎拉只不过是透纳的泄欲工具 More illicitly still, Sarah is the muse of his erotic imagination.
他的作品表明 如同Butternere湖水上面的满月一样 男欢女爱也给他给他带来了许多欢愉 His drawings suggest he takes as much pleasure in sex as a full moon over Buttermere.
直到透纳的遗嘱公布以后 It wasn't until Turner's will was published
人们才知晓莎拉.丹碧和孩子们的存在 that anyone knew about Sarah Danby and the children.
透纳终生都小心翼翼严密的的保存着这些色情作品 And the erotica remained strictly under wraps in his lifetime.
透纳选择把自己的一部分生命生活在秘密幻想的荫蔽之下 Turner chose to live part of his life amidst the shadows of secret fantasies.
但是当他走出这个秘密世界漫步在泰晤士河畔的时候 But when he emerged from this world and strolled beside the Thames,
他的头脑迸发出了另一个幻想 he indulged in another fantasy.
他生活的城市远离贫穷 饥饿和痛苦烦恼 That he lived in a country from which poverty, hunger and misery had been banished.
透纳的泰晤士河畔之游 Turner's Thames was the place
给他带来了强烈的诗情画意般的英格兰浪漫情怀 where the romance of England came to him with lyrical intensity.
呆在这个地方 他内心平静的如同被麻醉了一般 A place of almost narcotic serenity.
这正是那个探寻快乐并为公众所喜爱的透纳 This is the pleasure-seeking, public-pleasing Turner.
用画刷轻柔的描绘着摄政时期的英格兰(1810-1830) And perhaps he could have settled for this mellow dream world,
他也许会沉醉在这个醇美的梦幻世界之中 gently stroking the self-satisfaction of Regency England.
但是虽然他徜徉在这个如同伊甸园般的家乡里 But even as he drifted through his Home Counties Eden,
透纳一定也意识到了在此之外一定有另一个英格兰 Turner must have been aware that alongside this idyll, there was another England,
悲惨的英格兰 an England in distress.
透纳内心也驱使他去描绘它 And something in Turner wanted to paint that England too.
此时处于十九世纪初期 For this was the early 1800s,
当时是现代英国历史中最困难的时期 the rockiest years in all modern British history,
也是英格兰的梦境与现实 the time when the distance between
之间的距离最大的时候 the fantasy Britain and the reality was at its widest.
英国应该成为一个政治社会稳定的典范 The kingdom was supposed to be a model of political and social stability.
但是国内却失业率高居不下 到处都是饥饿愤怒的人群 But there was massive unemployment, hunger, anger, rick-burning in the countryside,
村庄干草堆烈火熊熊 工厂里的机器被肆意破坏 machine-smashing in the towns.
而且与拿破仑领导的法国之间的战争进行的又是如此的艰难 The bloody war with Napoleon's France grinding on and on.
这是一个困难重重充满激进思想的时期 These are hard times, radical times.
所以透纳创作出了一个坚忍不拔的不列颠形象 So Turner produces a gritty image of rough Britannia.
你心目中最美妙的古英格兰幻想会是什么呢 What's your most delicious fantasy of old England?
夏季 还是一场野餐 Summertime? A picnic?
好吧 这是一个顽强的冬晨 可不是什么野餐 Well, here's a hard-bitten winter dawn, and it's no picnic.
一只射死的兔子搭在一个小女孩的肩上 A shot hare slung around the shoulders of a girl.
布有车辙的小径 Rutted tracks.
两个男人在挖沟 抑或是墓穴 Two men digging a ditch, or is it a grave?
你能想象到在冰冷坚硬的土地上 这个工作是多么的艰难 You can feel the tough work of it in that hard, frozen soil.
一切都是那么的阴暗 冷漠 毫无感情 Everything impassive, unsentimental, dour.
多么的真实啊 How things really are.
康斯塔伯(英国风景画家）会在什么时候去描绘北方的冬天呢 When did Constable ever do winter in the North?
透纳为什么会创作出这样的作品呢 Why would Turner ever do something so flinty?
因为在约克郡 透纳遇到了一个人 Well, in Yorkshire, he has become best mates with someone
从此透纳看待世界的方法发生了改变 who will change the way he sees the world.
沃尔特.福克斯眼中的英国完全是另一个样子 Walter Fawkes's view of Britain isn't exactly rose-tinted,
他也不是你想象中的一个普通的乡村绅士 and he's not your usual country gent.
而是一个政治斗士 He's a political militant,
一个为老保皇党集团所痛恨的人 the scourge of the old Tory establishment.
但是这个激进的有钱人最令人喜爱的原因却是 But the cause that's most dear to this radical toff
当时轰轰烈烈的道德战争 is the great moral crusade of the day,
废除奴隶贸易 the abolition of the slave trade.
福克斯的愤怒在透纳的作品中得以体现 Fawkes's fury seeped into Turner's imagination.
1810年的一天 One day in 1810,
透纳带着福克斯的儿子在约克郡高沼地区散步 当时乌云密布 Turner took Fawkes's son for a walk on the Yorkshire Moors as a storm brewed.
二人都在画素描 透纳放下铅笔 The two of them sketch away. Turner puts his pencil down.
他说道 豪克维 在那儿 两年后你会看到一幅作品 ''There, Hawkey,'' he says, ''in two years you'll see this, and it'll be called
它将会被称作“汉尼拔越过阿尔卑斯山” ''Hannibal Crossing the Alps. ''
所以约克郡高沼上空的一场大风 So a squall over the Yorkshire Moors
变成了一场肆无忌惮的阿尔卑斯大灾难 turns into a no-holds-barred Alpine cataclysm.
同时大雪纷飞 暗无天日 A simultaneous blizzard and a shaft of sickly sun.
汉尼拔的军队成了牺牲品 Hannibal's army is the victim,
这是一趟痛苦之旅 as it clambers its painful way over the Alpine passes.
落伍者被惊慌的山地人所擒获 Stragglers picked off by scary mountain men,
一个大气漩涡在上空盘旋 while a sucking vortex hovers over the scene
就像是只恶毒的巨大猛禽 like some gigantic, malevolent bird of prey.
透纳把暴风雪和一些巨大恐怖的事物同时展现在约克郡高沼的上空 Turner does something tremendous with the storm over the Yorkshire Moors.
这不仅仅是场气象景象 其寓意应更为深远 It's not just scenic weather, it's a cosmic reckoning.
汉尼拔大获成功 Hannibal is a hit.
众人密密麻麻的围在他身旁 People crowded round it so densely,
挤都挤不进去 the gents couldn't elbow their way in to see it.
但是这幅作品为什么能吸引众人的目光呢 But why did this picture pull in the crowds?
不仅仅是因为这是一幅古代题材的作品 Not because it was a scene from ancient history,
而且人们都知道这也是一幅现代作品 but because everybody knew it was also a modern painting.
而且就发生在他们那个时代 A contemporary story.
当另一个自负的侵略者想越过阿尔卑斯山去寻找荣耀的时候 The comeuppance handed out to another arrogant invader
因果报应发生在了他身上 who crossed the Alps in search of glory.
他就是拿破仑 The arch enemy, Napoleon.
运用贬低手法 透纳把那个强大的司令官形象变小了 In a crushing putdown, Turner shrinks the mighty commander
在大背景的衬托下 显得微不足道 甚至有点儿滑稽 to a puny, almost comical figure in the remote background,
他坐在一头大象上 看起来就像一只甲虫 atop an elephant that looks more like a dung beetle.
你不得不承认透纳是个相信机会均等的悲观主义者 You have to say this about Turner, though. He's an equal-opportunity pessimist.
他迫切的想看到拿破仑的末日到来 As much as he wants to see the end of Napoleon,
他最后采取了一个带有谴责性质的古怪方式来庆祝滑铁卢之役 he's got a damn funny way of celebrating Waterloo.
透纳有没有在1817年为胜利的惠灵顿将军 In 1817, does he paint victorious Wellington
和他英勇的红衣军团精锐部队创作一幅作品呢 and his gallant scarlet squares of embattled grenadiers?
没有 他给我们带来的是在黑暗中的一张毯子 上面摆满了尸体 No, he gives us a carpet of corpses in the blackness.
带着孩子的妻子们 Wives and sweethearts with their babies,
悲伤的在尸堆里寻找爱人的尸身 pathetically searching the carnage for their loved ones.
这简直就是地狱 An apparition of pure hell.
这可不是在颂扬“铁公爵”（指惠灵顿） Rather than glorify the Iron Duke,
这看起来就像是在例证自己的精炼判断 一仗功成万骨枯 it seems to exemplify one of his pithiest verdicts.
对于一场失败的战争 另一个糟糕的事情就是下一场战争的胜利 The next worst thing to a battle lost is a battle won.
所以毫不奇怪这幅作品直到二十世纪八十年代才得以公开展览 No wonder it wasn't until the 1980s that this painting was properly displayed.
透纳拒绝为国家的胜利摇旗助威令他失去了资助人 Turner's refusal to beat the patriotic drum or wag the flag cost him patrons.
但是从作品“滑铁卢战场”中 透纳想到了一些意义更加深远的东西 But with The Field of Waterloo, he's reached for something profound.
那将是一种以受害者的痛苦为题材的英国艺术 A British art that will act out the suffering of victims.
但是当时透纳对劳苦大众的了解已经很全面了 But, then, Turner knows all about the lot of the common people.
世界上没有力量能够解开 #No power on Earth can e'er divide
神圣的爱情打成的结 #The knot that sacred love hath ty'd
世界上没有力量能够分开 #No power on Earth can e'er divide
深爱着的两个人 #The knot that sacred love hath ty'd
他可不是一个具有绅士风度的艺术家 He's no gentleman artist.
他在肮脏污秽的女修道院后院出生长大 He was born and grew up in the filthy back alleys of Covent Garden,
在那里困苦绝望的他挣扎求生 where every day, he rubbed shoulders with the desperate and the destitute.
违背我们的意愿 # ...against our mind
堕入爱河越快 # The true love's knot they faster bind #
这并没有令他的滑铁卢之类的 This didn't make his Waterloo or any of his historical epics
历史题材类作品成为革命的宣言 manifestoes for revolution.
它们（的意义）应该更为深远宏大 They're bigger, more disturbing than that.
因为在这些作品中 They have washing through them
表现出了在灾难与暴行面前 the tragic truth about the powerlessness of ordinary people
那些平民百姓遭受到的悲惨真相 when faced with atrocity and disaster.
他们都是处于社会边缘的弱势群体 People who existed right on the edge.
而且在透纳的生活中就有这样的一个人 And there was someone in his own life who'd gone right over it.
那就是他的母亲 His mother.
在画家的家里 玛丽.透纳时常发出愤怒的嚎叫 Mary Turner was a shrieking fury in the painter's house.
这也许是透纳妹妹夭折的缘故 Driven mad, perhaps, by the death of Turner's younger sister.
1800年 她被关进了疯人院 In 1800, she was incarcerated in Bedlam,
从此消失于透纳的生活中 四年后悄无声息的离开了人世 disappearing from his life and dying four years later in total neglect.
但是我想如果是透纳抛弃了她呢 这样会不会成为透纳挥之不去的梦魇 But if Turner abandoned her, could there have been, I wonder, a haunting?
玛丽的怒嚎 Was Mary's howling rage
会不会就是透纳笔下漆黑的乌云和炽烈的金色天空 translated into the dark thunder and burning gold of Turner's skies?
我能想象到的也就是这些了 This much I can say.
正是对脆弱的人类存在持有的那种剧烈而又带有悲剧性的特殊感受塑造了透纳的人生 That an acute, tragic sense of the frailty of human existence
同样也令他的伟大作品具有强大的感染力 framed Turner's life and powers the greatest of his works.
所以在他作品中出现的人物 So the figures who populate his history paintings
都是那么的软弱无力 are often weirdly invertebrate.
他们就像处于命运洪流中的浮萍一样随波逐流 So many rag dolls tossed around by the immense forces of fate.
对于学习了人物造型的传统理论画法的人来说 Painting these discarded marionettes was particularly wilful
能创作出这样的作品的人必定是特别的固执 for someone who'd studied academic figure drawing.
但是当时透纳的皇家艺术学院会龄已经有将近20年了 But then, despite the fact he's been a fellow at the Academy for nearly 20 years,
在那些墨守成规的英国艺术界 他算得上是个另类 Turner was proving to be the odd man out in the play-safe world of British art.
所以并不仅仅是他的作品招致高级艺术批评家的非议 It's not just what he paints that gets him into trouble with high-class critics,
而更是他作画的方式令他们不满 it's the way he paints it.
一个批评家非常失望 One critic despairs that Turner delights in abstractions
他认为透纳很喜欢以世界的初始混沌状态作为创作素材 that go back to the first chaos of the world.
好吧 亲爱的人们 对于这个带着低俗口音却拥有高档住宅的粗鄙的暴发户 Well, my dears, what would you expect from the grubby little parvenu
我们能祈求从他那里得到些什么呢 with his downmarket accent and his upmarket house?
有些粗俗的事物顽强的隐匿在他的内心深处 There's something obstinately coarse that clings to him,
那是一种尖锐的社会风格 a pungent social aroma.
当透纳游历巴黎的时候 法国画家德拉克罗瓦有点被吓到了 When Turner visits France, the painter Delacroix
在他眼中透纳就像是一个没有洗手的农夫 is taken aback that he looks rather like a farmer with unwashed hands.
噢 你看 他的指甲里还有污垢 Oh, there's dirt under Turner's nails, all right,
但是颜色却有点像藤黄色或者普鲁士蓝 而不是农肥的颜色 but it's likely to be gamboge yellow or Prussian blue, not farm muck.
最糟糕的是 And the worst thing is that he seems to wear his unwashed hands
他好像对自己的脏手还非常的引以为傲 like a badge of professional pride.
当一位很有上进心的绅士艺术家来拜见他的时候 When a young gentleman aspirant artist comes to see him,
透纳一把抓住对方洁白的手掌并且大发雷霆 Turner grabs his lily-white hands and growls...
你是成不了什么气候的 You're no artist.
对于透纳来说 手指也是艺术创作工具 Turner himself uses his fingers to make his art,
在创作的时候 他故意不修剪指甲 keeps a nail deliberately untrimmed so he could wield it like a claw
而是像爪子一样在作品表面挥划 to cut into the paint surface.
他手中的画刷不是轻柔的拍拂而是大力的擦刮 He's no dainty brush-flicker. He wipes and scrapes,
并且还用浮石处理画的表面（一种在固体状时用作研磨物且粉状时用作磨光物和研磨物的轻多孔火山岩） attacks the surface with a pumice stone,
并且吐上唾沫使画的表面显得平滑柔和 spits into the paint and gives it a good smoosh.
正是透纳这种顽童式的绘画方式 It's this joyous urchin-like wallowing in the muck and slather of paint
令那些艺术评论家们是如此的惊骇 that Turner's critics found so appalling.
其中一位抱怨说他的这种永恒的需求必定是非常的特别 And one of them complained about his perpetual need to be extraordinary.
是啊 没错儿 非常的非英国式 Well, yes, how very un-British.
但是透纳并不想被正在形成的英国所限制 But Turner didn't want to be boxed in by what Britain was becoming.
因为即将形成的英国将会是个坚固而平凡的贸易帝国 An empire of solid, prosaic commercial facts.
他需要一个地方 He needed something more, a place where the poetic imagination
在那里可以任由浪漫如诗般的想象力自由生长 could drift and float.
世界上就有这么一个地方 There was one place where not being sound or solid
那就是威尼斯 was of the essence. Venice.
在断断续续将近20年间 这个城市一直是他的心灵挚友 For 20 years, off and on, Turner made the floating city his soul mate.
透纳对此地着迷不已难以自拔 Turner was spellbound and conjured
这里的一撇那里的一捺 from a wisp here, a daub there,
这个地方如纱似雾的浅粉色 the gauzy radiance of the place.
评论家们认为这幅作品中透纳犯下的最大失误就是画面的不清晰 Turner's critics accused him of the cardinal sin of indistinctness.
但是这个水上都市到处都是水 But here in the floating city where everything was liquid and slippery,
所以透纳有理由去选择这个水的特性来谱写自己特有的荣光 he could embrace that indistinctness, make it his own particular glory.
威尼斯令透纳的内心得以平静 Turner could have been tranquillised by Venice,
令他成为一个为人们带去更多醇美的享受 seduced into becoming an accomplished supplier of sensuous bliss.
但是这个城市的静态美令他有了其它想法 But the stagnant beauty of the city made him think of something else.
看着威尼斯 他想到了死亡 He looked at Venice and he saw death.
一生中大部分时间 透纳的身体状况很不好 For most of his life, Turner had been the picture of rude health.
如今的他又生了病 体重下降 呼吸困难 Now he's sick, losing weight, wheezing.
他感到那个生与死的古老故事正在自己身上上演 He feels the grip of the ancient story of life and death in his very own bones.
死亡正一点点的吞噬着他 Mortality eats away at him.
他那不可或缺的工作多面手父亲也去世了 His indispensable, multi-tasking old dad had died.
老父亲不仅仅是他的业务经纪人 还是他最好的朋友 Not just his personal jack of all trades, but his best friend.
他的另一个挚友沃尔特.福克斯也去世了 Other cherished intimates, Walter Fawkes, the old radical, had gone, too.
为了抗拒病痛 To keep the aches and pains at bay,
他使用了一种曼陀罗花制成的酊剂来镇痛 he uses a tincture of thorn apple to cope,
那可是一种麻醉剂 a narcotic, which probably sends his always hyperactive visual imagination
可以导致幻觉 into planetary orbit.
一个圣经上的悲惨事件出现在噩梦中 And from his bad dreams gallops a biblical horror.
我注视着一匹白马 And I looked and beheld a pale horse
名字就写在它的身上-死亡 and his name that sat on him was Death,
随之而来的就是地狱 and Hell followed with him.
但是透纳通过创作摆脱了梦魇 But Turner paints his way out of the nightmare.
近处看来 那副骨架很柔软 Look closely, the skeleton is limp.
死亡也没有什么可怕的 Death is dead.
既然还没有死 透纳就继续画下去 Turner lives to paint on.
他才不会像其他那些肺病患者轻易的向死亡投降 He won't limply surrender like some consumptive Romantic.
相反 他拼尽了最后的力气去创作 Instead he gathers his energies, puts his obsession to work,
从而完成生与死的轮回 苦难与救赎的轮回 makes the cycle of life and death, suffering and salvation,
这是他创作的最伟大时期的主题 the theme of his greatest period of painting.
他人已中年 He's deep into his middle age.
当他注视着海浪拍打着肯特郡的海岸的时候 When he stares at the waves pounding the coast of Kent,
他仿佛感受到了摧毁与创造的节奏 he feels that rhythm of destruction and creation.
如今 在人们眼中 Now, Margate might not seem to you
Margate（英国肯特郡海滨小城）可能不会是个孕育历史宿命的地方 much of a place to brood on historical destiny,
但是对于透纳来说 but for Turner, it was definitely more than just seaside ozone
这里不仅仅是个适合漫步的滨海地带 and a stroll along the beach.
大海不仅仅是能量与财富的承载者 The sea becomes something more than the carrier of power and wealth.
它也是一幕幕英国历史朝代轮番上阵的舞台 It's the stage on which the drama of British history gets played out.
剧情时而狂暴凶残 Sometimes that drama is fierce and turbulent,
时而又是革命时期一个温和的故事 and sometimes it's a comforting story for revolutionary times.
所以在他称之为自己的“老情人”的作品中 So in the painting he calls his ''old darling'',
对于特拉法尔加海战中的战舰 透纳给我们展现出了一种浪漫的渴望 he gives us romantic wistfulness for the veteran battleship of Trafalgar,
“泰麦雷尔号战舰” The Fighting Temeraire.
这艘想象中被修复了的战舰 The vessel is restored fictitiously
在最终解体之前进行了一次英雄般的告别航行 to one last heroic farewell voyage before being broken up.
作品里的战舰风帆叠起 桅杆挺立 In Turner's picture, its masts are still standing, its sails furled.
但是那艘拉着它的蒸汽拖船 But the little steam-power tug that pulls it
却不像是在隐喻某种现代的反面势力 isn't some sort of modern villain.
这只不过新生英国的一个真实写照 It's simply a fact of life in the new Britain, a nation in upheaval
当时的英国随着工业革命渐渐的积聚力量 将要发生一场巨变 as the Industrial Revolution gathers momentum.
而透纳则给那些 And Turner has perfect pitch for a British public
挣扎于追慕往日和憧憬将来之中的大众 torn between affection for the past
做了一个精确的定位 and anticipation of the future.
从情感上说 这幅作品可以说是万能的 It's so emotionally versatile, this picture,
无论你的情绪如何 它都能令你沉迷其中 that it lets you indulge whatever mood takes you.
像是一首挽歌吗 Feel like an elegy?
好吧 这就是以纳尔逊(海军大将 1805年在特拉尔加摧毁了 法国和西班牙的海军力量并身负重伤)为代表的旧英国的衰落 Well, fine, then this can be the sunset of Nelson's England.
从工业专利上赚了一大笔 并且感觉还不错吧 Just made a lot of money from an industrial patent, and feeling good?
作品真实太棒了 这同样也是在预示着新工业帝国的崛起 Fine again, this is the sunrise of your new industrial empire.
但是透纳那无穷尽的想象力是不会满足于令人痛苦的温柔的 But Turner's restless imagination won't settle for poignant gentleness.
他知道真相一定是非常的剧烈狂暴 He knows the truth is more tumultuous
而且大海会告诉我们一个可怕的故事 and that the sea has terrible tales to tell.
在十九世纪三十年代后期 In the late 1830s,
一个更为严重的问题唤醒了英国的道德暴行 one issue galvanised British moral outrage
那就是奴隶贸易 more than any other; slavery.
大英帝国版图内是禁止进行奴隶贸易的 Britain had outlawed slavery throughout the Empire.
但是在西班牙帝国和美利坚合众国 But in the Hispanic empires and the United States,
奴隶贸易并没有被禁止 而且还十分兴旺 it not only survived, but thrived.
于是在1840年的伦敦召开了一次国际会议 In 1840, in London, an International Convention of the Great and Good
大会准备对这种行为表达正义的愤慨 was planned to express righteous indignation at this fact.
早在多年前就被赞助人沃尔特.福克斯引入这个事业的透纳 Turner, initiated into the cause so many years ago by his patron, Walter Fawkes,
也想用他的画笔来发出自己的声音 wanted to have his say in paint.
他又是怎么做的呢 And how does he do it?
身为那些沾沾自喜者的眼中钉 By being a thorn in the side of self-congratulation.
透纳追溯到了60年前 Turner reaches back 60 years to resurrect one of the most shameful episodes
大英帝国的一段最为可耻的历史 in the history of the British Empire.
在1781年 一名英国奴隶贩子和Zong号奴隶船 In 1781, the British slaver, the Zong,
在完成了一趟常规到非洲的获利丰厚的旅程之后 was off the coast of Jamaica
驶离了牙买加海岸 after a routinely profitable journey from Africa.
但是在船舱里却出了问题 But deep below decks, there was trouble.
里面的奄奄一息的奴隶比往常多了许多 Slaves were dying at more than the usual rate.
船长鲁克.克林伍德突然间就这样碰上了一趟折本买卖 And the ship's master, Luke Collingwood, suddenly had a business disaster on his hands.
虽然他已经为这些人类货物入了保险 His human cargo was insured, but the underwriters would only pay up
但是保险公司只会以在海上失踪的人数理赔 if the casualties could be accounted for as losses at sea,
所以到达目的地的死人是不在理赔范围之内的 not dead on arrival.
所以克林伍德船长下到船舱 So Captain Collingwood went below decks
开始进行一场残忍的挑选活动 and began the merciless business of selecting which slaves
那些他认为撑不下去的奴隶将会在海上失踪 he would swiftly turn into ''losses at sea. ''
最终男人女人小孩共132人被挑中 132 Africans, men, women and children,
他们的手脚被铁链锁上 their hands and feet fettered, were thrown overboard
然后从甲板上被抛入鲨鱼出没的加勒比海 into the shark-infested waters of the Caribbean.
这件道德恐怖事件发生的时候 The moral horror of the case of the Zong was the moment
正是广大英国人们良心重现 when thousands of Britons abandoned their indifference
并成为奴隶贸易的反对者的时候 and became campaigners against the slave trade.
132名非洲人悲惨的死去了 132 Africans perished horribly,
但是它却孕育出了一场轰轰烈烈的大众运动 but a mass movement was born from their martyrdom.
重现这场历史悲剧的透纳并不是以历史事件的插画作家身份出现的 Turner's approach to this appalling tragedy was not that of a literal historical illustrator.
就像普洛斯彼罗（莎翁《暴风雨》中的人物） 这幅作品的伟大作者的目的是 What the great enchanter of the canvas wanted was, Prospero-like,
想召唤一场飓风 一场大动乱 to summon an apocalypse, a typhoon.
作品“奴隶船”把我们掷入 The Slave Ship pitches us into the midst
一场充满灾难和恐惧 of a feverish dream of catastrophe and terror,
罪恶与报应的狂热梦境之中 sin and retribution.
显出侧面轮廓的船只几乎被奔涌的浪潮所吞没 The silhouetted ship, almost engulfed in the erupting spray,
它就像一艘真实的船只和某些被诅咒折磨的事物的混合体 is both a real vessel and something cursed and haunted,
就像古老水手的船只 like the ship of the Ancient Mariner.
怪兽出没 浪花翻腾 Waves seethe with monsters,
就像是一种猥琐的食人鱼在啃噬 a kind of obscene piranha-like nibbling and gobbling.
乘浪而来的怪物并不是来自牙买加沿海地区 And the oncoming fishy monster is not to be caught off the coast of Jamaica,
而是取材于希罗尼穆斯·波希的作品 but off the canvas of Hieronymus Bosch, Hell, in high-water.
当然 作品也有其不完整之处 Of course, it has its imperfections, all that flailing flurry of action
比如画面前景部分展现出带着枷锁的人们在海面慌乱的扑腾 in the foreground, the mysteriously floating iron fetters,
扑腾的肢体不好说是否已经和躯干分离 the flung limb that may or may not be detached from its torso.
那些类食人鱼的啃噬动作看起来太过于夸大 All the frantic fishy action could seem too fussily staged.
最后 只剩下一项重要的测验 In the end, there's only one test that matters.
当你进入房间 当你注视着这幅作品 You come into the room, you fix it in your sights,
它会不会震撼你的心灵令你难以忍受呢 会的 does it or does it not attack you in the guts? It does.
你的心跳是否会加速 会不会瞪大了眼睛 Does your heart jump? Do your eyes widen? Does your pulse race?
你的双脚会不会感到穿上了铅鞋 然后就觉得人在向下坠落 Do your feet get a bad attack of lead boots, you're so struck down by it?
会的 They do.
对于透纳来说 这一刻你已经被水淹没了 For Turner has drowned you in this moment,
然后你就会被扯进恐怖的海洋深渊中 pulled you into this terrifying chasm in the ocean,
在血腥的光线下浸透你的身体 drenched you in his bloody light.
当你在眩目的阳光中闭上眼睛时 Exactly the hue you sense on your blood-filled optic nerves
你的视野中满是血红色 when you close your eyes in blinding sunlight.
尽管所有的评论家们都认为 由于透纳对艺术创作规则的不屑一顾 Though almost all of his critics believed that The Slavers represented an all-time low
那艘奴隶船在作品中的分量应该是比较低的 in Turner's reckless disregard for the rules of art,
但事实上由于对空间布局的精雕细琢 那却成了他最大的成功 it was in fact his greatest triumph in the sculptural carving of space.
因为天空中并没有暴风雨来临的迹象 For none of the stormy atmospherics,
红色与金色表现出的狂暴会体现出它们的影响 the great pinwheel fury of reds and golds, would have the impact they did,
那并不是为了衬托透纳辟出的那条水道 were it not for that deep trough Turner has cut in the ocean,
这条水道处于画面的中心 显得奔涌的黑色巨浪静止了下来 which at the centre of the painting makes the blackly heaving swells stand still
就像是耶和华那愤怒的手掌突然挥过沸腾的水面 as though the wrathful hand of Jehovah has suddenly passed over the boiling waters.
因为这是一个殉难日 一个将会受到惩罚和审判的日子 For this is a day of martyrdom, retribution and judgement.
但是同样在这幅作品中 透纳一定也有些乐观的想法 But also a scene, Turner must have optimistically thought,
也是一个证明 of vindication.
这将是一个要被补偿的罪恶 It would be a sin redeemed.
奴隶制度终将会被废除 Slavery would be defeated.
毕竟在画面的右上角 There is, after all, a patch of clearing blue
有一块清澈的蓝色 at the top right corner of the painting.
很快批评的声音蔓延开来 The critics went to town.
透纳成了一个笑柄 人们眼中的疯子 笨蛋 Turner became the butt of jokes, a crackpot,
人们认为他已经沉迷在自己那狂暴荒谬的绘画中不能自拔 old loon, lost in the tempest with his ridiculous painting.
人们认为作品的名字更为荒谬 And its even more ridiculous full title,
奴隶贩子 抛弃垂死奴隶们的奴隶船 Slavers, Slave Ship Throwing Over the Dead and Dying,
台风来袭 Typhoon Coming On.
《笨拙画报》(Punch英国1841年创刊)也跟着瞎掺和 Punch magazine joined in the chorus of catcalls,
这本杂志依照作品的名字创作了一幅图画 lampooning Turner by inventing a painting with the title,
飓风在大漩涡上空引发的一场沙蒙风(撒哈拉北部夏季的一种挟沙的干风) ''A typhoon bursting a samoon over a whirlpool maelstrom,"
在挪威海域的一艘失火船只 以及带有日晕的一场日食 ''Norway, a ship on fire, and eclipse with the effect of a lunar rainbow. ''
但是《笨拙画报》之类的批评 But Punch and all the other high-hat critics
都忽略了重要的一点 missed the one overwhelming point
正是这一点令这幅作品成为十九世纪最伟大的作品 which makes this the greatest British picture of the 19th century,
那就是传递的信息与表达形式的完美结合 the perfect match between message and form.
殉难的奴隶们终将在自由来临的时刻得到报偿 The payoff of the slaves' martyrdom would in the end be freedom.
所以透纳用画刷 颜料和想象力 So Turner has given himself glorious freedom with his brush
为自己带来的无上光荣的自由 and with his colour, and with his imagery,
并表现出了这个神圣时刻的伟大力量 to convey the power of the sacred moment.
在遭受冷遇后又过了两年 Two years after the debacle of The Slave Ship,
一名叫做威廉.列顿.里奇的苏格兰崇拜者 a young Scottish admirer, William Leighton Leitch,
参观了透纳位于安妮皇后街的寓所 visited Turner's house in Queen Anne Street.
他听说透纳的画廊年久失修 He'd heard that the Turner gallery was in disrepair,
但是里奇怎么也不会想到这里会是这个样子 but nothing could possibly have prepared Leitch for the squalor.
我在画廊里走来走去 感到寒冷不安 I walked backwards and forwards in the gallery, feeling cold and uncomfortable.
那里没有一丝声音 There was no sound to be heard
除了从破损的窗户溅到地板上的雨滴发出的声音 but the rain splashing through the broken windows upon the floor.
里奇静静的站在晦暗的屋子里 Leitch stood in the evil-smelling gloom.
当他凝视着透纳最近的一幅作品的时候 And as he peered at Turner's most recent work, among which was hanging, somewhere,
那是一片爆炸式的血红色 那就是未售出的没人要也没人喜欢的“奴隶船” the scarlet explosion that was the unsold, unwanted, unloved Slave Ship,
他的心越来越不是滋味 he felt more and more depressed.
但正是此时 这个国家最喜爱的画家 But this was the moment when the country's favourite painter,
曾一度被尊为英国艺术的元老级人物 once revered as the patriarch of British art,
却被当作一个老疯子对待 was written off as a senile lunatic.
但是在这些打击面前 他并没有退缩 而是更加的勇敢顽强 Yet the effect of the critical onslaught is to make him more, not less, brave.
他如今孑然一身 He's off on his own now, the solitary mariner
就像一个孤独的老水手在纯粹的绘画海洋里自由的航行 on a completely unchartered ocean of pure painting.
虽然脑海时常浮现出海洋狂暴不安的景象 Alongside all these scenes of oceanic turmoil,
透纳却依然能够创作出大海宁静的一面的作品 Turner was still capable of painting images of exquisite liquid calm.
但是我们感到他只能在梦中才能完成 But you have the feeling he could do those in his sleep.
当画中的漩涡激流把他自己也溶解进去 It's when his whirlpool of paint resolves itself
然后化为比单纯的感官娱乐更加厚重有力的东西 into something weightier and mightier than the entertainment of the senses,
当他朝着历史和永恒的真相进发的时候 when he reaches towards the truths of history and eternity,
我认为此时的透纳才是最伟大的 that I think Turner is at his greatest.
他所改变的并不仅仅是英国艺术 That's when he changes not just British art,
而是所有的艺术 几乎是全部 but all of art, most completely.
正如我们知道的 这就是为什么透纳仍然对我们很重要而且将来亦然的原因 And you know, this is why Turner still matters to us and always will.
那个头戴瘪帽身穿脏衣的伦敦东区的怪老头 That old Cockney geezer in his battered hat and filthy coat
把我们引入了一个地方 那里是迂腐的墨守成规者没有胆量去的地方 transports us somewhere where the slick conformist would never dare to go.
因为那里是历史风暴的中心 Into the eye of history's storm.
那里是光的海洋 Into the ocean of light.