"...looking at the stars always makes me dream...
Why, I ask myself, shouldn't the shining dots of the sky be as
accessible as the black dots on the map of France? Just as we take the train to get to Tarascon or Rouen, we take
death to reach[1] a star."
--- Vincent Van Gogh
When Vincent van Gogh was a patient in an asylum[2] at Saint-Rémy
in the south of France, he wrote to his brother Theo: "This morning I saw the country from my window a long time before
sunrise, with nothing but[3] the morning star, which
looked very big." The morning star is another name for Venus, and it may be the large
white pulsating form, just to the left of center in this painting. Van Gogh stayed up[4] three nights in a row[5] to
paint the view from his window in the asylum, because, as he said, "the night is more alive and more richly colored
than the day."
But van Gogh was not just painting an image of what he saw. In
fact, the church spire here is typical of Holland, the artist's native country.
So this is a picture rooted in his imagination and memory as
well[6]--a fantastic, apocalyptic vision of the night sky. What others might have viewed as a placid scene, van Gogh has rendered
in heaving and churning waves. Each stroke of paint is more than a dab of color--it's a field
of energy, as well.
The contrast between the chaos of the heavens and the quiet order
of the village
below is remarkable. The cyprus tree--known as the tree of death for its traditional
associations with graveyards and mourning--creates a flamelike connection
between the earth and sky. But for van Gogh, a man of strong Christian faith, death was not
ominous; it was the path to heaven.
About the Artist
Gogh, Vincent Van (b. March 30, 1853,.--d. July 29, 1890), generally considered
the greatest Dutch painter after Rembrandt[7]; he powerfully influenced the current of Expressionism in modern
art. His work, all of it produced during a period of only 10 years,
hauntingly conveys through its striking colour, coarse[8] brushwork,
and contoured forms the anguish of a mental illness that eventually resulted in[9] suicide Among his masterpieces
is the well-known The Starry Night.
注释:
1. reach: reach,“到达”, 是及物动词直接跟宾语,比如:I reached Beijing on Monday
morning. 当用它的近义词arrive 时,就需要在后面加介词 at , 刚才那句话就成为:I arrived at Beijing
on Monday morning.
2. asylum: asylum 是“庇护;庇护所”的意思,我们在新闻中经常听到的“某某人请求政治避难”就是用这个词:ask
for political asylum。 它的近义词:refuge 更是我们常用的,比如:seek refuge from the floods.
3. nothing… but…: but 在这里不是连词“但是”的意思,而是和 nothing 连在一起,充当介词的角色,表示”除……之外没有”。But
在作介词时,通常和否定词 no one ,none ,nothing 等连用。
4. stay up: stay 有“待着”的意思,up 是“立起来”,合在一起,意思是 “站着待着”,引申即是“待着不睡觉”。工作多的时候,会加班到很晚,就是:I
stayed up working until midnight.
5. in a row: in a row是“在一排”,凡·高三个晚上不睡觉,用了 three nights in a row,来强调他连续工作。再看下面的例句:Behind
there was a row of low houses.
6. as well: 除了 too, also 之外,英语中还有其它表达"也"的词。我们在这里遇到的 as well 就表达这样的
意思。比如说:Youundertook other important work as well. 你也担当其他重要的工作。