阿什贝利：画家

画家

坐在大海和建筑之间
他享受着画大海的肖像。
可就像孩子们想象祈祷
只是沉默，他期待他的主题
冲上沙滩，并抓起一支画笔，
在画布上涂抹它自己的肖像。

因此它的画布上始终什么也没画
直到住在建筑里的人们
迫他作画：“试着把画笔
当作达到目的的手段。为一幅肖像，选择
某种不那么愤怒、巨大的东西，更顺从
一个画家的情绪，或者，也许，祈祷。”

他怎么能对他们解释他的祈祷
自然，而不是艺术，必须夺取画布？
他选择他的妻子作为一个新的主题，
把她画得硕大，像毁坏的建筑，
仿佛，忘了它自身，肖像
不用画笔而表达了自己。

得到一点鼓舞，他把画笔
在海里蘸了一下，喃喃着衷心的祈祷：
“我的灵魂，当我画这下一幅肖像时
愿是你摧毁这画布。”
这消息野火般传遍了建筑：
他又回到大海寻找他的主题。

想象一个画家被他的主题钉上了十字架！
精疲力竭都举不起画笔，
他招惹得一些艺术家从建筑中倾着身子
恶意地哗笑：“现在，我们没有
把我们画到画布上
或让大海坐着让我们画像的祈祷！”

其他人宣称那是一幅自画像。
最终所有关于一个主题的迹象
都开始消褪，留着画布
白得彻底。他放下画笔。
马上一声狂嚎，那也是一个祈祷，
从极度拥挤的建筑那儿响起。

他们从建筑的最高处把他，画像扔了出去；
大海吞没了画布和画笔
虽然他的主题已决定保留为一个祈祷。

The Painter

Sitting between the sea and the buildings
He enjoyed painting the sea’s portrait.
But just as children imagine a prayer
Is merely silence, he expected his subject
To rush up the sand, and, seizing a brush,
Plaster its own portrait on the canvas.

So there was never any paint on his canvas
Until the people who lived in the buildings
Put him to work: “Try using the brush
As a means to an end. Select, for a portrait,
Something less angry and large, and more subject
To a painter’s moods, or, perhaps, to a prayer.”

How could he explain to them his prayer
That nature, not art, might usurp the canvas?
He chose his wife for a new subject,
Making her vast, like ruined buildings,
As if, forgetting itself, the portrait
Had expressed itself without a brush.

Slightly encouraged, he dipped his brush
In the sea, murmuring a heartfelt prayer:
“My soul, when I paint this next portrait
Let it be you who wrecks the canvas.”
The news spread like wildfire through the buildings:
He had gone back to the sea for his subject.

Imagine a painter crucified by his subject!
Too exhausted even to lift his brush,
He provoked some artists leaning from the buildings
To malicious mirth: “We haven’t a prayer
Now, of putting ourselves on canvas,
Or getting the sea to sit for a portrait!”

Others declared it a self-portrait.
Finally all indications of a subject
Began to fade, leaving the canvas
Perfectly white. He put down the brush.
At once a howl, that was also a prayer,
Arose from the overcrowded buildings.

They tossed him, the portrait, from the tallest of the buildings;
And the sea devoured the canvas and the brush
As though his subject had decided to remain a prayer.

1955