Rembrandt's Late Self-Portraits
by Elizabeth Jennings
You are confronted with yourself. Each year
The pouches fill, the skin is uglier.
You give it all unflinchingly. You stare
Into yourself, beyond. Your brush's care
Runs with self-knowledge. Here
Is a humility at one with craft.
There is no arrogance. Pride is apart
From this self-scrutiny. You make light drift
The way you want. Your face is bruised and hurt
But there is still love left.
Love of the art and others. To the last
Experiment went on. You stared beyond
Your age, the times. You also plucked the past
And tempered it. Self-portraits understand,
And old age can divest,
With truthful changes, us of fear of death.
Look, a new anguish. There, the bloated nose,
The sadness and the joy. To paint's to breathe,
And all the darknesses are dared. You chose
What each must reckon with.
伦勃朗的晚年自画像
伊丽莎白·詹宁斯
译/李雪梅 2018.11.26
你，直面自己。
沧桑岁月，
使你的眼袋越来越肿，
皮肤日益干瘪；
但你毫不讳避。
你凝视内心及身外一切，
画笔的细腻源于你
对自我的认知。
画里透着匠人的谦逊：
没有傲慢与得意——
自省使你与之远离。
你让光影随你之意飘移，
你的脸上带着伤痕，
但也存留着爱意——
那是对艺术及众生的深情。
你一生都探索不止：
你的凝视，超越了你的年龄
以及时代的生生不息。
你也萃取锤炼岁月之精：
自画像深知，垂暮的生命
以实实在在的改变，让我们
免除对死亡的恐惧。
看，那是一种新的苦闷：
画像里，有你肿胀的鼻子，
还有哀伤与欢愉。
绘画就是呼吸，
就是挑战所有的黑暗阴郁。
你选择了每个人
都必须面临的现实。
