A certain importance attaches to the views on art of painters, and this is the natural place for me to set down what I know of Strickland’s opinions of the great artists of the past. —
某种重要性与画家对艺术的观点相关联，这是我记录斯特里克兰德对过去伟大艺术家观点的自然地方。 —

I am afraid I have very little worth noting. —
我怕我很少有值得注意的。 —

Strickland was not a conversationalist, and he had no gift for putting what he had to say in the striking phrase that the listener remembers. —
斯特里克兰德不是一个善谈者，他没有把他要说的话表达为令听者难忘的犀利词句的天赋。 —

He had no wit. His humour, as will be seen if I have in any way succeeded in reproducing the manner of his conversation, was sardonic. —
他没有智慧。他的幽默，如若我成功复制了他谈话的方式，将会看到是讽刺的。 —

His repartee was rude. He made one laugh sometimes by speaking the truth, but this is a form of humour which gains its force only by its unusualness; —
他的回击是粗鲁的。有时他通过说实话使人发笑，但这种幽默只有在不同寻常的时候才能获得力量； —

it would cease to amuse if it were commonly practised.
如果被广泛实践，它将不再有趣。

Strickland was not, I should say, a man of great intelligence, and his views on painting were by no means out of the ordinary. —
斯特里克兰德应该不是一个聪明的人，他对绘画的看法绝不寻常。 —

I never heard him speak of those whose work had a certain analogy with his own – of Cezanne, for instance, or of Van Gogh; —
我从未听他谈论过那些与他自己有某种相似性的画家–例如塞尚，或梵高； —

and I doubt very much if he had ever seen their pictures. —
我十分怀疑他是否见过他们的画。 —

He was not greatly interested in the Impressionists. —
他对印象派不是特别感兴趣。 —

Their technique impressed him, but I fancy that he thought their attitude commonplace. —
他们的技巧给他留下了深刻印象，但我想他认为他们的态度平庸。 —

When Stroeve was holding forth at length on the excellence of Monet, he said: —
当斯特罗夫大谈莫奈的卓越之处时，他说： —

“I prefer Winterhalter. ” But I dare say he said it to annoy, and if he did he certainly succeeded.
“我更喜欢温特哈尔特。”但我敢说他这样说是为了惹怒，如果这是他的目的，他肯定成功了。

I am disappointed that I cannot report any extravagances in his opinions on the old masters. —
我很失望我不能报告他对古老大师观点中的任何荒谬之处。 —

There is so much in his character which is strange that I feel it would complete the picture if his views were outrageous. —
在他的性格中有那么多奇怪的地方，我觉得如果他的观点是极端的话，将会完善这幅画。 —

I feel the need to ascribe to him fantastic theories about his predecessors, and it is with a certain sense of disillusion that I confess he thought about them pretty much as does everybody else. —
我感到有必要赋予他关于他的前辈们的奇妙理论，但我必须承认，他对他们的想法和普通人没有太大不同。 —

I do not believe he knew El Greco. He had a great but somewhat impatient admiration for Velasquez. —
我不相信他认识埃尔·格列科。他对维拉斯奎斯有很大的但略带不耐烦的钦佩。 —

Chardin delighted him, and Rembrandt moved him to ecstasy. —
夏尔当让他高兴，伦勃朗则让他陶醉。 —

He described the impression that Rembrandt made on him with a coarseness I cannot repeat. —
他描绘伦勃朗给他的印象时用了一个我无法重复的粗俗词语。 —

The only painter that interested him who was at all unexpected was Brueghel the Elder. I knew very little about him at that time, and Strickland had no power to explain himself. —
他唯一对他感兴趣的画家，是人们很少会想到的老布鲁盖尔。那时我对他知之甚少，而斯特里克兰又不能很好地解释。 —

I remember what he said about him because it was so unsatisfactory.
我还记得他说过的话，因为那太不尽如人意了。

“He’s all right, ” said Strickland. “I bet he found it hell to paint. “
“他也挺不错的，”斯特里克兰说。”我敢打赌，他画画时一定觉得地狱般。”

When later, in Vienna, I saw several of Peter Brueghel’s pictures, I thought I understood why he had attracted Strickland’s attention. —
后来在维也纳看到彼得·布鲁盖尔的几幅画时，我明白为什么他吸引了斯特里克兰的注意。 —

Here, too, was a man with a vision of the world peculiar to himself. —
这里也有一个有着独特世界观的人。 —

I made somewhat copious notes at the time, intending to write something about him, but I have lost them, and have now only the recollection of an emotion. —
那时我做了一些相当详尽的记录，打算写点什么，但我把它们弄丢了，现在只剩下了那种激动的回忆。 —

He seemed to see his fellow-creatures grotesquely, and he was angry with them because they were grotesque; —
他似乎看待他的同类是怪诞的，他对他们感到愤怒，因为他们是怪诞的； —

life was a confusion of ridiculous, sordid happenings, a fit subject for laughter, and yet it made him sorrowful to laugh. —
生活是一连串荒谬、肮脏的事情，值得发笑，但发笑让他感到忧伤。 —

Brueghel gave me the impression of a man striving to express in one medium feelings more appropriate to expression in another, and it may be that it was the obscure consciousness of this that excited Strickland’s sympathy. —
布鲁盖尔给我的感觉是一个努力用一种媒介表达更适合用另一种媒介表达的感觉的人，也许正因为此，才激起了斯特里克兰的同情。 —

Perhaps both were trying to put down in paint ideas which were more suitable to literature.
也许两者都在试图用画笔描绘更适合文学表达的思想。

Strickland at this time must have been nearly forty-seven.
斯特里克兰那时应该快47岁了。