【精英翻譯】的部落格

The Portrait of a Painter 　　星夜下的藝術大師 —— 梵谷

精英翻譯社轉自http://paper.udn.com/udnpaper/POH0062/294844/web/

　　 Vincent van Gogh is one of the most famous artists to have ever lived. His paintings hang in the world's best art galleries, and people line up for hours to look at one of them for a few seconds. When his paintings are bought and sold, they sell for millions upon millions of US dollars. His most expensive painting, called Portrait of Dr. Gachet, actually sold for US$148 million in 1990.

　　 文森‧梵谷是世上最有名的畫家之一。他的畫被高掛在世上最好的美術館，而人們大排長龍好幾個小時只為了看他其中一幅畫幾秒鐘。他的畫被買賣時，可以賣到上億美元。他最昂貴的畫作名為《嘉舍醫師的畫像》，而且它事實上在 1990 年時以一億四千八百萬美元賣出。

　　With such a huge amount of cash for a portrait of a doctor, it may surprise you to find out that Van Gogh was never famous when he was alive. In fact, he never even made a living as an artist and only managed to sell one of his 900 paintings. It was called The Red Vineyard, for which he received 400 Francs, which is about US$1,000 today.

　　儘管一位醫師的畫像可以賣這麼多錢，但是你若發現梵谷在世時一點都不有名時可能會很驚訝。事實上，他甚至不是以當畫家來謀生，而且只賣出了他九百幅畫中的其中一幅。這幅畫稱為《紅色葡萄園》，他因此得到了四百法郎，差不多等於現在的一千美元。

　　Statues of Vincent van Gogh now stand in many of the Dutch towns where he painted. Several songs have been written about him, and his face appears on his home country's postage stamps. So, why is it that a genius lived most of his life in poverty and remained completely unknown? To find out, let's take a closer look at the incredible life of this incredible man.

　　文森‧梵谷的雕像現在聳立在他畫過的許多荷蘭城鎮中。有人寫了幾首關於他的歌，而他的面貌也出現在他祖國的郵票中。那麼，為何這位天才的大半輩子都在貧困中度過且一直沒沒無聞呢？想知道的話，咱們就更仔細一點地看看這位令人驚奇的男人那不可思議的一生吧。