又中又英——Awed & baffled

　　Some paintings by famous artists awe me. Others baffle me. I am awed by Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa. It's a simple yet captivating painting. I was in Paris last year before the coronavirus and went to see the Mona Lisa, the world's most famous painting. It was the second time I saw it. I stood there admiring it. The word "awe" used this way means having great respect or admiration for something. If you are "baffled" by something, it means you are unable to understand it. Some paintings baffle me because I cannot understand their meaning. The word "captivating" is used to describe something very exciting or interesting that can hold a person's attention.
　　The lyrics of the old song Vincent, which is about the famous Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh, are captivating. An interesting fact about van Gogh is that his paintings did not become famous until after his suicide in 1890 at the age of 37 after a life of mental illness and poverty. He cut off part of his left ear with a razor in 1888 in France after tensions between him and his close friend who was also a painter. Last week, I received a miniature sculpture of an ear shaped like a swimming pool from the New World group. The outside is white, the inside is blue to represent water.
　　I was baffled, then realized it was a tiny replica of van Gogh's Ear, a nine-metre high sculpture by Danish-Norwegian artists Elmgreen and Dragset at the K11 Musea in Tsim Sha Tsui. The K11 Musea, inspired by New World chief executive Adrian Cheng Chi-kong, who admires art, is a harbour-front complex with a mix of art, culture, retail and dining. It is celebrating its first-year anniversary with the unusual van Gogh's Ear sculpture, which will be displayed until next March. It's worth seeing. Another interesting fact about van Gogh is disagreement over how to pronounce his name. The Dutch pronunciation is difficult. Most people use the American pronunciation, which you can hear on the online version of this column.
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　　一些著名画家的画作使我心生敬畏（awe），另一些画作则使我感到困惑（baffle）。达文西的《蒙娜丽莎》便令我肃然起敬（awed），那是一幅简单但使人着迷的（captivating）画作。上年还没有新冠肺炎疫情的时候我在巴黎，去了看世上最知名的画作《蒙娜丽莎》。那是我第二次看它了。我就站在那儿欣赏。Awe在这里解作对某事肃然起敬或惊叹。若你是“baffled”by something，意即某事令你困惑不解。一些画作难倒了（baffle）我，因为我理解不到它们的意思。Captivating是用来形容某事非常迷人或有趣，可令人入迷。
　　有一首旧歌《Vincent》的歌词也令人着迷（captivating），说的是知名荷兰画家文森‧梵高的故事。一个关于梵高的有趣事实，就是他的画作在生前并不出名，直到一八九○年，他活过精神病患与贫穷的一生，以三十七岁之龄自杀之后，他才闻名于世。一八八八年，当他和另一位也是画家的好友关系变得紧张之后，他在法国用剃须刀割去了左耳的一部份。上星期，我收到新世界集团送来的一个迷你雕塑，是个像游泳池的耳朵，外面是白色的，里面则是代表水的蓝色。
　　我初时感到很困惑（baffled），然后便明白到那是《梵高的耳朵》的细小艺术复制品，原作是由挪威与丹麦的艺术家Elmgreen和Dragset创作的九米高雕塑，就放在尖沙咀的K11 Musea。K11 Musea是个海旁综合购物中心，结合艺术、文化、零售与餐饮，是由欣赏艺术的新世界行政总裁郑志刚所创。为庆祝它落成一周年，就有了这不凡的《梵高的耳朵》雕塑，将会展出至下年三月，值得一看。另一个有关梵高的有趣事实是，对于他的名字该怎样读，一直存有分歧，荷兰语的发音很困难，大部份人都会用美式发音，就是你在这专栏网上版听到的版本。中译：七刻
Michael Chugani 褚简宁