Vincent

Starry, starry night
Paint your palette blue and gray
Look out on a summer's day
With eyes that know the darkness in my soul
Shadows on the hills
Sketch the trees and daffodils
Catch the breeze and the winter chills
In colors on the snowy linen land

Now I understand what you tried to say to me
How you suffered for your sanity
How you tried to set them free
They would not listen, they did not know how
Perhaps, they'll listen now

Starry, starry night
Flaming flowers that brightly blaze
Swirling clouds in violet haze
Reflect in Vincent's eyes of china blue
Colors changing hue
Morning fields of amber grain
Weathered faces lined in pain
Are soothed beneath the artist's loving hand
Now I understand what you tried to say to me
How you suffered for your sanity
And how you tried to set them free
They would not listen, they did not know how
Perhaps, they'll listen now
For they could not love you
And still your love was true
And when no hope was left inside on that starry, starry night
You took your life as lovers often do
But I could have told you, Vincent
This world was never meant for one as beautiful as you

Starry, starry night
Portraits hung in empty hall
Frameless heads on nameless walls
With eyes that watch the world and can't forget
Like the strangers that you've met
The ragged man in ragged clothes
The silver thorn of bloody rose
Lie crushed and broken on the virgin snow
Now I think I know what you tried to say to me
How you suffered for your sanity
Then how you tried to set them free
They would not listen, they're not listening still
Perhaps, they never will...

梵谷（Vincent von Gogh)是印象派大師，也是由印象派到抽象派發展中的一個承先啟後的重要人物，剛被選為荷蘭歷史上十位最偉大人物之一。而我對梵谷的認識卻不是因為他的畫，而是從余光中翻譯的一本寫他傳奇一生的小說開始。也不知道梵谷究竟是天才還是瘋子，他生於中產家庭，原本可以在舒適地過一生，但因感情上的挫敗，以及在礦區從事教會工作的所見所聞，低下階層的三餐不飽、多病早逝的處境，令他知道真正的人間疾苦。他為了幫助礦工爭取利益，不惜變賣家財，甚至反出保守的教會，也令他自己的生活陷於更惡劣的境況，因得到胞弟在經濟上資助才勉強過活。這些經歷令梵谷在28歲的「高齡」，才正式開始繪畫。於是，他一面過著刻苦的生活，一面以農民、工人和農村景物為對象，繪畫了大量素描和油畫，將他對人間的不滿和內心的孤寂盡情地宣洩。其後，在他稍具名聲之時，由於和好友也是名畫家的高更發生多次吵鬧以至後來缺裂，令他精神瀕臨崩潰。在他生命最後的短短兩個月內，梵谷發狂似地繪畫了七十多幅油畫。而創作的激情亦將他的生命焚燒到盡頭，在1890年7月27日早上，梵谷在麥田中吞槍自殺，延至7月29日不治，享年僅37歲，結束了短暫而狂熱的一生。


梵谷最後的作品－麥田飛鴉