The Treachery of Images《圖像的背叛》

愛藝

The Treachery of Images is painted when Rene Magritte was 30 years old. The picture shows a pipe. Below it， Magritte painted， “Ceci n’est pas une pipe”， French for “This is not a pipe.” The painting is not a pipe， but rather an image of a pipe. This masterpiece of Surrealism creates a three-way paradox out of the conventional notion that objects correspond to words and images.

The Treachery of Images belongs to a series of word-image paintings by Magritte from the late 1920s. Like the other artists and poets associated with the Surrealist movement， Magritte sought to overthrow what he saw as the oppressive rationalism of bourgeois society. He consistently interrogated conventions of language and visual representation， using methods that included the misnaming of objects， doubling and repetition， mirroring and concealment， and the depiction of visions seen in half-waking states—all of them devices that cast doubt on the nature of appearances， both in the paintings and in reality itself. The persistent tension Magritte maintained during these years between nature and artifice， truth and fiction， reality and surreality is one of the profound achievements of his art. Along with Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dali， The Treachery of Images has become the most iconic image of Surrealism Movement.

勒內·馬格利特30歲時創作了《圖像的背叛》，畫面是一只煙斗。在煙斗下方，馬格利特用法語寫了一行字：“這不是一只煙斗”。這幅畫不是真實的煙斗，而是呈現煙斗形象的畫作。這一超現實主義杰作創造了一個超脫傳統觀念的三方悖論，而傳統觀念認為，物體與文字和圖像應三方相合。

《圖像的背叛》是1920年代末馬格利特創作的圖文系列繪畫中的一幅。像其他參與超現實主義運動的畫家和詩人一樣，馬格利特試圖推翻他眼中資產階級社會帶給人壓迫感的理性主義。他不斷質疑語言和視覺呈現的傳統手法，采用的方法包括錯誤命名物體、翻倍和重復、制造鏡像和隱藏，以及描述半醒狀態下的幻覺——所有這些手段都令觀者對表象的本質產生懷疑，無論是畫中的樣子還是現實中本來的面貌。那些年，馬格利特在自然與技巧、真實與虛構、現實與超現實之間始終保持一種持久的張力——這是其藝術創作影響深遠的重大成就之一。馬格利特的《圖像的背叛》與薩爾瓦多·達利的《記憶的永恒》一道成為超現實主義運動最具代表性的畫作。

論語英譯選登

不患人之不己知，患不知人也。

Never mind others not knowing about you; just worry that you might not know about others.

為政以德，譬如北辰，居其所而眾星共之。

He who governs by means of morality is like the North Star， which keeps its place with all the other stars gathering around it.

詩三百，一言以蔽之，曰：思無邪。

The Book of Poetry with all its three hundred poems may be summed up in just one line： With no evil thoughts.

三十而立，四十而不惑，五十而知天命，六十而耳順，七十而從心所欲不逾矩。

At thirty I began to stand firm on my own feet; in my forties I was free from puzzlement; when I turned fifty I had come to apperceive destiny; by the age of sixty I had been all ears to different opinions; now in my seventies I can follow what my heart desires without going against what is right.

今之孝者，是謂能養。至于犬馬，皆能有養，不敬，何以別乎？

Nowadays filial piety simply means the feeding of one’s parents. But since dogs and horses may also get fed， what is there to distinguish the two if one shows no respect while supporting the parents？

（《〈論語〉最新英文全譯全注本》，吳國珍譯著，福建教育出版社，2012）