I have said already that but for the hazard of a journey to Tahiti I should doubtless never have written this book. 我在前面已经说过，如果不是由于偶然的机缘到了塔希提，我是肯定不会写这本书的。

It is thither that after many wanderings Charles Strickland came, and it is there that he painted the pictures on which his fame most securely rests. 查理斯·思特里克兰德经过多年浪迹最后流落到的地方正是塔希提；也正是在这里他创作出使他永远名垂画史的画幅。

I suppose no artist achieves completely the realisation of the dream that obsesses him, 我认为哪个艺术家也不可能把昼夜萦绕在他心头的梦境全部付诸实现，

and Strickland, harassed incessantly by his struggle with technique, managed, perhaps, less than others to express the vision that he saw with his mind's eye; 思特里克兰德为掌握绘画的技巧，艰苦奋斗、日夜处于痛苦的煎熬里，但同其他画家比较起来，他表现自己幻想中图景的能力可能更差，

but in Tahiti the circumstances were favourable to him; 只有到了塔希提以后，思特里克兰德才找到顺利的环境。

he found in his surroundings the accidents necessary for his inspiration to become effective, and his later pictures give at least a suggestion of what he sought. 在这里，他在自己周围处处可以看到为使自己的灵感开花结果不可或缺的事物，他晚年的图画至少告诉了我们他终生追寻的是什么，

They offer the imagination something new and strange. 让我们的幻想走入一个新鲜的、奇异的境界。

It is as though in this far country his spirit, that had wandered disembodied, seeking a tenement, at last was able to clothe itself in flesh. 仿佛是，思特里克兰德的精神一直脱离了他的躯体到处漫游，到处寻找寄宿，最后，在这个遥远的土地上，终于进入了一个躯壳。

To use the hackneyed phrase, here he found himself. 用一句陈腐的话说，他在这里可谓“得其所哉”。

It would seem that my visit to this remote island should immediately revive my interest in Strickland, 我一踏上这个偏远的岛屿，就应该立刻恢复对思特里克兰德的兴趣，这似乎是一件很自然的事；

but the work I was engaged in occupied my attention to the exclusion of something that was irrelevant, 但事实是，我手头的工作却占据了我的全部精神，根本无暇顾及与此无关的事；

and it was not till I had been there some days that I even remembered his connection with it. 直到在塔希提住了几天以后，我才想到这个地方同思特里克兰德的关系。

After all, I had not seen him for fifteen years, and it was nine since he died. 我毕竟同他分手已经十五年了，他逝世也已有九年之久了。

But I think my arrival at Tahiti would have driven out of my head matters of much more immediate importance to me, 现在回想当时的情况，在我到塔希提之后，不论手头的事多么重要，我本来应该立刻把它抛诸脑后的；

and even after a week I found it not easy to order myself soberly. 但事实却不是这样，甚至一周以后我仍然无法从冗杂的事务中脱身出来。

I remember that on my first morning I awoke early, and when I came on to the terrace of the hotel no one was stirring. 我还记得头一天早上，我醒得很早。当我走到旅馆的露台上时，周围一点动静也没有。

I wandered round to the kitchen, but it was locked, and on a bench outside it a native boy was sleeping. 我围着厨房转了一圈，厨房的门还上着锁，门外一条长凳上，一个本地人，旅馆的一个侍者，睡得正酣，

There seemed no chance of breakfast for some time, so I sauntered down to the water-front. 看来一时我还吃不上早饭。于是我漫步到滨海的街道上。

The Chinamen were already busy in their shops. 侨居在这里的中国人已经在他们开的店铺里忙碌起来了。

The sky had still the pallor of dawn, and there was a ghostly silence on the lagoon. 天空仍然呈现出黎明时分的苍白，环礁湖上笼罩着死一样的沉寂。

Ten miles away the island of Murea, like some high fastness of the Holy Grail, guarded its mystery. 十英里之外，莫里阿岛伫立在海面上，象是一座圣杯形状的巍峨要塞，深锁着自己的全部秘密。