(单词翻译:单击)
Born in 1606, Rembrandt became a hugely successful painter when he was still only in his twenties.
伦勃朗出生于1606年，20多岁时就成了一名非常成功的画家。
He earned a fortune and lived a wildly extravagant life.
他赚了一大笔钱，过着极其奢侈的生活。
But by his early fifties, he was all but bankrupt: he had to sell his house and all the beautiful objects he had accumulated.
但到了50岁出头，他几乎破产了：他不得不卖掉他的房子和他积累的所有漂亮的东西。
In the world of respectable, prudent Dutch merchants, his economic ruin was regarded as deeply shameful - and, self-evidently, it was entirely his own fault.
在受人尊敬、谨慎的荷兰商人的世界里，经济崩溃被认为是非常可耻的-不言而喻，这完全是他自己的错。
Around the time financial disaster struck, Rembrandt painted a self-portrait, burdened with an honest, deeply sorrowful awareness of his own idiocy and folly:
大约在金融危机发生的时候，伦勃朗画了一幅自画像，对自己的白痴和愚蠢非常诚实，对此带有深深的悲哀意识：
it is evident in his eyes that he knows he doesn't deserve anyone’s sympathy.
在他的眼中，很明显，他知道自己不值得任何人的同情。
Fittingly, given what he had gone through, his culminating masterpiece, painted at the very end of his life relates to another, more famous character who has behaved in a clearly appalling way.
巧的是，考虑到他所经历的一切，他在生命最后阶段所画的最后一幅杰作与另一个更著名的人物有关，这个人物的行为显然令人震惊。
The picture illustrates a parable from the New Testament known as The Prodigal Son.
这幅画展示了《新约》中的一个寓言故事，叫做《浪子回头》。
The kneeling man has been prodigal - in the sense of profligate; he took his father’s money, ran away and spent it all on wine, women and song.
跪在地上的男人一直挥霍无度，他拿走了父亲的钱跑了，把所有的钱都花在了喝酒、女人和唱歌上。
The prodigal son stands in for Rembrandt himself - the waster who has brought ruin and disgrace upon himself.
浪子代表伦勃朗本人--那个给自己带来毁灭和耻辱的挥霍无度的人。
The son deserves to be hounded and humiliated.
浪子应该受到追捕和羞辱。
But this is not the reception he gets.
但这不是他得到的待遇。
In the painting, the elderly father-figure greets his son with great compassion and gentleness.
在这幅画中，年迈的父亲以极大的同情和温柔迎接他的儿子。
Instead of giving his son the stern condemnation that he deserves, the father provides the love, warmth and forgiveness the son needs.
父亲没有给予儿子应得的严厉谴责，而是提供了儿子所需要的爱、温暖和宽恕。
The picture conveys Rembrandt’s moving and very intimate realisation about the true nature of love:
这幅画传达了伦勃朗对爱真实本质的认识，感人而又亲密的：
it reaches out to the selfish idiot, to the wastrel, to the passion-driven fool.
这幅画伸向自私的白痴、挥霍无度的人、被激情驱使的傻瓜。
Love properly understood is destined also for the undeserving.
正确理解的爱，也是注定给不配的人的。
Perhaps Rembrandt’s most moving work is a modest looking print entitled Christ Preaching.
也许伦勃朗最动人的作品是一幅看似朴素的版画《基督布道》。
Significantly, it isn’t set in Galilee or Jerusalem in the 1st century AD.
值得注意的是，它不是以公元1世纪的加利利或耶路撒冷为背景。
Instead the message of kindness is being preached in a back street of a Dutch town, in other words, to Rembrandt’s contemporaries.
换句话说，善良的信息正在一个荷兰小镇的后街里向伦勃朗的同时代人传播。
The message can be boiled down to three words:
这条信息可以归结为三个字:
‘I love you’ and it’s being beamed out to precisely the kinds of people who - in Rembrandt’s day - were viewed (with some justification) as particularly odious:
“我爱你”这句话正被传送给那些在伦勃朗时代被认为(有一定道理)特别讨厌的人:
they are, we can guess, thieves, layabouts, drunks, pimps and people who lent money at terrifying rates of interest; mean employers and con-artists.
我们可以猜测，他们是小偷、懒汉、酒鬼、皮条客和以可怕的利率放贷的人; 刻薄的雇主和骗子。
If Rembrandt were creating this work today, we might see - ranged around the alleyway - the representative unloveable figures of our times:
如果伦勃朗今天在创作这幅作品，我们可能会看到--散布在巷子里的--我们这个时代不讨人喜欢的代表性人物：
a politician who incites conflict, the owner of a newspaper that puts profit above truth;
煽动冲突的政客，把利润置于真相之上的报纸的老板；
someone who is proud of their vulgarity;
为自己的粗俗而感到自豪的人；
a snobbish socialite, an arms trader, a feral youth, a sexual deviant or the kind of person who seems to take satisfaction in distressing others.
势利的社交名流，军火贩子，野蛮的年轻人，性变态者，或者是那种似乎从折磨别人中得到满足的人。
It is to them that the message of love is being directed.
爱的讯息正是向他们传达的。
Rembrandt’s key insight is that everyone needs love - whether they deserve it or not.
伦勃朗的主要见解是，每个人都需要爱--无论他们是否值得被爱。
If we wait to be kind only to those who deserve kindness, we will be waiting for a very long time; in fact, we’ll have turned into monsters.
如果我们只善待那些值得善待的人，那我们将等待很长时间; 事实上，我们会变成怪物。
