几个月前，我站在人来人往的拉马丁广场的拐角，马路对面是进入法国南部阿尔勒的古罗马门。这个地方对文森特·梵高(Vincent van Gogh)的一生都至关重要。我身后是罗纳河，一个繁星满天的夜晚，梵高曾在这里的码头画下了河中闪烁的倒影。在我面前是一条破败的商业街，通向大片大片的向日葵花海，而它们曾一次次地出现在梵高的画作中。
A few months ago, I stood at the corner of a busy roundabout called Place Lamartine, across from the Roman gates leading into Arles in southern France, on a spot that was pivotal in the life of Vincent van Gogh. Behind me was the Rhone River, where he painted sparkling reflections from the quay on one particularly memorable starry night. Before me was a run-down commercial strip leading toward vast fields of the sunflowers he painted time and again.
这里曾经矗立着梵高的黄房子，那个洒满阳光的普罗旺斯住宅是他1888年的油画的主角。用梵高自己的话来说，他曾在里面度过了一段“集中休憩”的时光，“卧室”的墙壁是淡紫色的，那一年曾三次出现在他的油画中。
It was where Vincent van Gogh’s Yellow House once stood, the sun-drenched Proven home that was the subject of his 1888 oil painting, where he took a period of “enforced rest” as he put it, in a pale violet-walled “Bedroom” he depicted in oil paintings three times that year.
这栋小房子充满了传奇色彩：在这里，世界最负盛名的艺术家之一把自己的绘画技术推向了巅峰，创作了《夜晚露天咖啡座》、《向日葵》和《播种者》等作品。在这里，梵高的个人生活出现了戏剧性和悲剧性的转折。在这里，他与好友保罗·高更(Paul Gauguin)发生了激烈的争吵，用刀割掉了自己的耳朵，入住了当地的精神病医院。
The little house contained legends: It was where one of the world’s most famous artists pushed his painting technique to its peak with works such as “Café Terrace at Night,” “Sunflowers” and “The Sower.” And it was where his personal life turned a dramatic and tragic corner. Here, van Gogh had a tumultuous fight with his friend, Paul Gauguin, and sliced a blade through his own ear, before admitting himself to the local mental hospital.
去年3月到8月，我造访了梵高艺术生涯中的许多重要地点，起点是比利时矿业城市蒙斯。27岁的荷兰人梵高曾在那里失去了在当地煤矿公司传教的工作，原因是他选择和矿工生活在同样肮脏的环境里，“破坏了传道士的尊严”，并开始在画画。此后，我来到了他一些知名画作的诞生地，巴黎的蒙马特、普罗旺斯的圣雷米和阿尔勒，最后是见证梵高匆匆走完37年人生的瓦兹河畔欧韦。
From March to August, I traveled to many of the landmarks of van Gogh’s artistic life, beginning in the Belgian mining town of Mons, where the 27-year-old Dutchman was fired from his job as a missionary working among local coal miners for “undermining the dignity of the priesthood” by opting to live in the same squalid conditions as the miners — and where he instead began to draw. From there, I traveled to his renowned painting locations, Montmartre in Paris and Arles and St. Rémy in Provence, and ultimately to the Parisian suburb of Auvers-sur-Oise, where his life was cut short in his 37th year.
我的梵高之旅正好赶上了2015欧洲梵高年。为了纪念梵高逝世125周年，荷兰、比利时和法国举办了大量文化活动和与梵高有关的展览。让我难以置信的是，虽然梵高享有如此的声望和爱戴，他生命中好几处重要地标竟然没有被保护起来，或者无人问津。不过，有几个位置——比如梵高在普罗旺斯的圣雷米的精神病院房间，以及他度过最后人生的瓦兹河畔欧韦的酒店房间，都被精心地修葺，迎接着对这位艺术家的人生感兴趣的游客和当地居民。当地人也从这种轻文化旅游中获得了丰厚的经济利益。
I was on the trail of the artist during Van Gogh Europe 2015, the year that commemorates the 125th anniversary of his death, observed by cultural events and exhibitions related to van Gogh throughout the Netherlands, Belgium and France. What struck me was that, considering how famous and beloved van Gogh is, there are a number of historical landmarks of his life that have not been preserved, or are neglected. A few spots, however — such as van Gogh’s room at the asylum in St.-Rémy-de-Provence and his hotel room in Auvers-sur-Oise, where he died — have been handsomely renovated to great effect for visitors interested in the artist’s life, and for the local communities, which benefit economically from this form of gentle cultural tourism.
为了复制这些强大的典范，与2015欧洲梵高年有关的官员称，他们打算大力宣传这些被遗忘的角落，让人们了解到许多与梵高有关的遗迹还需要保护。
Hoping to replicate these strong examples, officials involved in Van Gogh Europe 2015 said their aim was to promote the forgotten sites, to focus attention on the fact that many sites linked to van Gogh were still in need of preservation.
“世界各地的人们对梵高的画作都有着强烈的兴趣，他在博物馆的作品有庞大的拥趸，”梵高欧洲基金会主席弗兰克·范登艾金登(Frank van den Eijnden)在电话采访中说。“但总体来说，用于恢复和保护梵高遗产的资金却不多，主要包括在法国、比利时和荷兰的遗产。我们需要为相关机构赢得更多关注，尤其是来自政府机构的关注。我们真心希望梵高的遗产在未来几年成为世界性的遗产。”
“There’s a huge amount of interest worldwide in van Gogh’s paintings, and there’s a great audience for his work in museums,” Frank van den Eijnden, chairman of the Van Gogh Europe Foundation, said in a phone interview. “But generally there is less money for restoration and preservation of van Gogh heritage, mainly the local heritage sites that you can find in France, Belgium and the Netherlands. We needed more attention for all the organizations involved, and especially from the governments that were linked to these locations. We really want van Gogh heritage to be a world heritage in the coming years.”
在梵高居住过的地方，往往会看到梵高的照片或用梵高信件中的文字制作的牌匾，有些会出现在不可思议的位置。例如，在普罗旺斯的圣雷米，一户私人住宅的白色灰泥墙前就有一块牌匾，上面印着他的《麦田里的丝柏树》。
Mostly, in places where van Gogh lived, there are a number of plaques featuring van Gogh images or words from his letters, in sometimes inscrutable locations. In St.-Rémy-de-Provence, for example, there is a plaque that shows his “Green Wheat Field With Cypress” posted in front of the white stucco wall of a private home.
踏上这次旅程时，我并不是梵高的仰慕者。九年前，我为了给一本关于伦勃朗的小说做研究搬到了荷兰，我更偏爱荷兰的早期绘画大师。对我来说，梵高作品的问题在于，它熟悉得就像是麦片包装盒——安迪·沃霍尔可能会说像汤罐头——如此频繁地遭到模仿和复制，到了让人无感的程度。即使站在真迹面前，我也感受不到新鲜。此外，我也厌倦了梵高传记的陈词滥调，它们无一例外地把他描述成“一生中从未卖出一幅画的饱受折磨的天才”。
I wasn’t a van Gogh fan when I embarked on this journey. I moved to the Netherlands nine years ago to do research for a novel on Rembrandt, and my passion lies more in the Dutch old masters. My trouble with van Gogh’s work was that, to me, it had the familiarity of cereal boxes — or, as Andy Warhol might have it, soup cans — copied and reproduced to the point of unseeability. Even when I was standing among the originals, the freshness of his work evaded me. Also, I was weary of what seemed like a triteness in van Gogh’s biography, the tortured-genius-who-never-sold-a-painting-in-his-life.
我经常写梵高的故事，因为我是驻阿姆斯特丹的美国艺术记者，而每年会有大量游客来到全世界最大的梵高作品收藏地——梵高博物馆，它就位于阿姆斯特丹庞大的博物馆广场的中央。
I often write about van Gogh, because I’m an American art journalist based in Amsterdam, where tourists flock by the millions to the largest trove of his paintings anywhere in the world, the Van Gogh Museum, at the center of Amsterdam’s sprawling Museumplein (museum square).
然而当我了解到，梵高曾经坐在阿姆斯特丹国家博物馆（也在博物馆广场，梵高博物馆旁边）里面伦勃朗最著名的画作《犹太新娘》前对一个朋友说，“如果我可以在这幅画前坐上两周，我宁愿少活10年，哪怕只吃干面包充饥都行，”我开始思考梵高和他的创作过程。伦勃朗利用厚重的黄色油彩塑造出立体形象的这幅画，让我走进了梵高的世界。
But when I learned that van Gogh once sat down in front of one of Rembrandt’s most famous works, “The Jewish Bride,” in the Rijksmuseum (also on Museumplein, next to the Van Gogh Museum) and confided to a friend, “I should be happy to give 10 years of my life if I could go on sitting here in front of this picture for two weeks, with only a crust of dry bread for food,” I began to think about van Gogh and his creative process. That painting, to which Rembrandt applied yellow paint in such thick impasto that it lifts right out into three-dimensionality, was the link for me into the world of van Gogh.
因此，在7月的炎热天气里，我来到了阿尔勒这个繁忙的交叉路口，想看看在他曾经住过的地方，我是否能找到梵高灵魂的踪迹。但是黄房子已经不在，后来我才知道，它于上世纪40年代在“二战”中被摧毁。我面前是一块白色的牌匾，固定在人行道的柱子上，图片上是梵高的画作：各种色调的金黄干草，新鲜的奶油和阳光，在点彩手法绘出的蓝色天空之下。画上又见浓墨重彩的黄色，如同脱胎于伦勃朗的调色盘。但那不是梵高。
So, that is what brought me, in the heat of July, to the busy intersection in Arles, to see if, in a place that he once inhabited, I could find traces of van Gogh’s soul. But there was no more Yellow House. It was demolished in the 1940s in World War II, I would find out later. In front of me was a white plaque affixed to a pole that stood on the sidewalk, with an image of van Gogh’s painting, all shades of golden hay, fresh butter and sunlight, under a stippled blue sky. There was that impasto yellow again, straight out of Rembrandt’s palette. But no van Gogh.
大失所望的我回到车里，决定寻找我的单子上另一个与梵高有关的地点：阿尔勒郊外的朗格鲁瓦吊桥，他在1888年画这座桥画了九次。我知道它仍在那里，因为它现在叫做梵高桥。
Disappointed, I got back in my car and decided to try to find another van Gogh location on my list: Langlois Bridge, a drawbridge on the outskirts of Arles, which he depicted nine times in 1888. I knew it was still there because it’s now called Pont Van-Gogh.
比利时博里纳日
The Borinage, Belgium
我此行的起点不是梵高的出生地，而是梵高作为画家的诞生地：在比利时东部破旧乏味的煤矿区博里纳日，25岁的梵高曾在这里向煤矿里贫穷、被煤灰熏得漆黑的工人布道。因为他就是在这里被剥夺了传道士的身份，开始了艺术家的生涯，蒙斯城已经宣布这里是“这位艺术家的诞生地”。蒙斯的美术馆举办了大量活动和早期作品展，这些活动已经于5月结束（梵高的出生地是荷兰的津德尔特）。
I began my journey not in van Gogh’s birthplace, but in the location where van Gogh the artist came to life: in the gritty, drab eastern coal-mining region of Belgium called the Borinage, where van Gogh at age 25 went to minister to the destitute, soot-blackened workers of the coal pits. Because this is where he was rejected from the priesthood and began his artistic career, the city of Mons has declared this the “birthplace of the artist,” with a host of events and an exhibition of his early work at the Museum of Fine Arts, in Mons, which ended in May. (Van Gogh’s birthplace was in Zundert, the Netherlands.)
梵高在蒙斯的几个地方居住过，但是他发现自己羞耻于自己过着优越的生活，听他传道的人们却只能生活在拥挤棚屋里，所以他放弃了中产阶级的财产，搬到了更小更简陋的房子里。他开始时租住在山上的一所大红砖房子里，房东名叫让-巴蒂斯特·丹尼斯(Jean-Baptiste Denis)。
Van Gogh lived in a few locations in Mons; but he found himself ashamed to be living so well while the people to whom he ministered lived in overcrowded huts, and so he jettisoned his middle-class possessions and moved into smaller and simpler homes. He had started out in a large home up the hill from the local mine, in a red brick house he rented from a landlord named Jean-Baptiste Denis.
人们都告诉我，这栋房子位于蒙斯城外，相距只有15分钟左右车程，但我花了一小时才找到。地图上没有这个地方，我能找到全凭运气：我向一名男子问路，而他刚好是该地区的一名私人梵高路线导游。最后，我终于看到了它，在威尔森街221号的一排似乎没有尽头的破破烂烂的房屋的最远端，有一栋方方正正的红砖房子，屋顶铺着红瓦，比周围的房屋稍大一点。
Everyone I spoke to told me that Maison Denis was only about a 15-minute drive outside Mons, but it took me an hour of driving in circles. It’s not on any map and I got there by chance: I asked directions from a man who happened to be a private van Gogh tour guide in the area. Finally, there it was: At the bitter end of a seemingly endless stretch of ramshackle rowhouses at 221, rue Wilson was a square red brick house with a red tile roof, only a bit larger than the houses that surrounded it.
梵高欧洲基金会的范登艾金登告诉我，许多与梵高有关的宅子都已经倾圮，这座房屋是其中之一，多亏了当地的一家基金会为梵高年进行的筹资，这栋房屋的翻新正在进行当中。房屋仍然关闭，外面围着巨大的栅栏，我走到了后院的边上，它毗邻的草地上开满野花，从山下一直开到我能看到马卡斯煤矿的地方。这座煤矿现在已经关闭。房屋经过修缮目前已经重新开放，叫做“科尔方丹的梵高故居”(Maison Van Gogh in Colfontaine)，周末上午10点到下午6点可供参观。
The home was one of the sites that Mr. van den Eijnden of the Van Gogh Europe Foundation had told me was nearly dilapidated, but thanks to fund-raising by a local foundation for Van Gogh Year, renovation of the house was underway. The house was still shuttered and there was a large fence around the property, but I walked to the edge of the backyard, where it bordered a grassy field blanketed in wildflowers that followed all the way down the hill to where I could see the colliery of the Marcasse mine, now closed. The refurbished house has since opened as Maison Van Gogh in Colfontaine, and can be visited on weekends from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
这个景点之前的破败景象，与另一处位于博尔纳日奎姆村的梵高故居形成了鲜明对比。这所别致的小房子位于一条砂砾路尽头的草地上，梵高1879年和1880年曾在此居住。正是在这里，他因为令教廷蒙羞被要求放弃传教士的工作，他写信给弟弟提奥，跟他说自己想要尝试画画。“试着理解伟大的艺术家、严肃的大师在作品中表达的最后一句话；那里面会有上帝，”他写道。“有人在书里写作或表达，有人在画中。”
The attraction’s previously poor state was in sharp contrast to the other landmark van Gogh home in the Borinage, in the village of Cuesmes, Maison Van Gogh, a quaint cottage on a plot of grass at the end of a gravel road where van Gogh lived in 1879 and 1880. This was the location where he regrouped after he was told to abandon his ministry because he had disgraced the church, and where he wrote a letter to his brother, Theo, telling him he would like to try his hand at art. “Try to understand the last word of what the great artists, the serious masters, say in their masterpieces; there will be God in it,” he wrote. “Someone has written or said it in a book, someone in a painting.”
在这处故居中（门票4欧元，即大约4.25美元），我是为数不多的参观者之一，我观看了一部梵高的传记短片，欣赏了玻璃橱窗里展示的一些粗糙的早期素描，花了几分钟看了看他简朴的家具——一张小木书桌，一把椅子，一个燃烧着木头的壁炉。
Inside this tourist site (which has an admission fee of 4 euros, or about $4.25 at $1.06 to the euro) I was one of only a few visitors, and watched a short biographical video, looked at some of van Gogh’s early, clumsy sketches displayed in a glass vitrine and spent a few minutes among his spartan furnishings — a small wooden writing table, a chair and a wood-burning stove.
荷兰纽南
Nuenen, the Netherlands
决心投身绘画之后，梵高搬回了荷兰，与在纽南的父母生活了两年。他的父亲是当地的一名牧师。令这座小城自豪的是，这位四处漂泊的艺术家成年期间在这里居住了最长时间，而且这里也是《吃马铃薯的人》的创作地。这幅画目前被认为是梵高的早期杰作之一。
After he had resolved to devote himself to art, van Gogh moved back to the Netherlands, to live with his parents for two years in the town of Nuenen, where his father was the local minister. This town is proud of its legacy as the place where the itinerant artist remained for the longest stretch of his adult life, and where he painted “The Potato Eaters,” which is now known as his early masterpiece.
纽南已经把从前的市政厅变成了文森特中心(Vincentre)，包括一座基本上完全用来展示梵高家庭关系的博物馆，一家咖啡馆和一家礼品商店。这个中心是纽南梵高村的核心，也是一个户外博物馆的起点，可以步行或骑自行车游览22处景点，包括梵高画过的一些美景，《星夜》自行车道上的石头在天黑之后呈现出螺旋形的灯光。
Nuenen has turned the former town hall into the Vincentre, with a museum largely devoted to van Gogh’s family relationships, a cafe and a gift shop. The center is at the heart of Van Gogh Village Neunen, and the starting point of an outdoor museum, a 22-point walking or biking tour that takes you to some lovely locations where van Gogh painted, and to the Starry Night bike path that lights up with swirls of twinkling stones after dark.
马路对面正好是梵高父母的家，一栋两层的砖房，现在是一处私人住宅，无法参观。它旁边是玛高特·贝格曼(Margot Begemann)的家，这个隔壁女孩爱上了梵高，当她的家庭阻止他们的恋情之后，她曾试图服用番木鳖碱自杀。她家的房子名叫 “Nune Ville”，已经成为当地历史保护专家的重点保护对象，他们也想把它打造成一处梵高的遗产。
It is also directly across the street from van Gogh’s family home, a two-story brick house, now a private residence that one can’t visit. Next to it is the home of Margot Begemann, the girl next door, who fell in love with the artist and tried to poison herself with strychnine when her family objected to the affair. Her family home, called Nune Ville, which came on the market recently by chance, has become a focus of efforts by local historic preservationists who would like to turn it too into a van Gogh heritage site.
去年夏天，我来参观的时候，这个庄重住宅的多数房间都被当代艺术家占据，他们受到梵高的启发，创作了一些房间大小的艺术装置，展览的名字叫“文森特集市”(The Vincent Affair)，10月份结束。范登艾金登说，此后，寻找投资者把这里变成长期旅游景点的努力陷入停滞。
Over last summer, when I visited, most of the rooms of the stately home were given over to contemporary artists who had created room-size installations inspired by van Gogh, in an exhibition called “The Vincent Affair,” which ended in October. Since then, attempts to find investors who could help turn the site into a permanent tourist spot have stalled, Mr. van den Eijnden said.
巴黎蒙马特
Montmartre, Paris
在与玛高特·贝格曼的爱情告终之后，梵高没有在纽南待太长时间。他搬到了比利时的安特卫普，然后又搬到了巴黎。他的兄弟提奥在巴黎顶尖的画廊Coupil&Cie做艺术品交易的工作。梵高搬到了弟弟位于勒皮克大街54号三楼的公寓。这里现在是一处私人住宅，只有一块大理石板上写着，“1886年到1888年，文森特·梵高来到这栋房子与弟弟提奥同住。”窗户的格栏上挂着几朵塑料向日葵。
Van Gogh didn’t stay in Nuenen long after the end of the Margot Begemann affair. He moved first to Antwerp, Belgium, and then to Paris, where his brother Theo had a job as an art dealer with the leading art gallery, Goupil & Cie. Van Gogh moved into his brother’s third-floor apartment at 54, rue Lepic in Montmartre, which is a private residence now, and designated only by a marble plaque: “Dans cette maison Vincent van Gogh a vécu chez son frère Théo de 1886 à 1888.” (“In this house Vincent van Gogh lived at his brother Théo’s place from 1886 to 1888.”) And some plastic sunflowers dangle from the window grate.
勒皮克大街向北蜿蜒穿过蒙马特，经过一些老风车，最终抵达圣心圣殿。在路上可以发现梵高在这度过的两年留下的许多足迹，包括他的友人亨利·图卢兹-罗特列克(Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec)的公寓，以及现在位于圣文森特街的最古老的巴黎葡萄园，梵高有时会在这里画画。
The Rue Lepic arcs upward through Montmartre, passing the old windmills, and ultimately arrives at the Sacré-Coeur. On the way up, one can discover many prime landmarks of the nearly two years that van Gogh spent here, including the apartment of his friend Henri Toulouse-Lautrec and the oldest surviving Parisian vineyard, where van Gogh sometimes painted, now on Rue Saint Vincent.
梵高在那里居住时，这片地区是巴黎城外的一个小村子。这里对于他作为画家的成长至关重要，因为他遇见了许多印象主义和其他流派的画家，包括好友保罗·高更，模仿并探索了巴黎的各种绘画风格。在蒙马特没有一个有形的场所可以让你走进去探索并感受梵高当时的生活，但是有些博物馆收藏了他的作品，比如奥赛博物馆。
The area, which was a hamlet outside Paris when van Gogh lived there, was critical to his progress as a painter, because it is where he met many of the Impressionists and other artists, including his friend Paul Gauguin, and imitated and explored various Parisian painting styles. There are no physical landmarks one can enter and explore in Montmartre to get a sense of how he lived, though there are museums, like the Musée d’Orsay, that now contain his work.
法国普罗旺斯
Provence, France
在我参观的多数地方，想找到梵高的真迹几乎都是不可能的，除非是在专门为梵高年举办的展览上。阿尔勒的梵高基金会(Fondation Van Gogh in Arles)是一个宽敞的展览空间，顶棚是彩色玻璃的艺术设计，可以让普罗旺斯的阳光折射进来。这处2014年开设的场所是一个例外。凭借与阿姆斯特丹的梵高博物馆的一份协议，基金会全年都会展示一幅梵高的真迹。
Finding original artworks by van Gogh in most of the locations I visited would have been nearly impossible except for the special exhibitions designed for Van Gogh Year. The Fondation Van Gogh in Arles, an expansive exhibition space topped with an artwork of colored glass refracting Proven light through its roof, which opened in 2014, is a notable exception. Through an agreement with the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, the foundation will have one original van Gogh painting on display year-round.
梵高人生最后几个阶段的故居保存最完好，也最打动人。他在阿尔勒切掉了一片耳朵之后，被送到了普罗旺斯的阿尔勒医院，他在那里画下的郁郁葱葱的花园目前仍然免费展示给公众，这家医院目前叫做梵高医院。当他发现这里不能提供足够的治疗时，他的弟弟在北部30分钟路程的普罗旺斯的圣雷米的精神病院为他安排了一个床位。开车前往这家精神病院的途中，我路过了一片片绵延不断的向日葵，以及阿尔卑斯山脚下的山麓丘陵，叫做阿尔皮勒，梵高在这里画下了《麦田》系列和最著名的《星夜》。
The final stages of van Gogh’s life are the best preserved, and they are also the most moving. After he cut off a part of his ear in Arles, he was admitted to the Arles hospital in Provence, where he painted the lush gardens that are still on display free to the public, as Espace Van Gogh. When he found that this was not sufficient treatment, his brother secured a spot for him at the asylum in St.-Rémy-de-Provence, about 30 minutes to the north. The drive there took me past the endless stretches of sunflowers now so closely associated with his art, and through the foothills of the range of small mountains at the base of the Alps, called the Alpilles, where he painted a series of “Wheat Fields” and his most famous “Starry Night.”
圣雷米市为梵高的游客提供了一个从市中心出发的包含19个景点的徒步旅行路线，叫做梵高人行道，游客还可以下载Van Gogh Natures的应用程序，获取关于他在精神病院和周围创作的画作的信息。我按图索骥来到了山上，突然发现自己在轻声低语：“文森特，你在哪呢？你在这儿吗？”我在旅行中第一次意识到，我是在寻找一个灵魂。
The municipality of St. Rémy has done van Gogh tourists a service by creating a 19-point walking tour from the city center called Promenade de van Gogh, which can be complemented with an app called Van Gogh Natures that adds information about paintings he made in and around the asylum. I followed this self-guided tour up the hill, finding myself softly whispering: “Vincent, where are you? Are you here?” I realized, for the first time on my journey, that I had come in search of a ghost.
终点是莫索尔的圣保罗修道院(Saint Paul de Mausole)和它周围华丽的花园。这里曾经是一个罗曼式建筑风格的修道院，目前属于一所精神病院。在适当的季节，你可以看到为梵高绘画带去灵感的美丽的鸢尾花和百合。精神病院周围是扭曲的橄榄树，以及他曾经用浓烈而情绪化的笔触描绘过的高耸而优雅的丝柏树。
The destination was the St. Paul de Mausole, a Romanesque former religious cloister that is part of a still-functioning mental hospital, and its sumptuous surrounding gardens. Depending on the season when you visit, you can find all the beautiful irises and lilies that inspired van Gogh’s paintings. And around the asylum are the twisted olive groves and the tall elegant cypresses that he captured with dense, emotional brushwork.
在修道院内，穿过中世纪的石头大厅和浅浅的罗曼式的楼梯，就来到了梵高在精神病院住过的房间。窗户上的钢铁栅栏和他铁床边的画架形成了强烈的反差，但更加令人震惊的是，隔壁的房间有两个用于“水疗护理”的钢铁浴盆——这只会让人联想到他可能遭受的折磨。在参观完了病房之后，我在花园中游荡，寻找片刻宁静，满脑子都在想梵高的痛苦，我好奇他在精神病院里是怎么画画的——更不用说他还创作了143幅油画和100幅素描。
Inside the cool cloister, through its medieval stone halls and up the shallow Romanesque stairs, is van Gogh’s preserved former room at the asylum. The steel bars on the windows are a jarring counterpoint to the easel positioned next to his wrought-iron bed, but what is more shocking is the room next door with two steel baths used for administering “hydrotherapy treatments” — only a hint of the therapeutic tortures he might have endured here. I wandered through the gardens for a moment of calm after seeing the hospital cell, my mind raging with thoughts of van Gogh’s suffering, and wondering how he managed to paint at all during the time he was at the asylum — let alone make 143 oil paintings and 100 drawings.
法国瓦兹河畔欧韦
Auvers-sur-Oise, France
虽然梵高最终离开了圣雷米精神病院，他的不幸没有结束。他回到了法国北部的瓦兹河畔欧韦镇，这里距离巴黎有30分钟车程。我在那里参观了最令人印象深刻的地标，梵高在历史悠久的拉乌餐厅旅馆(Auberge Ravoux)的房间。因为被认为是自杀的不祥之地，这个二楼的小房间（比他在精神病院的房间还小）在梵高去世之后空了很多年，通过一位名叫多米尼克 - 查尔斯詹森的公民的努力得到了完全的修复。在这个房间里，梵高用了仅仅70天的时间完成了超过80幅画作，屋子里只能通过天花板上的小窗获得一些自然光，感觉就像一口棺材。梵高在这里死于致命枪伤——可能是自己开的枪——弟弟当时就在他身边。
Van Gogh’s troubles did not end, though he finally left the St. Rémy hospital. He made his way back to northern France, to the town of Auvers-sur-Oise, about a 30-minute drive from Paris. It is where I visited the most poignant landmark, Van Gogh’s Room in the historic inn Auberge Ravoux. This tiny second-floor room (even smaller than his room at the asylum) remained empty for years after van Gogh died, suffering the curse of any French hotel room that was thought to be the scene of a suicide, and has been restored entirely through the efforts of a citizen, Dominique-Charles Janssens. This room, where van Gogh completed more than 80 paintings in just 70 days, with its only access to natural light a small ceiling window, is reminiscent of a coffin. Here is where van Gogh died of a fatal gunshot wound — probably self-inflicted — with his brother at his side.
他的坟墓就在附近，葬在他身边的是弟弟兼好友提奥。提奥在梵高去世的六个月后去世，终年33岁。
And in close walking distance is his grave, alongside his brother and confidante, Theo, who died six months later, at age 33.
不过，从他的坟墓走不了多远，有更为值得一看的地方：沿着尘土飞扬的路走下去，是一片麦田，梵高在这里创作了他最后系列的油画作品。
What is more compelling, however, was a short walk away from his grave: the wheat fields down the dusty road where he painted his final series of canvases.
到了最后，这趟旅程已经有了几分朝圣的味道。我来到了梵高背着画板独自远行，以及他凝视着歪橄榄树、方尖碑样的丝柏树和令人眩晕的星夜的地方。
By the end, the trip became something of a pilgrimage. I had gone to where van Gogh trekked alone with his easel on his back, gazing at the crooked olive groves, the obelisk-like cypresses and the swirling starry nights.
当我踏着阿尔勒一条河边的泥土路，来到梵高在四幅素描、一幅水彩和四幅油画中描绘过的朗格鲁瓦吊桥，我在想：梵高住在阿尔勒这样一座城市的市中心，周围散落着美丽的罗曼式旧建筑遗迹，以奇妙和梦幻的方式照进夜晚的灯光，为何他还一次次地执迷于城外几里地远的这座有点过时的小吊桥？从阿姆斯特丹千里迢迢来到这里，造访了那么多梵高的故居之后，我意识到，我知道答案。尽管梵高为了寻找恰当的效果、光线和绘画对象而远走他乡，但他一直都渴望家的感觉。
When I tramped down a dirt road along a river in Arles to the Pont de Langlois, which van Gogh depicted in four drawings, one watercolor and four oil paintings, I wondered: Why, when living in the center of a city like Arles, dotted with beautiful Roman ruins that filtered evening light in dramatic and wonderful ways, he was instead attracted, over and over again, to this slightly old-fashioned little drawbridge miles outside of town. And, having come all the way from Amsterdam, through so many van Gogh locations, I realized that I knew. Although van Gogh traveled far to discover the right effects, the right light and the right subjects for his paintings, all the while he was longing for a sense of home.
走的地方越多，我对梵高就愈加着迷。他把眼中的世界幻化了比真实更加真实的画面。这些地标是我的起点，我可以继续远行，去感受梵高在短短10年绘画生涯中要达到如此惊人艺术创作高度，其肉体和心灵所走过的距离。
The more I traveled the more I became fascinated by this man van Gogh, who transmuted the reality of things he saw into images that are more real than real. The landmarks provided me with a starting point, from which I could travel out, and get a sense of the distances he traveled, both physically and mentally, to achieve the remarkable heights of artistic creation in the short span of a 10-year career.
参观建议
IF YOU GO
荷兰
In the Netherlands
阿姆斯特丹的梵高博物馆（Museumplein 6; 31-20-570-5200；vangoghmuseum.nl）是世界上最大的梵高作品收藏中心。它位于阿姆斯特丹的中心位置，长期展出他的作品，以及与其作品有关的当代展览。
Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam (Museumplein 6; 31-20-570-5200; Vangoghmuseum.nl) is the world’s largest trove of artworks by van Gogh. It is in the heart of Amsterdam, with a permanent exhibition of his work as well as temporary exhibitions that relate his works to other great artists.
文森特中心/纽南梵高村（Vincentre Berg 29, Nuenen; 31-40-283-9615; 4月到10月，自行车和徒步旅游路线），一家小型博物馆，你可以从这里开始一次露天的徒步之旅，途径梵高画作中在纽南的重要景点。梵高在纽南与父母居住两年，并在这里爱上了玛高特·贝格曼。
Vincentre / Van Gogh Village Nuenen(Vincentre Berg 29, Nuenen; 31-40-283-9615; for biking and walking tours, April through October), a small museum, is the beginning of an open-air walking tour that takes you through important locations for van Gogh’s painting in Nuenen, where he lived with his parents for two years, and fell in love with Margot Begemann. (Above, van Gogh’s father’s Reformed Church in Nuenen.)
梵高星夜自行车道（vangoghvillagenuenen.nl/het-vincentre.aspx），道路在夜晚会发光，起点是纽南的Opwettense 水车，终点是埃因霍温的Collse水车。
Van Gogh Starry Night Bike Path(vangoghvillagenuenen.nl/het-vincentre.aspx), which lights up at night, begins at the Opwettense watermill in Nuenen and ends at the Collse Watermill in Eindhoven.
津德尔特的梵高故居（Markt 27, Zundert; 31-76-597-19 99;vangoghhuis.com），梵高出生的地方，1903年被拆除，2008年重建，长期举办关于梵高的展览。
Van Gogh House in Zundert(Markt 27, Zundert; 31-76-597-19 99; vangoghhuis.com), where van Gogh was born, was torn down in 1903, but the new house was built in 2008 with a permanent exhibition about his birthplace, Zundert.
比利时
In Belgium
博里纳日：梵高故居（Rue du Pavillon 3, Cuesmes;en.maisonvangogh.mons.be），一栋小砖房，如今是一座博物馆，讲述着梵高在比利时这个地区度过的时光。
The Borinage: Maison Van Gogh (Rue du Pavillon 3, Cuesmes; en.maisonvangogh.mons.be), just outside of Mons, in bucolic Cuesmes, is a little brick house and museum that tells the story of van Gogh’s time in this part of Belgium. (Above, inside Maison Van Gogh in Cuesmes, the Borinage.)
科尔方丹的梵高故居（Rue Wilson 221, formerly rue du Petit-Wasmes, Colfontaine; mons2015.eu/en/maison-van-gogh-colfontaine），也被称作丹尼斯的房子，这是梵高抵达蒙斯担任福音传道者时租住的房子，目前已经被翻修，位于马卡斯煤矿附近。
Maison Van Gogh in Colfontaine(Rue Wilson 221, formerly rue du Petit-Wasmes, Colfontaine; mons2015.eu/en/maison-van-gogh-colfontaine), also known as Maison Denis, the newly renovated house van Gogh rented when he arrived in Mons to be an evangelist, is near the Marcasse Mine.
蒙斯美术馆(Rue Neuve, 8, Mons; 32-65-39-5939; www.bam.mons.be/)2015年举办了一个关于梵高在博里纳日的展览，目前已经结束。但这里的展览经常与梵高有关，梵高对蒙斯产生了深远的影响。
BAM/Musée des Beaux-Arts in Mons(Rue Neuve, 8, Mons; 32-65-39-5939; www.bam.mons.be/) had an exhibition dedicated to van Gogh in the Borinage in 2015, but that show is now over. But exhibitions are often linked to the painter, who had a tremendous influence in Mons.
法国
In France
阿尔勒的文森特·梵高基金会（35 rue du Dr. Fanton; Arles; fondation-vincentvangogh-arles.org/），位于阿尔勒老城的中心，从这里开始在阿尔勒寻访梵高的足迹再合适不过了。这里的展览都与梵高的作品有关，全年至少有一幅梵高的真迹在博物馆展出。
Fondation Vincent Van Gogh in Arles(35 rue du Dr. Fanton; Arles; fondation-vincentvangogh-arles.org/), in the center of the old city of Arles, is a great place to begin a tour of van Gogh locations throughout Arles. Exhibitions are connected to van Gogh’s work; and at least one original van Gogh painting is on display in the museum all year round.
莫索尔的圣保罗修道院 (Chemin St. Paul, 13210 St.-Rémy-de-Provence; 33-4-90-92-77-00)是梵高在普罗旺斯的圣雷米接受治疗的“精神病院”，你可以在这里参观他当时的病房，看到他在此治疗期间画过的茂盛的花园和风景。全年都有不同的花儿绽放；在适当的季节可以看到鸢尾花、杏花和向日葵。
St. Paul de Mausole Monastery(Chemin St. Paul, 13210 St.-Rémy-de-Provence; 33-4-90-92-77-00) is the “asylum” where van Gogh received treatment in St.-Rémy-de-Provence, and where you can visit his former room and see the lush gardens and landscapes he painted during his time there. Different flowers are in bloom throughout the year; check for seasons for irises, almond blossoms and sunflowers.
梵高故居（Place de la Mairie, Auvers-sur-Oise; 33-1-30-36-60-60），拉乌餐厅旅馆，梵高居住过的最后一个地方，他也在这里走完了人生。你可以看见他居住的小房间，在楼下的迷人的餐厅享受一顿传统的法餐。
Maison de Van Gogh(Place de la Mairie, Auvers-sur-Oise; 33-1-30-36-60-60), the restaurant and inn Auberge Ravoux, the last place where van Gogh lived, and where he died. You can see the tiny room he inhabited, and eat a classic French meal at the lovely restaurant downstairs.