【Paintings in Proust】 The Burial of the Count of Orgaz, El Greco, 1586—88 (p.299)

這是小說中所提到的第三幅格列柯的畫作，黑暗神秘的畫風恰巧可以作為描述戰爭肅殺之氣的象徵性作品。
然而普魯斯特卻進一步將齊柏林飛艇的空襲轉化成為一種死亡的黑色美學，這樣的想像是否會被讀者認同，關於這部分，我們是否應該噤聲以對？……噓！

【TEXT】
And squadron after squadron, each pilot, as he soared thus above the town, itself now transported into the sky, resembled indeed a Valkyrie. Meanwhile on ground-level, at the height of the houses, there were also scraps of illumination, and I told Saint-Loup that, if he had been at hone the previous evening, he might, while contemplating the apocalypse in the sky, at the same time have watched on the ground (as in El Greco’s Burial of count of Orgaz, in which the two planes are distinct and parallel) a first-rate farce acted by characters in night attire, whose famous names merited a report to some successor of that Ferrari whose society paragraphs had so often provided amusement to the two of us, Saint-Loup and myself, that we used also to amuse ourselves by inventing imaginary ones. And that is what we did once more on the day I am describing, just as though we were not in the middle of a war, although our theme, the fear of the Zeppelins, was very much a ‘war’ one: ‘Seen about town: the Duchesse de Guermantes magnificent in a nightdress, the Duc de Guermantes indescribable in pink pyjamas and a bathrobe, etc.’ (Time Regained)

一個空軍中隊接著另一個空軍中隊，每個飛行員就這樣從現在被搬到天上的城市中沖出去，猶如一位女武神。然後，地上的一些角落，在貼近房屋的地方被照亮了，我就對聖盧說，前一天他如果在家裡，就能在欣賞天上的世界末日的同時，看到地上（如同在格列柯的《奧爾加斯伯爵下葬》中那樣，畫中兩個景是平行的）有一齣真正的滑稽舞劇，由一些穿著長睡衣的人物演出，這些人因自己出了名，完全可以被派到這位費拉里的某個接班人那裡去，費拉里寫的那些關於社交生活的短文，曾經常使聖盧和我感到高興，我們爲了取樂，也來創作這樣的短文。那天我們又在做這樣的事，彷彿戰爭並不存在，雖說題材的「戰爭」味很濃，即對齊柏林飛艇的懼怕：「不容置辯，美妙的蓋爾芒特公爵夫人穿著長睡衣，滑稽可笑的蓋爾芒特公爵穿著粉紅色的睡衣和浴衣，等等。」
(p.75~76 追憶似水年華 VII 重現的時光 聯經版 1992)