【Paintings in Proust】 Philosopher in Meditation, Rembrandt (Harmensz.) van Rijn, 1632 (p.117)

電梯的問世是在蒸汽機發明之後，並且在 19 世紀中葉以後開始廣泛使用，雖然很多人把《追憶似水年華》這本小說定位成貴族豪門、政商名流等上層社會生活的浮世繪，但事實上，裁縫師、司機、女僕、飯店領班、服務生、電梯小弟 (lift-boy)…都是普魯斯特平日觀察並且特別關注的焦點人物，在小說中可說是帶有畫龍點睛的效果。




【TEXT】
But as a rule, for my zeal and timidity of the first evening were now things of the past, I no longer spoke to the lift-boy It was he now who stood there and received no answer during the short journey on which he threaded his way through the hotel, which, hollowed out inside like a toy, deployed around us, floor by floor, the ramifications of its corridors in the depths of which the light grew velvety, lost its tone, blurred the communicating doors or the steps of the service stairs which it transformed into that amber haze, unsubstantial and mysterious as a twilight, in which Rembrandt picks out here and there a window-sill or a well-head. (Within a Budding Grove)

我第一天剛到時的那種熱情和靦腆早已遠去，平時我已不再和開電梯的人說話，現在是他在上下穿過旅館這個短短過程中，得不到我的回答了。旅館像一個玩具一樣，中間鏤空，一層一層地在我們四周展開那分枝一般的走廊。走廊深處，燈光昏暗，越來越弱。通道的門或內部樓梯的臺階都變得細小，燈光使這一切都成了金色的琥珀，像黃昏時刻一樣綿軟而又神秘。在黃昏中，倫勃朗只需瞬間便勾畫出窗櫺或井上的軲轆。每一層樓上，一縷金光映在地毯上，展露出落日的餘暉和起居室的窗戶。
(p.401 追憶似水年華 II 在少女們身旁 聯經版 1992)