為什麼看懂藝術很重要？

Everyone wants to understand art. Why not try to understand the song of a bird? Why does one love the night, flowers, everything around one, without trying to understand them? But in the case of a painting people have to understand. If only they would realize above all that an artist works of necessity, that he himself is only a trifling bit of the world, and that no more importance should be attached to him than to plenty of other things which please us in the world, though we can't explain them. People who try to explain pictures are usually barking up the wrong tree.

每個人都想了解藝術，不如嘗試了解鳥兒所唱的歌。為什麼大家都喜愛夜晚、花朵以及周圍的萬物，即便我們不懂他們？為什麼如果是一張畫，就非得了解不可？他們必須先了解，藝術家作畫，是因為他非畫不可。藝術家不過是世界的一個微小部份，就像許多讓我們覺得愉悅，卻說不出所以然的事物，不需要特別的關注。那些想解釋圖畫的，常牛頭不對馬嘴。