Starry Starry Night

看 ReadandEat 說梵高，令我又想到這首歌：

Starry starry night
Paint your palette blue and grey
Look out on a summer's day
With eyes that know the darkness in my soul.
Shadows on the hills
Sketch the trees and the daffodils
Catch the breeze and the winter chills
In colors on the snowy linen land

And now I understand what you tried to say to me
How you suffered for your sanity
How you tried to set them free
They would not listen
They did not know how
Perhaps they'll listen now

Starry starry night
Flaming flowers that brightly blaze
Swirling clouds in violet haze
Reflect in Vincent's eyes of china blue
Colors changing hue
Morning fields of amber grain
Weathered faces lined in pain
Are soothed beneath the artist's loving hand

And now I understand what you tried to say to me
How you suffered for your sanity
How you tried to set them free
They would not listen
They did not know how
Perhaps they'll listen now

For they could not love you
But still your love was true
And when no hope was left in sight on that starry starry night
You took your life as lovers often do
But I could have told you Vincent
This world was never meant for one as beautiful as you

Starry starry night
Portraits hung in empty halls
Frameless heads on nameless walls
With eyes that watch the world and can't forget
Like the stranger that you've met
The ragged men in ragged clothes
The silver thorn of bloody rose
Lie crushed and broken on the virgin snow

And now I think I know what you tried to say to me
How you suffered for your sanity
How you tried to set them free
They would not listen
They're not listening still
Perhaps they never will


梵高的畫，我不能說懂得欣賞。但 Don McLean 這首 Vincent 美麗的歌詞，寫出了藝術家孤芳自賞的孤獨，和被疾病折磨的痛苦，我覺得十分動人。這是我最喜愛的英文歌之一。

這首歌有很多不同版本。Don McLean 的原唱固然動聽，但我更喜歡這個女聲演繹的爵士樂版本，聽來彷彿多了一層幽怨。

今天卻發現，原來杜麗莎也曾唱過這首歌：



真的很好聽。

可能因為 Don McLean 的 American Pie ，可能因為梵高的結局，每次聽到這歌，都不期然會想到離開了的張國榮。