The musician Rubinstein often went to Picasso's studio to see him paint. Once, Rubinstein found Picasso kept painting the same thing in several months. The background was the balcony railings and the foreground was a table, a bottle of wine and a guitar.
When Picasso drew nearly fifty pieces of the same work, Rubinstein asked impatiently, “Every day you portray the same still, aren't you tired?”
Picasso retorted , “Don't you think you are talking nonsense? Don't you know every hour is a new light, every minute I'm different? Although I look at the same bottle of wine, I can see a different personality, a different bottle, a different table and a different life in a different world. In my eyes, everything is different.”
Since then, when repeating a song, Rubinstein could play a different flavor.
音乐家鲁宾斯坦常去毕加索的画室看他画画。有一次，鲁宾斯坦发现毕加索一连几个月画的都是一样的东西。背景总画阳台栏杆，而画里总是一张桌子、一瓶酒和一把吉他。
看到毕加索画了将近五十幅这样的作品，鲁宾斯坦不耐烦地问：“你每天画一样的东西，就不觉得烦吗？”
毕加索反驳道：“你不觉得自己在说胡话吗？你不知道每个小时光线都不同，每分钟我都有变化吗？尽管我看的是同一瓶酒，可我看到的是它不同的特质、不一样的瓶子、不一样的桌子、不同世界里的不同人生。在我眼里，它所有的一切都是不同的。”
从那时起，每次演奏重复曲目，鲁宾斯坦总能奏出不同的味道。
-railing [ˈreɪlɪŋ] n. 栏杆
-retort [rɪˈtɔːt] v. 反驳
阿瑟·鲁宾斯坦(Arthur Rubinstein，1887－1982)是美籍波兰钢琴家，十九世纪钢琴巨人的代表人物之一，犹善演奏肖邦。