原文：“You may not know that I was destined for a sailor’s life and that it was only quite by chance that fate led me in another direction. But I have always held a passionate love for the sea.” With those lines written on September 12, 1903 tothe composer-conductor André Messager, Debussy prefaced the notice that he had begun work on La Mer. Debussy’s father was a sailor and his tales of vast oceans and exotic lands held Claude spellbound as a boy. A family trip to Cannes when he was seven years old ignited his life-long fascination with the thoughts and moods evoked by moving water.
“你可能不知道，我命中注定要过水手的生活，只有命运才能把我引向另一个方向（音乐）。但我一直对大海充满了热爱。”这是一封德彪西1903年9月12日写给作曲家安德鲁的信中，以这段话作为开头。德彪西的父亲是一名水手，他的故事充满了广阔的海洋和异国轶事。克劳德德彪西从小就被父亲的故事迷住了。七岁那年，全家去戛纳旅行，这趟旅行使他终生着迷于流动的水所唤起的思想和情绪。
原文：Twenty years later, he discovered an aspect of the sea very different from the placid one he had seen on the resort beaches of the Mediterranean. In early June of that year, he was traveling with friends along the coast of Brittany. Their plans called for passage in a fishing boat from SaintLunaire to Cancale, but at the time they were scheduled to leave a threatening storm was approaching and the captain advised canceling the trip. Debussy insisted that they sail. It turned out to be a dramatic, storm-tossed voyage with no little danger to crew and passengers. Those experiences of the sea — one halcyon, the other threatening — were captured years later in La Mer.
译文：20年后，他发现了一片与他在地中海度假海滩上所看到的那片平静的大海截然不同的地方。那一年的六月初，他和朋友们在布列塔尼海岸旅行。他们的计划是乘一艘渔船从圣卢纳到坎加莱，但在他们计划离开的时候，一场可怕的风暴正在逼近，船长建议取消这次旅行。德彪西坚持让他们继续航行。结果证明，这是一次戏剧性的、惊涛骇浪的远航，对船员和乘客造成了不小的危险。多年后在《大海》一曲中，人们重新忆起在海上的那些经历，有宁静无虞的也有危险丛生的。
原文：In addition to the memories of his own experience of the ocean, Debussy brought to La Mer a sensitivity nourished by visual renderings of the sea. He was certainly in sympathy with the Impressionistic art of his French contemporaries, but moreimmediate inspiration for the work seems to have come from the creations of two foreign artists — the Englishman Turner, whom Debussy called “the finest creator of mystery in art,” and the Japanese Hokusai. A selection of Turner’s wondrous,swirling sea paintings, as much color and light as image, was shown in Paris in 1894 and probably seen there by Debussy. 
译文：除了对海洋的记忆外，德彪西还把对海洋的所赋予的视觉效果上的敏感度融入进交响音画《大海》（La Mer）的音乐中。德彪西当然赞同他同时代的法国印象派艺术，但更多的是这部音乐作品的直接灵感似乎来自两位外国艺术家的作品——英国人特纳（德彪西称之为“艺术之谜的最优秀创造者”）和日本的葛饰北斋（Hokusai）。1894年在巴黎展出了特纳的绝妙的作品集，关于翻涌奔腾的大海，海景同色彩光线一样千变幻化，也就德彪西可能就是在那里看到特纳的作品的。
原文：Japanese sea- and landscapes were also popular in Paris during the 1890s as a result of their introduction there at theUniversal Exhibition of 1889, and the exquisite drawings of Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) so pleased Debussy that he chose one of them, The Hollow of theWave off Kanagawa, for the cover of the score of La Mer.From Dawn to Noon on the Sea, built around the play of thematic and rhythmic fragments rather than conventional melodies, is perfectly suited to expressingthe changing reflections of the morning sun in the air, clouds and water. The Playof the Waves is a brilliant essay in orchestral color, woven and contrasted with the utmost evocative subtlety. Dialogue of the Wind and the Sea reflects the awesome power of the sea as well as its majesty. 
译文：在19世纪90年代，由于他们在巴黎的介绍，日本的海景和风景画也很受欢迎。1889年的环球画展，日本浮世绘画家葛饰北斋的木版画，让德彪西欣喜异常，于是他选了其中的一幅，日本浮世绘《神奈川冲浪里》作为他《大海》乐谱的封面。《从黎明到正午》围绕着主题性和节奏性的片段展开而不是传统的旋律进行，这些元素非常适合描绘朝阳在空气、云和水中变化的反射。《海浪的游戏》是一篇用管弦乐色彩写的精彩文章，用最强烈的感人至深的微妙之处进行了织体和对比。风与海的对话反映出海的威严和海的威武。
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