试译 | 德克萨斯的浪漫时光——海杜克《美杜莎的面具》

In 1954, after having studied in Italy, I returned to America, from the landscape of Italy to that of the hill country of central Texas. The remarkable light of Italy and that of Texas, so different yet each so mystical, produced within me a sense for precision and a thirst for detail.

The landscape of Texas is sparse; objects take on a clarity and a remoteness.

There is a magic moment in the fall after weeks of intense dry heat when the Blue Norther comes down across the northern plains. Temperatures drop fifty degrees within minutes and the air becomes cool and crystal clear; the shadows deepen. It is also a time when you can run after armadillos.

Now, armadillos appear to be hard, but in fact they are soft and they shed tears when you catch them by the tail; so you let them go.

There are a lot of things you let go of in Texas. You let go of old visions and old romances; you let go of city-states and northern broodings. But, in letting go, other things and other moods are captured, such as the meaning of isolated objects, of void spaces. You capture the horizontal and you capture a flatness, a flatness which impregnates your thoughts and fills you with an anticipation – an anticipation of the solemnity of detail and construction.

You capture the knowledge that the slightest degree in change of temperature affects the softness and the hardness of lead and consequently the pressure and weight to be applied to a pencil and to a sheet of paper. Texas is for pruning and for cutting; and for polishing.

Now, to precisely polish internal thoughts an atmosphere of a particular kind is needed.

In my own case I was fortunate because I was with spirited students, solid friends, a special wife; and special landscape.

We caught the armadillo, but we let him go.

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1954年，我完成了在意大利的学业，回到美国。告别意大利的美景回到德克萨斯中部山区。意大利和德克萨斯的“非凡之光”极为不同，却又各自神秘，使我内心产生了一种对精确的感觉和对细节的渴望。

德克萨斯的景致是稀疏的，这儿的事物呈现出一种明晰和辽远。

秋季，数周强烈的干热天气之后会迎来一段神奇的时光，“蓝北”寒流穿过北部平原。几分钟内气温骤降五十多度，空气变得冰冷而清澈，阴影深重。在这时候你甚至可以捕捉犰狳。

犰狳看似坚硬（外壳），实际却极为温顺。当你抓住它们的尾巴时，它们会流泪（乞求），于是你会（不忍心而）放它走。

在德克萨斯州，你会放下很多东西。你将放下过去的幻想和旧恋情；你会放开城市-家国和北部的沉思。但是，在放下的同时也将捕捉到新的事物，新的情绪。比如孤立事物、虚无空间的意义。你将捕捉地平线而获得一种平静，这种平静会浸透你的思想使你充满一种期许——一种对于庄严细部和建构的无限憧憬。

你将明白，再微小的温度变化也将影响铅的柔软或坚硬，继而影响到施加于一支铅笔，一片纸张上的压力或重量。德克萨斯是用来修剪、切削、打磨的。

然而，为了精确打磨内在的思想，我们需要一种特别的的氛围。

这对我自己而言，我是无比幸运的，因为我有充满激情的学生，忠实的朋友，独一无二的妻子，以及特别的风景。

我们捕捉犰狳，但我们放走它们。

1. 本篇英文原稿来自Mask of Medusa，by John Hejduk；
2. Blue Norther，又名Texas Norther。一种由北袭来的强冷气流，伴随着降温、强风以及暗蓝色天空；

3. 更多相关翻译，欢迎关注我的个人公众号“IDsCeLeee”