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.

以下為嘗試翻譯稿，請謹(jǐn)慎閱讀。如有誤導(dǎo)，概不負(fù)責(zé)。

1954年，我完成了在意大利的學(xué)業(yè)，回到美國。告別意大利的美景回到德克薩斯中部山區(qū)。意大利和德克薩斯的“非凡之光”極為不同，卻又各自神秘，使我內(nèi)心產(chǎn)生了一種對精確的感覺和對細(xì)節(jié)的渴望。

德克薩斯的景致是稀疏的，這兒的事物呈現(xiàn)出一種明晰和遼遠(yuǎn)。

秋季，數(shù)周強(qiáng)烈的干熱天氣之后會(huì)迎來一段神奇的時(shí)光，“藍(lán)北”寒流穿過北部平原。幾分鐘內(nèi)氣溫驟降五十多度，空氣變得冰冷而清澈，陰影深重。在這時(shí)候你甚至可以捕捉犰狳。

犰狳看似堅(jiān)硬（外殼），實(shí)際卻極為溫順。當(dāng)你抓住它們的尾巴時(shí)，它們會(huì)流淚（乞求），于是你會(huì)（不忍心而）放它走。

在德克薩斯州，你會(huì)放下很多東西。你將放下過去的幻想和舊戀情；你會(huì)放開城市-家國和北部的沉思。但是，在放下的同時(shí)也將捕捉到新的事物，新的情緒。比如孤立事物、虛無空間的意義。你將捕捉地平線而獲得一種平靜，這種平靜會(huì)浸透你的思想使你充滿一種期許——一種對于莊嚴(yán)細(xì)部和建構(gòu)的無限憧憬。

你將明白，再微小的溫度變化也將影響鉛的柔軟或堅(jiān)硬，繼而影響到施加于一支鉛筆，一片紙張上的壓力或重量。德克薩斯是用來修剪、切削、打磨的。

然而，為了精確打磨內(nèi)在的思想，我們需要一種特別的的氛圍。

這對我自己而言，我是無比幸運(yùn)的，因?yàn)槲矣谐錆M激情的學(xué)生，忠實(shí)的朋友，獨(dú)一無二的妻子，以及特別的風(fēng)景。

我們捕捉犰狳，但我們放走它們。

1. 本篇英文原稿來自Mask of Medusa，by John Hejduk；
2. Blue Norther，又名Texas Norther。一種由北襲來的強(qiáng)冷氣流，伴隨著降溫、強(qiáng)風(fēng)以及暗藍(lán)色天空；

3. 更多相關(guān)翻譯，歡迎關(guān)注我的個(gè)人公眾號(hào)“IDsCeLeee”