Traveling in Taipei 9 / 台北城市生活旅行 9

後陽台的秘密

夏夜裡，雨下了一整晚，我睡得不熟，在夢裡依稀聽到雨聲滴滴答答。早上五點多醒來時，雨已經停了，不過空氣裡還聞得到悶悶的味道。我突然心血來潮，拿起相機跑到後陽台，我在鏡頭裡看到對戶成排的衣服，處處都是新生小表姪的痕跡，迷你的小衣物、小襪、包裹用的大毛巾，棕黑的公寓牆占了大部份的畫面，只剩一點點空間給灰藍的雨後的天空。這樣的畫面平淡無奇，甚至接近醜陋。

The secret of the back balcony

The summer rain lasted for a whole night. I didn't sleep very sound. In my dream I could hear raindrops patter on the window panes. When I woke up at five in the morning, it had stopped raining. Yet the air was full of that familiar sultry smell.

An interesting image flitted in front of my mind's eye. I took up my camera and went to the back balcony. Through the lens I saw lines of clothes. They revealed the traces of my new-born nephew. His mini clothes, mini socks and large towels were hung everywhere. In the picture I was going to take, the dark brown facade of the apartment filled most of the space. I could see only a very limited part of the greyish blue sky after the rain. This picture was ordinary, even ugly.

我想起前兩個月在義大利旅行時，處處所見的一幅景象─人們毫不吝嗇地把衣褲排排掛在屋外，彩色的公寓外牆成為美麗的襯底，衣物隨風飄揚，不論是什麼樣的顏色組合，都自成一張張充滿藝術感的明信片。年少的我一定會說：「能住在如此繽紛的地方會有多麼幸福！」但是現在的我，仍然感動於這些美景，心底卻同時想念色調總是成黑棕灰的家鄉。

Then I thought of an image I kept encountering when I traveled in Italy two months ago. People hang their clothing outside the apartments whose lovely facade colors become gorgeous backgrounds for the flying clothes. No matter how the color combinations are, every scene is a fabulous postcard that amazes people. If I had been there when I was younger, I would have said, "How lucky I'd be if I could live in such a colorful place!" Now, I am still touched, but in the meanwhile I miss my hometown whose palette is never more than the three colors of black, brown and gray.

法國插畫家朱亞(Andre Juillard)心儀美國畫家哈波(Edward Hopper)的作品，前者說，後者的畫給人們的重要啟示是，即使看來最為平凡無奇的景觀，必有其神秘與詩意的一面，我在兩者的作品中體驗到平凡的美好動人之處。因為他們，我也開始追逐不起眼的畫面，於是逐漸愛上生活在台北城市。

The French illustrator Andre Juillard is a fan of the American painter Edward Hopper. The former said that Hopper gave him a very important lesson. In every unremarkable scene, there must be something mysterious and poetic about it. I experienced the beauty of being ordinary in the works of both artists. Because of them, I started to capture images considered common. Because of that, I gradually fell in love with living in Taipei City.