515 Finally, with no children of her own, what will the aging Hasselstrom pass on, and to whom? She ponders the future of the ranch itself and begins a gradual process of divestiture. “Last night I gave all three of my saddles— my father’s, mine, and George’s— to a family in the neighborhood, relatives of Jerry’s. . . . When the older boy saw my father’s oldfashioned Duhamel saddle, his face lit up with joy” (24). Other partings are less joyous: “Yesterday I took boxes of letters to the dump, along with hundreds of carbon copies of the letters I wrote in response . . . it took every ounce of my willpower to heave the boxes into the city dumpster” (263– 64). What’s next for Hasselstrom as she settles into the quiet days of the approaching new year? She writes that she’s keeping her options open. Th at only the dead have no choices. And yes, Linda, whatever your late father thought, writing is real work. Mary Clearman Blew University of Idaho

中文翻译：

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我的心属于自然：约翰尼科尔斯的摄影和散文回忆录

515 最后，没有自己的孩子，年迈的哈塞尔斯特罗姆会遗传什么，又会传给谁？她思考牧场本身的未来并开始逐步剥离。“昨晚我把我的三个马鞍——我父亲的、我的和乔治的——都给了附近的一个家庭，杰瑞的亲戚。. . . 当大男孩看到我父亲的老式 Duhamel 马鞍时，他的脸上洋溢着喜悦”（24）。其他的离别就不那么愉快了：“昨天我带着成箱的信件到垃圾场，还有数百封我写的回信的复本。. . 把箱子搬进城市垃圾箱，我用尽了每一盎司的意志力”（263-64）。当哈塞尔斯特罗姆适应即将到来的新年的平静日子时，她接下来会做什么？她写道，她的选择是开放的。只有死者别无选择。是的，琳达，不管你已故的父亲怎么想，写作才是真正的工作。Mary Clearman Blew 爱达荷大学