🔊 At a certain season of our life we are accustomed to consider every spot as the possible site of a house. I have thus surveyed the country on every side within a dozen miles of where I live. In imagination I have bought all the farms in succession, for all were to be bought, and I knew their price. I walked over each farmer’s premises, tasted his wild apples, discoursed on husbandry with him, took his farm at his price, at any price, mortgaging it to him in my mind; even put a higher price on it - took everything but a deed of it - took his word for his deed, for I dearly love to talk - cultivated it, and him too to some extent, I trust, and withdrew when I had enjoyed it long enough, leaving him to carry it on. This experience entitled me to be regarded as a sort of real-estate broker by my friends. Wherever I sat, there I might live, and the landscape radiated from me accordingly. What is a house but a sedes, a seat? - better if a country seat. I discovered many a site for a house not likely to be soon improved, which some might have thought too far from the village, but to my eyes the village was too far from it. Well, there I might live, I said; and there I did live, for an hour, a summer and a winter life; saw how I could let the years run off, buffet the winter through, and see the spring come in. The future inhabitants of this region, wherever they may place their houses, may be sure that they have been anticipated. An afternoon sufficed to lay out the land into orchard, wood-lot, and pasture, and to decide what fine oaks or pines should be left to stand before the door, and whence each blasted tree could be seen to the best advantage; and then I let it lie, fallow, perchance, for a man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone.

在我们生命的某个季节,我们习惯于将每一处地方都视为可能建屋的所在。我就这样勘测了我居所周围十几英里内的乡野。在想象中,我接连买下了所有的农场,因为皆可出售,且我知悉它们的价格。我走过每位农夫的田产,品尝他野生的苹果,与他论及农事,按他的价钱--任何价钱--买下他的农场,在心里将它抵押给他；甚至出价更高--买下一切,唯独没有地契--将他的言语当作契约,因我极爱交谈--耕种土地,在某种程度上也耕种了他这个人,我确信；待我享受够了,便抽身而退,留他继续经营。这番经历让我在朋友眼中成了某种房产中介。凡我坐卧之处,皆可安居,风景亦由此向我辐辏。一所房屋,不就是一个基座,一个座位吗？--若是乡间座位则更佳。我发现了许多短期内未必有人改良的建屋之地,有人或嫌其离村太远,但在我眼中,倒是村子离它们太远。我想,此处我或可栖居；而我也确曾在此栖居,或一小时,或一夏一冬；看年华如何流逝,如何熬过寒冬,如何迎来春晖。这片地域未来的居民,无论将房屋建于何处,都可确信已有人先他们一步。一个下午便足以将土地规划成果园、林地和牧场,并决定哪些俊秀的橡树或松树该留于门前,从何处观赏那些枯树最为得宜；然后我任其荒芜,休耕,或许吧,因为一个人的富足,正与他能对多少事物置之不理成正比。

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accustomed /əˈkʌstəmd/

adj. 习惯的,通常的➕

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surveyed /sərˈveɪd/

v. 测量；勘测；审视➕

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premises /ˈpremɪsɪz/

n. 房屋及附属土地；经营场所➕

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discoursed /dɪsˈkɔːst/

v. 论述,谈论（正式用语）➕

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husbandry /ˈhʌzbəndri/

n. 农业；农牧业；资源管理➕

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mortgaging /ˈmɔːrɡɪdʒɪŋ/

v. 抵押（mortgage的现在分词）➕

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real-estate broker /ˈriːl əˌsteɪt ˈbroʊkər/

n. 房地产经纪人➕

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radiated /ˈreɪdieɪtɪd/

v. 辐射,散发（光、热、能量等）；从中心向四周延伸➕

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sedes /ˈseɪdeɪz/

n. 座位,所在地（拉丁语）➕

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fallow /ˈfæloʊ/

adj. （土地）休耕的,闲置的；不活跃的➕

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perchance /pərˈtʃæns/

adv. 或许,可能（古语或诗语）➕

🔊 My imagination carried me so far that I even had the refusal of several farms - the refusal was all I wanted - but I never got my fingers burned by actual possession. The nearest that I came to actual possession was when I bought the Hollowell place, and had begun to sort my seeds, and collected materials with which to make a wheelbarrow to carry it on or off with; but before the owner gave me a deed of it, his wife - every man has such a wife - changed her mind and wished to keep it, and he offered me ten dollars to release him. Now, to speak the truth, I had but ten cents in the world, and it surpassed my arithmetic to tell, if I was that man who had ten cents, or who had a farm, or ten dollars, or all together. However, I let him keep the ten dollars and the farm too, for I had carried it far enough; or rather, to be generous, I sold him the farm for just what I gave for it, and, as he was not a rich man, made him a present of ten dollars, and still had my ten cents, and seeds, and materials for a wheelbarrow left. I found thus that I had been a rich man without any damage to my poverty. But I retained the landscape, and I have since annually carried off what it yielded without a wheelbarrow. With respect to landscapes, "I am monarch of all I survey, My right there is none to dispute." I have frequently seen a poet withdraw, having enjoyed the most valuable part of a farm, while the crusty farmer supposed that he had got a few wild apples only. Why, the owner does not know it for many years when a poet has put his farm in rhyme, the most admirable kind of invisible fence, has fairly impounded it, milked it, skimmed it, and got all the cream, and left the farmer only the skimmed milk.

我的想象驰骋太远,甚至好几次得到了几处农场的优先购买权--我所要的不过是这优先权--但我从未因实际占有而引火烧身。我离实际占有最近的一次,是买下霍洛威尔那块地,并已开始拣选种子,收集材料以造一辆手推车来搬运东西；但在原主给我地契之前,他的妻子--每个男人都有这样一个妻子--改了主意,想留下它,他便出价十美元要我放弃。说实话,当时我身上只有十美分,这笔账超乎我的算计:我究竟是那个只有十美分的人,还是拥有一个农场的人,抑或是拥有十美元的人,或三者皆是。然而,我让他留下了十美元和农场,因我已经营得够久；或更慷慨地说,我以原价将农场卖回给他,并且,因他并非富人,还额外赠送了十美元,而我仍保有我的十美分、种子和造手推车的材料。就这样,我发现自己曾是个富翁,却未损及我的清贫。但我保有了那片风景,此后每年我都能收获它的出产,无需手推车。对于风景,“我是我所见一切的君王,我的权利无人能争。”我常见一位诗人享用农场最宝贵的部分后飘然离去,而那顽固的农夫还以为自己只损失了几个野苹果。唉,农庄主人多年后也未必知晓,当一位诗人用韵文围起了他的农场--那是最可羡的无形藩篱--便已将它圈禁,挤了奶,撇了乳,取走了全部精华,留给农夫的只是脱脂的奶。

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refusal /rɪˈfjuːzl/

n. 拒绝；优先取舍权➕

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wheelbarrow /ˈwiːlbærəʊ/

n. 独轮手推车➕

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surpassed /sərˈpæst/

v. 超过,胜过➕

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arithmetic /əˈrɪθmətɪk/

n. 算术,计算➕

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retained /rɪˈteɪnd/

v. 保留,保持➕

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annually /ˈænjuəli/

adv. 每年,一年一次地➕

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yielded /ˈjiːldɪd/

v. 生产,产生（收益、作物等）；屈服➕

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crusty /ˈkrʌsti/

adj. 有硬皮的；脾气暴躁的,易怒的➕

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rhyme /raɪm/

n. 押韵；押韵诗➕

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admirable /ˈædmərəbl/

adj. 令人钦佩的,极好的➕

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impounded /ɪmˈpaʊndɪd/

v. 扣押,没收（车辆、货物等）；（将动物）关入栏中➕

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skimmed /skɪmd/

v. 撇去（液体表面的浮物）；略读,浏览➕

🔊 The real attractions of the Hollowell farm, to me, were: its complete retirement, being, about two miles from the village, half a mile from the nearest neighbor, and separated from the highway by a broad field; its bounding on the river, which the owner said protected it by its fogs from frosts in the spring, though that was nothing to me; the gray color and ruinous state of the house and barn, and the dilapidated fences, which put such an interval between me and the last occupant; the hollow and lichen-covered apple trees, gnawed by rabbits, showing what kind of neighbors I should have; but above all, the recollection I had of it from my earliest voyages up the river, when the house was concealed behind a dense grove of red maples, through which I heard the house-dog bark. I was in haste to buy it, before the proprietor finished getting out some rocks, cutting down the hollow apple trees, and grubbing up some young birches which had sprung up in the pasture, or, in short, had made any more of his improvements. To enjoy these advantages I was ready to carry it on; like Atlas, to take the world on my shoulders - I never heard what compensation he received for that - and do all those things which had no other motive or excuse but that I might pay for it and be unmolested in my possession of it; for I knew all the while that it would yield the most abundant crop of the kind I wanted, if I could only afford to let it alone. But it turned out as I have said.

霍洛威尔农场真正吸引我的,在于:它那完全的僻静,离村约两英里,离最近的邻居半英里,与大道隔着一片宽阔田野；它濒临河流,主人说春雾护它免于霜冻,虽然这于我无关紧要；房屋和谷仓的灰败颜色与倾颓状态,以及破败的篱笆,在我与最后一位住客之间划下了鸿沟；那些空心、覆满苔藓、被兔子啃咬的苹果树,预示了我将有何等邻居；但最令我萦怀的,是我早年溯河航行时对它的记忆,那时房屋还隐于一片茂密红枫林后,我听见屋犬吠声。我急于在主人清完石块、砍掉空心苹果树、挖除牧场上新发的几棵小白桦之前--总之,在他进行更多“改良”之前--买下它。为享受这些好处,我愿接手经营；像擎天神阿特拉斯那样,将世界扛在肩上--我从未听闻他为此得了什么报酬--并做所有这些事,除却为它付款且占有它时不受侵扰外,别无动机或借口；因我一直知道,只要我能任其自然,它必结出我所企望的最丰硕果实。但结果正如我所说。

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retirement /rɪˈtaɪərmənt/

n. 退休；隐居；僻静处➕

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dilapidated /dɪˈlæpɪdeɪtɪd/

adj. （建筑物、车辆等）破旧的,破烂不堪的,年久失修的➕

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lichen-covered /ˈlaɪkənˌkʌvərd/

adj. 长满地衣的➕

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gnawed /nɔːd/

v. 咬,啃,啃食（gnaw的过去分词）➕

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voyages /ˈvɔɪɪdʒɪz/

n. 航行,航海,长途旅行➕

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proprietor /prəˈpraɪətər/

n. 所有者,业主（尤指企业或旅馆的）➕

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grubbing /ˈɡrʌbɪŋ/

v. 挖掘,翻土；辛苦劳作（grub的现在分词）➕

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birches /ˈbɜːrtʃɪz/

n. 桦树（birch的复数）➕

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Atlas /ˈætləs/

n. 阿特拉斯（希腊神话中擎天的巨人）；地图册➕

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compensation /ˌkɑːmpenˈseɪʃn/

n. 补偿,赔偿；报酬➕

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unmolested /ˌʌnməˈlestɪd/

adj. 不受干扰的,未受骚扰的➕

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abundant /əˈbʌndənt/

adj. 丰富的,充裕的,大量的➕

🔊 All that I could say, then, with respect to farming on a large scale - I have always cultivated a garden - was, that I had had my seeds ready. Many think that seeds improve with age. I have no doubt that time discriminates between the good and the bad; and when at last I shall plant, I shall be less likely to be disappointed. But I would say to my fellows, once for all, As long as possible live free and uncommitted. It makes but little difference whether you are committed to a farm or the county jail. Old Cato, whose "De Re Rustica" is my "Cultivator," says - and the only translation I have seen makes sheer nonsense of the passage - "When you think of getting a farm turn it thus in your mind, not to buy greedily; nor spare your pains to look at it, and do not think it enough to go round it once. The oftener you go there the more it will please you, if it is good." I think I shall not buy greedily, but go round and round it as long as I live, and be buried in it first, that it may please me the more at last.

因此,对于大规模耕作--我总经营着一片园子--我能说的只是,我已备好种子。多人以为种子越陈越好。我毫不怀疑时间能甄别优劣；待我最终播种时,或将少些失望。但我要对同胞们一言以蔽之:尽可能长久地自由生活,勿轻承诺。投身于农场或县监狱,实则相差无几。老加图,其《农业志》便是我的“农事指南”,曾言--而我见过的唯一译本将此段译得全然不通--“思购农场时,当在脑中如此权衡:勿贪婪购之；勿惜辛劳察之,勿以为绕行一次便足。若它良善,你去得越频,它越悦你。”我想我不会贪婪购买,但将只要活着便绕行不止,且先葬身其中,好让它最终更悦我心。

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discriminates /dɪˈskrɪmɪneɪts/

v. 区分,辨别；歧视➕

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uncommitted /ˌʌnkəˈmɪtɪd/

adj. 未承诺的；不受约束的；中立的➕

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Cato /ˈkeɪtoʊ/

n. 加图（古罗马政治家）➕

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De Re Rustica /deɪ reɪ ˈrʌstɪkə/

n. 《论农业》（拉丁语书名,老加图的著作）➕

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Cultivator /ˈkʌltɪveɪtər/

n. 耕种者；中耕机；致力于文化修养的人➕

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sheer nonsense /ʃɪr ˈnɑːnsens/

n. phrase. 一派胡言,纯粹的废话➕

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greedily /ˈɡriːdɪli/

adv. 贪婪地,贪心地➕

🔊 The present was my next experiment of this kind, which I purpose to describe more at length, for convenience putting the experience of two years into one. As I have said, I do not propose to write an ode to dejection, but to brag as lustily as chanticleer in the morning, standing on his roost, if only to wake my neighbors up.

当下便是我的下一次此类实验,我意更详述之,为便计,将两年经历合为一。如前所述,我无意作忧郁颂歌,而要如清晨雄鸡那般,立于栖木,精神抖擞地高歌,哪怕只为唤醒邻居。

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ode to dejection /oʊd tuː dɪˈdʒekʃn/

n. phrase. 忧郁颂（指一种表达忧郁情绪的诗歌）➕

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brag /bræɡ/

v. 吹嘘,夸耀➕

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lustily /ˈlʌstɪli/

adv. 精力充沛地,起劲地➕

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chanticleer /ˈtʃæntɪˌklɪr/

n. 雄鸡（尤指拟人化名称,源自古法语诗歌）➕

🔊 When first I took up my abode in the woods, that is, began to spend my nights as well as days there, which, by accident, was on Independence Day, or the Fourth of July, 1845, my house was not finished for winter, but was merely a defence against the rain, without plastering or chimney, the walls being of rough, weather-stained boards, with wide chinks, which made it cool at night. The upright white hewn studs and freshly planed door and window casings gave it a clean and airy look, especially in the morning, when its timbers were saturated with dew, so that I fancied that by noon some sweet gum would exude from them. To my imagination it retained throughout the day more or less of this auroral character, reminding me of a certain house on a mountain which I had visited a year before. This was an airy and unplastered cabin, fit to entertain a travelling god, and where a goddess might trail her garments. The winds which passed over my dwelling were such as sweep over the ridges of mountains, bearing the broken strains, or celestial parts only, of terrestrial music. The morning wind forever blows, the poem of creation is uninterrupted; but few are the ears that hear it. Olympus is but the outside of the earth everywhere. The only house I had been the owner of before, if I except a boat, was a tent, which I used occasionally when making excursions in the summer, and this is still rolled up in my garret; but the boat, after passing from hand to hand, has gone down the stream of time. With this more substantial shelter about me, I had made some progress toward settling in the world. This frame, so slightly clad, was a sort of crystallization around me, and reacted on the builder. It was suggestive somewhat as a picture in outlines. I did not need to go outdoors to take the air, for the atmosphere within had lost none of its freshness. It was not so much within doors as behind a door where I sat, even in the rainiest weather. The Harivansa says, "An abode without birds is like a meat without seasoning." Such was not my abode, for I found myself suddenly neighbor to the birds; not by having imprisoned one, but having caged myself near them. I was not only nearer to some of those which commonly frequent the garden and the orchard, but to those smaller and more thrilling songsters of the forest which never, or rarely, serenade a villager - the wood thrush, the veery, the scarlet tanager, the field sparrow, the whip-poor-will, and many others. I was seated by the shore of a small pond, about a mile and a half south of the village of Concord and somewhat higher than it, in the midst of an extensive wood between that town and Lincoln, and about two miles south of that our only field known to fame, Concord Battle Ground; but I was so low in the woods that the opposite shore, half a mile off, like the rest, covered with wood, was my most distant horizon. For the first week, whenever I looked out on the pond it impressed me like a tarn high up on the side of a mountain, its bottom far above the surface of other lakes, and, as the sun arose, I saw it throwing off its nightly clothing of mist, and here and there, by degrees, its soft ripples or its smooth reflecting surface was revealed, while the mists, like ghosts, were stealthily withdrawing in every direction into the woods, as at the breaking up of some nocturnal conventicle. The very dew seemed to hang upon the trees later into the day than usual, as on the sides of mountains. This small lake was of most value as a neighbor in the intervals of a gentle rain-storm in August, when, both air and water being perfectly still, but the sky overcast, mid-afternoon had all the serenity of evening, and the wood thrush sang around, and was heard from shore to shore. A lake like this is never smoother than at such a time; and the clear portion of the air above it being, shallow and darkened by clouds, the water, full of light and reflections, becomes a lower heaven itself so much the more important. From a hill-top near by, where the wood had been recently cut off, there was a pleasing vista southward across the pond, through a wide indentation in the hills which form the shore there, where their opposite sides sloping toward each other suggested a stream flowing out in that direction through a wooded valley, but stream there was none. That way I looked between and over the near green hills to some distant and higher ones in the horizon, tinged with blue. Indeed, by standing on tiptoe I could catch a glimpse of some of the peaks of the still bluer and more distant mountain ranges in the northwest, those true-blue coins from heaven’s own mint, and also of some portion of the village. But in other directions, even from this point, I could not see over or beyond the woods which surrounded me. It is well to have some water in your neighborhood, to give buoyancy to and float the earth. One value even of the smallest well is, that when you look into it you see that earth is not continent but insular. This is as important as that it keeps butter cool. When I looked across the pond from this peak toward the Sudbury meadows, which in time of flood I distinguished elevated perhaps by a mirage in their seething valley, like a coin in a basin, all the earth beyond the pond appeared like a thin crust insulated and floated even by this small sheet of interverting water, and I was reminded that this on which I dwelt was but dry land. Though the view from my door was still more contracted, I did not feel crowded or confined in the least. There was pasture enough for my imagination. The low shrub oak plateau to which the opposite shore arose stretched away toward the prairies of the West and the steppes of Tartary, affording ample room for all the roving families of men. "There are none happy in the world but beings who enjoy freely a vast horizon" - said Damodara, when his herds required new and larger pastures. Both place and time were changed, and I dwelt nearer to those parts of the universe and to those eras in history which had most attracted me. Where I lived was as far off as many a region viewed nightly by astronomers. We are wont to imagine rare and delectable places in some remote and more celestial corner of the system, behind the constellation of Cassiopeia’s Chair, far from noise and disturbance. I discovered that my house actually had its site in such a withdrawn, but forever new and unprofaned, part of the universe. If it were worth the while to settle in those parts near to the Pleiades or the Hyades, to Aldebaran or Altair, then I was really there, or at an equal remoteness from the life which I had left behind, dwindled and twinkling with as fine a ray to my nearest neighbor, and to be seen only in moonless nights by him. Such was that part of creation where I had squatted; "There was a shepherd that did live, And held his thoughts as high As were the mounts whereon his flocks Did hourly feed him by." What should we think of the shepherd’s life if his flocks always wandered to higher pastures than his thoughts? Every morning was a cheerful invitation to make my life of equal simplicity, and I may say innocence, with Nature herself. I have been as sincere a worshipper of Aurora as the Greeks. I got up early and bathed in the pond; that was a religious exercise, and one of the best things which I did. They say that characters were engraven on the bathing tub of King Tchingthang to this effect: "Renew thyself completely each day; do it again, and again, and forever again." I can understand that. Morning brings back the heroic ages. I was as much affected by the faint hum of a mosquito making its invisible and unimaginable tour through my apartment at earliest dawn, when I was sitting with door and windows open, as I could be by any trumpet that ever sang of fame. It was Homer’s requiem; itself an Iliad and Odyssey in the air, singing its own wrath and wanderings. There was something cosmical about it; a standing advertisement, till forbidden, of the everlasting vigor and fertility of the world. The morning, which is the most memorable season of the day, is the awakening hour. Then there is least somnolence in us; and for an hour, at least, some part of us awakes which slumbers all the rest of the day and night. Little is to be expected of that day, if it can be called a day, to which we are not awakened by our Genius, but by the mechanical nudgings of some servitor, are not awakened by our own newly acquired force and aspirations from within, accompanied by the undulations of celestial music, instead of factory bells, and a fragrance filling the air - to a higher life than we fell asleep from; and thus the darkness bear its fruit, and prove itself to be good, no less than the light. That man who does not believe that each day contains an earlier, more sacred, and auroral hour than he has yet profaned, has despaired of life, and is pursuing a descending and darkening way. After a partial cessation of his sensuous life, the soul of man, or its organs rather, are reinvigorated each day, and his Genius tries again what noble life it can make. All memorable events, I should say, transpire in morning time and in a morning atmosphere. The Vedas say, "All intelligences awake with the morning." Poetry and art, and the fairest and most memorable of the actions of men, date from such an hour. All poets and heroes, like Memnon, are the children of Aurora, and emit their music at sunrise. To him whose elastic and vigorous thought keeps pace with the sun, the day is a perpetual morning. It matters not what the clocks say or the attitudes and labors of men. Morning is when I am awake and there is a dawn in me. Moral reform is the effort to throw off sleep. Why is it that men give so poor an account of their day if they have not been slumbering? They are not such poor calculators. If they had not been overcome with drowsiness, they would have performed something. The millions are awake enough for physical labor; but only one in a million is awake enough for effective intellectual exertion, only one in a hundred millions to a poetic or divine life. To be awake is to be alive. I have never yet met a man who was quite awake. How could I have looked him in the face? We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn, which does not forsake us in our soundest sleep. I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor. It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look, which morally we can do. To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts. Every man is tasked to make his life, even in its details, worthy of the contemplation of his most elevated and critical hour. If we refused, or rather used up, such paltry information as we get, the oracles would distinctly inform us how this might be done. I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion. For most men, it appears to me, are in a strange uncertainty about it, whether it is of the devil or of God, and have somewhat hastily concluded that it is the chief end of man here to "glorify God and enjoy him forever." Still we live meanly, like ants; though the fable tells us that we were long ago changed into men; like pygmies we fight with cranes; it is error upon error, and clout upon clout, and our best virtue has for its occasion a superfluous and evitable wretchedness. Our life is frittered away by detail. An honest man has hardly need to count more than his ten fingers, or in extreme cases he may add his ten toes, and lump the rest. Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb-nail. In the midst of this chopping sea of civilized life, such are the clouds and storms and quicksands and thousand-and-one items to be allowed for, that a man has to live, if he would not founder and go to the bottom and not make his port at all, by dead reckoning, and he must be a great calculator indeed who succeeds. Simplify, simplify. Instead of three meals a day, if it be necessary eat but one; instead of a hundred dishes, five; and reduce other things in proportion. Our life is like a German Confederacy, made up of petty states, with its boundary forever fluctuating, so that even a German cannot tell you how it is bounded at any moment. The nation itself, with all its so-called internal improvements, which, by the way are all external and superficial, is just such an unwieldy and overgrown establishment, cluttered with furniture and tripped up by its own traps, ruined by luxury and heedless expense, by want of calculation and a worthy aim, as the million households in the land; and the only cure for it, as for them, is in a rigid economy, a stern and more than Spartan simplicity of life and elevation of purpose. It lives too fast. Men think that it is essential that the Nation have commerce, and export ice, and talk through a telegraph, and ride thirty miles an hour, without a doubt, whether they do or not; but whether we should live like baboons or like men, is a little uncertain. If we do not get out sleepers, and forge rails, and devote days and nights to the work, but go to tinkering upon our lives to improve them, who will build railroads? And if railroads are not built, how shall we get to heaven in season? But if we stay at home and mind our business, who will want railroads? We do not ride on the railroad; it rides upon us. Did you ever think what those sleepers are that underlie the railroad? Each one is a man, an Irishman, or a Yankee man. The rails are laid on them, and they are covered with sand, and the cars run smoothly over them. They are sound sleepers, I assure you. And every few years a new lot is laid down and run over; so that, if some have the pleasure of riding on a rail, others have the misfortune to be ridden upon. And when they run over a man that is walking in his sleep, a supernumerary sleeper in the wrong position, and wake him up, they suddenly stop the cars, and make a hue and cry about it, as if this were an exception. I am glad to know that it takes a gang of men for every five miles to keep the sleepers down and level in their beds as it is, for this is a sign that they may sometime get up again. Why should we live with such hurry and waste of life? We are determined to be starved before we are hungry. Men say that a stitch in time saves nine, and so they take a thousand stitches today to save nine tomorrow. As for work, we haven’t any of any consequence. We have the Saint Vitus’ dance, and cannot possibly keep our heads still. If I should only give a few pulls at the parish bell-rope, as for a fire, that is, without setting the bell, there is hardly a man on his farm in the outskirts of Concord, notwithstanding that press of engagements which was his excuse so many times this morning, nor a boy, nor a woman, I might almost say, but would forsake all and follow that sound, not mainly to save property from the flames, but, if we will confess the truth, much more to see it burn, since burn it must, and we, be it known, did not set it on fire - or to see it put out, and have a hand in it, if that is done as handsomely; yes, even if it were the parish church itself. Hardly a man takes a half-hour’s nap after dinner, but when he wakes he holds up his head and asks, "What’s the news?" as if the rest of mankind had stood his sentinels. Some give directions to be waked every half-hour, doubtless for no other purpose; and then, to pay for it, they tell what they have dreamed. After a night’s sleep the news is as indispensable as the breakfast. "Pray tell me anything new that has happened to a man anywhere on this globe" - and he reads it over his coffee and rolls, that a man has had his eyes gouged out this morning on the Wachito River; never dreaming the while that he lives in the dark unfathomed mammoth cave of this world, and has but the rudiment of an eye himself.

当我初居林中,即开始日夜皆处彼地时,恰逢独立日,或曰一八四五年七月四日,我的房屋尚未为冬完工,仅能遮雨,未抹灰泥,无烟囱,墙壁是粗糙、饱经风霜的木板,缝隙宽大,夜间凉爽。笔直洁白的刨削立柱与新刨光的门窗框,赋予它洁净通风的模样,尤其在清晨,木料浸透露水,令我幻想着午时会有香甜树脂渗出。在我的想象中,它终日多少保有这晨光特质,使我想起一年前造访过的某座山间小屋。那是一个通风未抹灰泥的小屋,宜于款待云游神祇,女神或可在此曳裙而行。吹过我居所的风,犹如掠过高山脊梁的风,携来尘世音乐的破碎片段,或仅是天界部分。晨风永吹,创世诗篇不息；然鲜有耳闻。奥林匹斯山不过普世之外表罢了。我此前拥有的唯一房产,若不计一舟,便是一顶帐篷,夏日出游时偶用,今仍卷于阁楼；但那舟,几经易手,已顺时间之流消逝。有此更坚实庇护,我在世间定居的进程稍进。这框架,如此简朴包裹,是我周遭的一种结晶,亦反作用于建造者。它略似一幅轮廓画。我不必出户换气,因室内空气未失清新。与其说我在门内,不如说我在门后静坐,即使最阴雨天气亦如是。《诃利世系》云:“无鸟之居,犹食无盐。”我的居所非如此,因我忽与鸟儿为邻；非囚一鸟,而是自笼于它们近旁。我不仅更近那些常临园圃的鸟儿,亦更近森林中那些更小、歌喉更颤栗的歌手--它们从不或极少为村民夜曲--林鸫、维丽鸟、猩红丽唐纳雀、原野麻雀、三声夜鹰,及许多其他。我坐于一小池塘岸,约在康科德村南一英里半,地势略高,处一片广袤林中,介于该镇与林肯之间,离我们唯一闻名之地--康科德战场--南约两英里；但我如此深居林间,以至于半英里外、同样林木覆盖的对岸,便是我最远地平线。首周,每当我望池塘,它总如高山侧畔的冰斗湖,湖底远高于他湖水面；日出时,我见它褪去夜雾之衣,各处渐露柔波或平滑如镜的湖面,而雾霭如幽灵,悄向四方退入林中,似夜间秘密集会的散场。露珠似比常日更久悬于树,如在山坡。这小湖作为邻居,在八月细雨间歇时最珍贵,那时空气与水皆极静,但天阴,午后便具黄昏的宁谧,林鸫环歌,声传两岸。此时之湖,最为平滑；其上澄空气浅而云翳蔽,水光潋滟,倒影重重,自成一片低垂天穹,愈显重要。从附近一山顶--新近伐木处--可南望池塘,景致怡人,穿过岸山间一宽阔豁口,两侧斜坡相向,暗示有溪流出林谷,然实无溪流。由此,我越近处翠丘,眺望地平线上些微泛蓝的远山。的确,踮脚可见西北更蓝更远山脉的几处峰峦,那些天铸的真纯蓝币,亦见村之一隅。但余方向,即使从此点,亦无法望穿或越周遭林。居所有水甚好,可托浮大地。即使最小井亦有价值,因窥之可知大地非大陆而乃孤岛。此与保黄油凉爽同等重要。从此峰望池塘对岸的萨德伯里草地--洪水时,我辨其或因海市蜃楼而浮于沸腾山谷,如盆中硬币--池塘彼端所有土地似薄壳,被这一小片隔水托浮；这提醒我,我所居不过旱地。尽管门前视野更狭,我毫不觉拥挤或局促。我的想象有足够牧场。对岸低矮灌木橡树高地延向西部草原与鞑靼地区的草原,为所有流浪人家提供广袤空间。“世上无幸福之人,除非自由享有广阔地平线”--达摩达罗在其牛群需新阔牧场时言。空间与时间皆变,我住得更近宇宙中那些最引我部分、历史上那些最引我时代。我居处之遥,如天文学家夜观诸多星域。我们惯于想象,在星系某遥远更近天隅,仙后座之后,有稀世妙境,远离喧嚣。我发现我屋实际坐落于宇宙中这样一个幽僻却永新未亵之地。若值得定居近昴星团或毕星团,近毕宿五或牛郎星,那我实居彼处,或与我抛却的生活同等遥远,微光闪烁,仅最近邻可见,且只无月之夜。此即我在造化中所踞之处:“昔有牧人,其思如山高,羊群时时傍身供其养。”若其羊群总漫游至比其思更高牧场,我们该如何看这牧人生？每晨皆是愉悦邀约,要我生活如自然般简朴,甚或纯真。我曾如希腊人般真诚崇拜奥罗拉。我早起,池中沐浴；那是一种宗教修行,我所为最佳事之一。据说成汤王浴盆刻铭云:“苟日新,日日新,又日新。”我解此意。晨带回英雄时代。黎明时分,我坐而门窗敞,一蚊微嗡,行无形难想之旅,其动我情,不亚于任何颂名号角。那是荷马安魂曲；是空中的伊利亚特与奥德赛,自吟其怒与漂泊。此中含宇宙意味；一则持久广告,直至禁止,宣示世界永恒活力与丰饶。晨,一日中最难忘时节,是觉醒时。那时我们最不昏沉；至少一时,我们某部分醒,而余日夜皆眠。若某日--若可称日--我们非由守护神唤醒,而是仆役机械推搡；非由内心新获力与愿唤醒,无天乐波漾相伴,代以厂铃,空气无芬芳--那么,那日便无可期。我们从睡中醒向更高生活；如此,黑暗结果,证其与光同善。若人不信每日皆含一比其所亵更早、更神圣、更晨光之时辰,那他已绝望于生,正行沉沦暗路。感官生活部分止息后,人之灵魂,或其器官,每日重焕活力,其守护神再试造高贵生活。所有可忆事件,我言,皆发生于晨时晨氛。《吠陀经》云:“一切智慧随晨醒。”诗与艺,及人行动中最美最可忆者,皆源于此时。所有诗人与英雄,如门农,皆是奥罗拉儿女,日出时发其乐音。对其人,其弹性健思与日同步,日即是永晨。钟表何言,人姿态劳作何如,皆无关紧要。晨,即我醒且内有黎明时。道德改革是努力摆脱睡意。若人未昏睡,何以对其日交代如此贫乏？他们非拙劣算计者。若非困意胜,他们本可成事。千百万人醒够体力劳；但百万中仅一人醒够有效脑力劳,亿中仅一人醒够诗意或神圣生活。醒即是活。我从未遇全然醒者。我如何能直视他？我们必须学会再醒并保持醒,非靠机械助,而是对黎明无限期盼,这期盼在我们最沉眠中亦不弃。我知无更鼓舞事实,莫过于人无疑能以自觉努力提其生活。能绘特定画,或雕像,使少数物美,固是能；但更光荣者,是雕绘我们所视之氛围与媒介,这在道德上我们可为。影响一日品质,方是至高艺。每人皆责使其生活,即使在细节,值得其最高批判时审视。若我们拒或耗尽所获琐碎信息,神谕会明示如何为之。我入林,因愿从容生活,只面生活本质事实,看能否学其所教,而非临死方觉未曾活。我不愿过非生活,因生活如此珍贵；亦不愿习顺从,除非绝必要。我欲深活,吸尽生活髓,活如斯巴达式般坚,以溃一切非生活者,辟阔道,修近切,将生活逼入角落,简至其最低项,若它卑,则得其全真卑,并布其卑于世；若它崇,则以经验知之,并能于下次远足真述之。因多数人,我见,对此奇疑,不知其属魔属神,且仓促结言,人此要务是“荣神永享之”。然我们仍活卑微,如蚁；虽寓言告我们久前已变人；如侏儒战鹤；是错上加错,布摞布,我们最佳德行之机,乃多余可免悲惨。我们生活为琐事消磨。诚实人几无需数超十指,或极况加十趾,余皆不论。简朴,简朴,简朴！我言,让你事如二三件,非百千件；非百万计,而以半打计,账记拇指甲。在这文明生活汹涌海中,云雨风暴流沙及千零一需计项,人若不想沉没触礁不抵港,必靠航位推算,而他必是了得算计家。简化,简化。若必要,一日非三餐,只一餐；非百肴,五肴；余事同比减。我们生活如德意志邦联,由小邦组成,边界永动,以致连德国人亦难言其刻界。国家本身,及所有所谓内改--实则皆表浅--正是这样笨重臃肿机构,塞满家具,被己阱绊,毁于奢靡,毁于缺算与高尚目标,如国中百万户；对此唯一疗法,如对他们,是厉行节约,严超斯巴达式简朴生活与目标提升。它活太快。人以为国必商,出口冰,电报谈,时速三十英里行,无疑,无论他们是否为之；但我们该如狒狒活或如人活,却稍不确定。若我们不去铺枕木,锻铁轨,日夜专工,而是修补生活以求善,谁将建铁路？若铁路不建,我们如何及时达天堂？但若我们居家理己事,谁需铁路？我们非乘铁路；是铁路乘我们。你们可曾想铁路下那些枕木是啥？每根皆是人,爱尔兰人或扬基佬。轨铺其上,他们覆沙,车平稳驶过。他们是沉睡者,我敢说。每隔几年,新批铺下被碾；因此,若有些人有幸乘轨,另些人不幸被轨乘。当他们碾过一梦游人--一多余错位沉睡者--并惊醒他,他们急停车,喧嚷一阵,似此为例外。我喜知,每五英里需一帮人维持这些沉睡者平卧床中,因这表明他们或会再起。我们为何活得如此匆忙浪费生命？我们决心饿前先饥。人说及时一针省九针,于是他们今日缝千针以省明日九针。至于工作,我们毫无要工。我们患圣维特斯舞蹈病,无法保头静。若我只拉几下教区钟绳,如报火警,即未敲钟,康科德郊区几乎无一男--尽管他晨多以约忙推--无一童,甚至无女--我几可说--不弃一切随声,非主要为救财于火,而是,若我们肯认实,更多为看它烧,因它必烧,且我们,须知,未点火--或为看它灭,并插手,若那事做得漂亮；是的,即使那是教区教堂本身。餐后几无一男打半时盹,但醒时他抬头问:“有新闻否？”仿佛余人类皆为其哨。有些人嘱每半时被叫醒,无疑无他目的；然后,为报之,他们诉所梦。一夜眠后,新闻如早餐般不可或缺。“请告我这球上任何地任何人之任何新事”--然后他边咖啡卷边读,今晨有人在瓦奇托河被挖眼；而他从未梦及,自己活在这世黑暗深不可测巨穴中,且只有眼雏形。

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abode /əˈboʊd/

n. 住所,住处（正式或文学用语）➕

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defence /dɪˈfens/

n. 防御,保卫；辩护（英式拼法,同 defense）➕

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weather-stained /ˈweðərˌsteɪnd/

adj. 因日晒雨淋而褪色或变色的➕

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chinks /tʃɪŋks/

n. 裂缝,裂口（chink的复数）➕

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hewn /hjuːn/

adj. 砍劈而成的,凿成的（hew的过去分词）➕

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studs /stʌdz/

n. 立柱,壁骨；饰钉；螺柱（stud的复数）➕

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casings /ˈkeɪsɪŋz/

n. 框,套,罩；肠衣（casing的复数）➕

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saturated /ˈsætʃəreɪtɪd/

adj. 浸透的,湿透的；饱和的➕

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exude /ɪɡˈzuːd/

v. 渗出,流出；散发（气质、感情等）➕

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auroral /ɔːˈrɔːrəl/

adj. 极光的；曙光的,黎明的➕

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celestial /səˈlestʃl/

adj. 天上的,天空的；极好的,完美的➕

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terrestrial /təˈrestriəl/

adj. 地球的；陆地的；人间的➕

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Olympus /əˈlɪmpəs/

n. 奥林匹斯山（希腊神话中众神居住地）➕

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garret /ˈɡærɪt/

n. 阁楼,顶楼小房间➕

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substantial /səbˈstænʃl/

adj. 坚固的,结实的；大量的,重大的；实质的➕

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crystallization /ˌkrɪstəlaɪˈzeɪʃn/

n. 结晶；具体化,明确化➕

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reacted /riˈæktɪd/

v. 起反应；起作用；反作用（react的过去式）➕

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outlines /ˈaʊtlaɪnz/

n. 轮廓,外形；大纲,梗概（outline的复数）➕

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Harivansa /ˌhɑːrɪˈvɑːnsə/

n. 《诃利世系》（印度教梵语史诗,毗湿奴往世书的一部分）➕

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seasoning /ˈsiːzənɪŋ/

n. 调味品,佐料；增添趣味的东西➕

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thrilling /ˈθrɪlɪŋ/

adj. 令人兴奋的,毛骨悚然的➕

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serenade /ˌserəˈneɪd/

v. 为...唱小夜曲,对...唱歌➕

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veery /ˈvɪri/

n. 威尔逊鸫（一种北美林鸟）➕

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scarlet tanager /ˈskɑːrlɪt ˈtænɪdʒər/

n. 猩红丽唐纳雀（一种北美鸣禽,雄鸟羽毛鲜红）➕

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whip-poor-will /ˌwɪp pʊr ˈwɪl/

n. 三声夜鹰（一种北美夜鹰,以其叫声得名）➕

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tarn /tɑːrn/

n. 山中小湖,冰斗湖（多见于英格兰北部和苏格兰）➕

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stealthily /ˈstelθɪli/

adv. 悄悄地,偷偷地➕

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nocturnal /nɑːkˈtɜːrnl/

adj. 夜间的；夜间活动的➕

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conventicle /kənˈventɪkl/

n. （尤指非国教徒的）秘密宗教集会；集会场所➕

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serenity /səˈrenəti/

n. 平静,宁静,安详➕

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vista /ˈvɪstə/

n. 远景,深景；展望➕

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indentation /ˌɪndenˈteɪʃn/

n. 凹口,缺口；缩进➕

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tinged /tɪndʒd/

adj. 微染...色的；略带...性质的➕

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buoyancy /ˈbɔɪənsi/

n. 浮力；轻松愉快的心情；上涨趋势➕

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insular /ˈɪnsələr/

adj. 岛屿的；思想狭隘的,与世隔绝的➕

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mirage /məˈrɑːʒ/

n. 海市蜃楼,幻景；幻想➕

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seething /ˈsiːðɪŋ/

adj. 沸腾的；骚动的；极度愤怒的➕

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insulated /ˈɪnsəleɪtɪd/

adj. 隔热的,绝缘的；与世隔绝的➕

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interverting /ˌɪntərˈvɜːrtɪŋ/

adj. 使颠倒的,使反转的（罕见词,可能为作者自创或古语）➕

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contracted /kənˈtræktɪd/

adj. 收缩的；缩小的；订约的➕

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shrub /ʃrʌb/

n. 灌木➕

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plateau /plæˈtoʊ/

n. 高原；稳定期,停滞期➕

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prairies /ˈpreriz/

n. 大草原（prairie的复数）➕

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steppes /steps/

n. 干草原,大草原（尤指东南欧和亚洲的）➕

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Tartary /ˈtɑːrtəri/

n. 鞑靼地区（历史上对中亚和东欧部分地区的旧称）➕

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roving /ˈroʊvɪŋ/

adj. 流浪的,漂泊的；巡回的➕

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Damodara /dəˈmoʊdərə/

n. 达摩达罗（印度教神祇克里希那的别名之一）➕

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delectable /dɪˈlektəbl/

adj. 美味的,赏心悦目的➕

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constellation /ˌkɑːnstəˈleɪʃn/

n. 星座；一群杰出的人或事物➕

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Cassiopeia /ˌkæsiəˈpiːə/

n. 仙后座（北天星座）➕

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unprofaned /ˌʌnprəˈfeɪnd/

adj. 未受亵渎的,保持神圣的➕

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Pleiades /ˈpliːədiːz/

n. 昴宿星团（七姐妹星团）➕

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Hyades /ˈhaɪədiːz/

n. 毕宿星团（位于金牛座）➕

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Aldebaran /ælˈdebərən/

n. 毕宿五（金牛座最亮的恒星）➕

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Altair /ælˈtɛər/

n. 河鼓二（牛郎星,天鹰座最亮的恒星）➕

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dwindled /ˈdwɪndld/

v. 逐渐减少,缩小（dwindle的过去分词）➕

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twinkling /ˈtwɪŋklɪŋ/

n. 闪烁,闪耀➕

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squatted /ˈskwɑːtɪd/

v. 蹲；擅自占用（空屋或土地）（squat的过去分词）➕

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Aurora /əˈrɔːrə/

n. 奥罗拉（罗马神话中的曙光女神）；极光➕

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engraven /ɪnˈɡreɪvən/

v. 雕刻（engrave的过去分词,古语或诗语）➕

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Tchingthang /tʃɪŋˈθæŋ/

n. 成汤（中国商朝开国君主,此处指传说）➕

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requiem /ˈrekwiəm/

n. 安魂曲；挽歌➕

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Iliad /ˈɪliəd/

n. 《伊利亚特》（荷马史诗,讲述特洛伊战争）➕

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Odyssey /ˈɑːdəsi/

n. 《奥德赛》（荷马史诗,讲述奥德修斯的归乡之旅）；漫长而充满冒险的旅程➕

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cosmical /ˈkɑːzmɪkəl/

adj. 宇宙的；广大无边的（同 cosmic）➕

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somnolence /ˈsɑːmnələns/

n. 困倦,嗜睡➕

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undulations /ˌʌndʒəˈleɪʃənz/

n. 波动,起伏；波浪形（undulation的复数）➕

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despaired /dɪˈsperd/

v. 绝望,失去希望（despair的过去分词）➕

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reinvigorated /ˌriːɪnˈvɪɡəreɪtɪd/

adj. 恢复活力的,振作的（reinvigorate的过去分词）➕

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transpire /trænˈspaɪər/

v. 发生；为人所知；蒸发➕

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Vedas /ˈveɪdəz/

n. 吠陀经（印度最古老的宗教文献和文学作品）➕

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Memnon /ˈmɛmnɒn/

n. 门农（希腊神话中埃塞俄比亚国王,黎明女神厄俄斯之子）➕

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elastic /ɪˈlæstɪk/

adj. 有弹性的；灵活的,可适应的➕

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Spartan-like /ˈspɑːrtnˌlaɪk/

adj. 斯巴达式的,简朴刻苦的➕

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rout /raʊt/

v. 击溃,打垮；彻底击败➕

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swath /swɑːθ/

n. 一长条,一长片；割幅➕

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sublime /səˈblaɪm/

adj. 崇高的,壮丽的,卓越的➕

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evitable /ˈevɪtəbl/

adj. 可避免的（与 inevitable 相对）➕

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frittered /ˈfrɪtərd/

v. 浪费,消耗（fritter的过去分词,常与away连用）➕

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quicksands /ˈkwɪksændz/

n. 流沙（quicksand的复数）；危险复杂的局面➕

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founder /ˈfaʊndər/

v. 失败,崩溃；（船）沉没➕

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dead reckoning /ded ˈrekənɪŋ/

n. phrase. 航位推测法（根据航速、航向和航行时间推算位置,无天文或电子观测）➕

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unwieldy /ʌnˈwiːldi/

adj. 笨重的,不灵便的；难处理的➕

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overgrown /ˌoʊvərˈɡroʊn/

adj. 长得太大的；杂草丛生的➕

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cluttered /ˈklʌtərd/

adj. 杂乱的,堆满杂物的➕

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heedless /ˈhiːdləs/

adj. 不注意的,不留心的➕

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telegraph /ˈtelɪɡræf/

n. 电报；电报机➕

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baboons /bæˈbuːnz/

n. 狒狒（baboon的复数）➕

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tinkering /ˈtɪŋkərɪŋ/

v. 笨拙地修理,摆弄；小修小补（tinker的现在分词）➕

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sleepers /ˈsliːpərz/

n. 轨枕；睡眠者（sleeper的复数）➕

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supernumerary /ˌsuːpərˈnuːməreri/

adj. 额外的,多余的；编制外的➕

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hue and cry /ˌhjuː ən ˈkraɪ/

n. phrase. 大声抗议,喧嚷；追捕犯人的叫喊声➕

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stitch /stɪtʃ/

n. 一针,缝线；突然剧痛➕

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parish /ˈpærɪʃ/

n. 教区（基督教会的基层单位）；（英国的）行政堂区➕

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bell-rope /ˈbel roʊp/

n. 钟绳,敲钟的绳索➕

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outskirts /ˈaʊtskɜːrts/

n. 市郊,郊区➕

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sentinels /ˈsentɪnlz/

n. 哨兵,卫兵（sentinel的复数）➕

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indispensable /ˌɪndɪˈspensəbl/

adj. 不可或缺的,必不可少的➕

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gouged /ɡaʊdʒd/

v. 凿,挖；敲竹杠（gouge的过去分词）➕

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unfathomed /ʌnˈfæðəmd/

adj. 未探测深度的；未被理解的➕

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mammoth /ˈmæməθ/

adj. 巨大的,庞大的➕

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rudiment /ˈruːdɪmənt/

n. 基础,基本原理；雏形,萌芽➕

🔊 For my part, I could easily do without the post-office. I think that there are very few important communications made through it. To speak critically, I never received more than one or two letters in my life - I wrote this some years ago - that were worth the postage. The penny-post is, commonly, an institution through which you seriously offer a man that penny for his thoughts which is so often safely offered in jest. And I am sure that I never read any memorable news in a newspaper. If we read of one man robbed, or murdered, or killed by accident, or one house burned, or one vessel wrecked, or one steamboat blown up, or one cow run over on the Western Railroad, or one mad dog killed, or one lot of grasshoppers in the winter - we never need read of another. One is enough. If you are acquainted with the principle, what do you care for a myriad instances and applications? To a philosopher all news, as it is called, is gossip, and they who edit and read it are old women over their tea. Yet not a few are greedy after this gossip. There was such a rush, as I hear, the other day at one of the offices to learn the foreign news by the last arrival, that several large squares of plate glass belonging to the establishment were broken by the pressure - news which I seriously think a ready wit might write a twelve-month, or twelve years, beforehand with sufficient accuracy. As for Spain, for instance, if you know how to throw in Don Carlos and the Infanta, and Don Pedro and Seville and Granada, from time to time in the right proportions - they may have changed the names a little since I saw the papers - and serve up a bull-fight when other entertainments fail, it will be true to the letter, and give us as good an idea of the exact state or ruin of things in Spain as the most succinct and lucid reports under this head in the newspapers: and as for England, almost the last significant scrap of news from that quarter was the revolution of 1649; and if you have learned the history of her crops for an average year, you never need attend to that thing again, unless your speculations are of a merely pecuniary character. If one may judge who rarely looks into the newspapers, nothing new does ever happen in foreign parts, a French revolution not excepted.

于我,易过无邮局日子。我以为通过它传递的重要通讯极少。坦言之,我此生收过值得邮资的信不过一两封--此乃我几年前所写。通常,平邮是一种制度,你认真付一便士以换人思,而这在玩笑中常更安妥。我确信从未在报上读过任何可忆新闻。若我们读一人被劫,或被谋,或意外死,或一房焚,或一船毁,或一汽船爆,或一牛在西部铁路被撞,或一疯狗被杀,或一窝蝗冬现--我们永无需再读另一。一则足矣。若你知原理,何顾万千实例应用？对哲学家,所有所谓新闻,皆是闲谈,编读者是喝茶老妪。然不少人贪此闲谈。我闻,前日某事务所人潮涌,争知末班邮轮外闻,致该所几大厚玻璃板被挤破--这新闻我认真以为,一捷才足提前十二月,或十二年,便相当准写出。如西班牙,若你知如何适时掺入适当比例唐·卡洛斯和公主,唐·佩德罗和塞维利亚及格拉纳达--自我看报,这些名或稍变--并在其他娱乐乏时,端上一场斗牛,那便与实情字字相符,让我们对西班牙确切状或毁情,有如同报此栏最简晰报道一样好了解:至于英格兰,从彼处来最后有分量消息,约是一六四九年革命；若你已学其年均收成史,你永无需再顾此事,除非你投机纯为金钱。若一个少看报者可判,那么国外从未发生新事,法国革命亦不例外。

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postage /ˈpoʊstɪdʒ/

n. 邮资,邮费➕

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penny-post /ˈpeni poʊst/

n. 便士邮政（指英国历史上统一低价邮寄制度）➕

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institution /ˌɪnstɪˈtuːʃn/

n. 机构；制度；建立➕

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memorable /ˈmemərəbl/

adj. 难忘的,值得纪念的➕

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vessel /ˈvesl/

n. 船,舰；容器,器皿；血管➕

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wrecked /rekt/

adj. 失事的,毁坏的；破灭的➕

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steamboat /ˈstiːmboʊt/

n. 汽船,轮船➕

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grasshoppers /ˈɡræshɑːpərz/

n. 蚱蜢,蝗虫（grasshopper的复数）➕

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myriad /ˈmɪriəd/

adj. 无数的,大量的➕

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philosopher /fəˈlɑːsəfər/

n. 哲学家；达观的人➕

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gossip /ˈɡɑːsɪp/

n. 流言蜚语,闲话；爱说闲话的人➕

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greedy /ˈɡriːdi/

adj. 贪婪的,贪心的；渴望的➕

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succinct /səkˈsɪŋkt/

adj. 简洁的,简明的➕

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lucid /ˈluːsɪd/

adj. 清晰的,易懂的；头脑清醒的➕

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pecuniary /pɪˈkjuːnieri/

adj. 金钱的,金钱上的➕

🔊 What news! how much more important to know what that is which was never old! "Kieou-he-yu (great dignitary of the state of Wei) sent a man to Khoung-tseu to know his news. Khoung-tseu caused the messenger to be seated near him, and questioned him in these terms: What is your master doing? The messenger answered with respect: My master desires to diminish the number of his faults, but he cannot come to the end of them. The messenger being gone, the philosopher remarked: What a worthy messenger! What a worthy messenger!" The preacher, instead of vexing the ears of drowsy farmers on their day of rest at the end of the week - for Sunday is the fit conclusion of an ill-spent week, and not the fresh and brave beginning of a new one - with this one other draggle-tail of a sermon, should shout with thundering voice, "Pause! Avast! Why so seeming fast, but deadly slow?"

是何新闻！知那永不过时之物,该重要多少！“蘧伯玉（卫之大夫）遣使至孔子处,探其近况。孔子让使者坐近,如此问:汝主何为？使者敬答:吾主欲减己过,然未能尽。使者去后,哲人叹道:何等可敬使者！何等可敬使者！”牧师们,莫在周末疲惫农夫休日--因星期日是一周虚度后恰当终,非新一周清新勇始--用那种拖泥带水陈道烦其耳,而该以雷声喊:“停！住手！为何看似匆忙,却又死气沉沉？”

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dignitary /ˈdɪɡnɪteri/

n. 显要人物,权贵➕

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draggle-tail /ˈdræɡl teɪl/

n. 邋遢女人；衣衫褴褛的人（古语）➕

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sermon /ˈsɜːrmən/

n. 布道,讲道；冗长的说教➕

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thundering /ˈθʌndərɪŋ/

adj. 雷鸣般的,声音响亮的➕

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Avast /əˈvæst/

interj. 停！止！（航海用语,命令停止）➕

🔊 Shams and delusions are esteemed for soundest truths, while reality is fabulous. If men would steadily observe realities only, and not allow themselves to be deluded, life, to compare it with such things as we know, would be like a fairy tale and the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments. If we respected only what is inevitable and has a right to be, music and poetry would resound along the streets. When we are unhurried and wise, we perceive that only great and worthy things have any permanent and absolute existence, that petty fears and petty pleasures are but the shadow of the reality. This is always exhilarating and sublime. By closing the eyes and slumbering, and consenting to be deceived by shows, men establish and confirm their daily life of routine and habit everywhere, which still is built on purely illusory foundations. Children, who play life, discern its true law and relations more clearly than men, who fail to live it worthily, but who think that they are wiser by experience, that is, by failure. I have read in a Hindoo book, that "there was a king’s son, who, being expelled in infancy from his native city, was brought up by a forester, and, growing up to maturity in that state, imagined himself to belong to the barbarous race with which he lived. One of his father’s ministers having discovered him, revealed to him what he was, and the misconception of his character was removed, and he knew himself to be a prince. So soul," continues the Hindoo philosopher, "from the circumstances in which it is placed, mistakes its own character, until the truth is revealed to it by some holy teacher, and then it knows itself to be Brahme."

虚假与幻觉被奉为至理,而现实却成无稽。若人坚只观现实,不允自欺,生活,与我们所知事比,便会如童话和天方夜谭。若我们只尊那不可避免有权在者,音乐诗歌将响彻街。当我们从容智时,我们觉只有伟大值得物才有永绝存在,微小惧乐不过是现实影。这总令人振崇高。闭眼眠,甘被表欺,人如此处处建固其日常例习,而这些仍筑于纯幻基上。孩子们玩生活,却比那些未能活得值、却自以为因经验（即败）而更聪的大人,更清辨生活真律系。我在一印度人书中读:“有一王子,幼时被逐出故城,由林居者养大,并在那态中长成,自以为属其所活蛮族。其父一大臣发现他,向他揭示他是谁,于是他对自身性误解除,知己是王子。”印度人哲人续:“灵魂亦如此,因所处境,误己性,直至某圣师向其揭真,它才知己是梵。”

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delusions /dɪˈluːʒnz/

n. 错觉,妄想；欺骗（delusion的复数）➕

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fabulous /ˈfæbjələs/

adj. 极好的,绝妙的；传说中的➕

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inevitable /ɪnˈevɪtəbl/

adj. 不可避免的,必然发生的➕

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resound /rɪˈzaʊnd/

v. 回响,回荡；广泛传播➕

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exhilarating /ɪɡˈzɪləreɪtɪŋ/

adj. 令人振奋的,使人兴奋的➕

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illusory /ɪˈluːsəri/

adj. 幻觉的,虚假的,不真实的➕

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discern /dɪˈsɜːrn/

v. 察觉,识别；辨明➕

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Hindoo /ˈhɪnduː/

n. 印度人,印度教徒（旧式拼法,现常用 Hindu）➕

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forester /ˈfɔːrɪstər/

n. 林务员,护林人；森林居民➕

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barbarous /ˈbɑːrbərəs/

adj. 野蛮的,未开化的；残忍的➕

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misconception /ˌmɪskənˈsepʃn/

n. 误解,错误看法➕

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Brahme /brɑːm/

n. 梵（印度教哲学中的终极实在,宇宙本源；旧式拼法,现常用 Brahman）➕

🔊 I perceive that we inhabitants of New England live this mean life that we do because our vision does not penetrate the surface of things. We think that that is which appears to be. If a man should walk through this town and see only the reality, where, think you, would the "Mill-dam" go to? If he should give us an account of the realities he beheld there, we should not recognize the place in his description. Look at a meeting-house, or a court-house, or a jail, or a shop, or a dwelling-house, and say what that thing really is before a true gaze, and they would all go to pieces in your account of them. Men esteem truth remote, in the outskirts of the system, behind the farthest star, before Adam and after the last man. In eternity there is indeed something true and sublime. But all these times and places and occasions are now and here. God himself culminates in the present moment, and will never be more divine in the lapse of all the ages. And we are enabled to apprehend at all what is sublime and noble only by the perpetual instilling and drenching of the reality that surrounds us. The universe constantly and obediently answers to our conceptions; whether we travel fast or slow, the track is laid for us. Let us spend our lives in conceiving then. The poet or the artist never yet had so fair and noble a design but some of his posterity at least could accomplish it.

我觉我们新英格兰居民之所以过此卑微生活,是因我们目不透物表。我们认为表象即真实。若一人行遍此镇,只视真实,那么你想,那“磨坊坝”将往何？若他向述其所见真实,我们恐难从他述中认此地。视一教堂,或一法庭,或一监狱,或一店,或一宅,在真实凝视下言那究竟是何,它们皆会在你述中散。人尊真遥,在系缘,在最远星后,亚当前与最后人后。永恒中确存某真崇。但这些时地机皆在此时此。上帝本身在此刻达巅,未来永岁不会更神。而我们所以能领悟崇贵,全赖对我们周现实持续浸润。宇宙恒顺应我们观念；无论我们行快慢,轨已为我们铺。那么,让我们在构想中度生吧。诗人或艺术家从未有过如此美好高贵设计,但其子孙中至少有人能成之。

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penetrate /ˈpenətreɪt/

v. 穿透,刺入；洞察,了解➕

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Mill-dam /mɪl dæm/

n. 磨坊水坝➕

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gaze /ɡeɪz/

n. 凝视,注视➕

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remote /rɪˈmoʊt/

adj. 遥远的,偏僻的；关系疏远的➕

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culminates /ˈkʌlmɪneɪts/

v. 达到顶点,告终➕

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lapse /læps/

n. 失误,疏忽；（时间的）流逝➕

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apprehend /ˌæprɪˈhend/

v. 逮捕；理解,领会➕

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instilling /ɪnˈstɪlɪŋ/

v. 逐渐灌输,徐徐注入（instill的现在分词）➕

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drenching /ˈdrentʃɪŋ/

v. 使湿透,浸透（drench的现在分词）➕

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conceptions /kənˈsepʃnz/

n. 概念,观念；构思（conception的复数）➕

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posterity /pɑːˈsterəti/

n. 后代,子孙➕

🔊 Let us spend one day as deliberately as Nature, and not be thrown off the track by every nutshell and mosquito’s wing that falls on the rails. Let us rise early and fast, or break fast, gently and without perturbation; let company come and let company go, let the bells ring and the children cry - determined to make a day of it. Why should we knock under and go with the stream? Let us not be upset and overwhelmed in that terrible rapid and whirlpool called a dinner, situated in the meridian shallows. Weather this danger and you are safe, for the rest of the way is down hill. With unrelaxed nerves, with morning vigor, sail by it, looking another way, tied to the mast like Ulysses. If the engine whistles, let it whistle till it is hoarse for its pains. If the bell rings, why should we run? We will consider what kind of music they are like. Let us settle ourselves, and work and wedge our feet downward through the mud and slush of opinion, and prejudice, and tradition, and delusion, and appearance, that alluvion which covers the globe, through Paris and London, through New York and Boston and Concord, through Church and State, through poetry and philosophy and religion, till we come to a hard bottom and rocks in place, which we can call reality, and say, This is, and no mistake; and then begin, having a point d’appui, below freshet and frost and fire, a place where you might found a wall or a state, or set a lamp-post safely, or perhaps a gauge, not a Nilometer, but a Realometer, that future ages might know how deep a freshet of shams and appearances had gathered from time to time. If you stand right fronting and face to face to a fact, you will see the sun glimmer on both its surfaces, as if it were a cimeter, and feel its sweet edge dividing you through the heart and marrow, and so you will happily conclude your mortal career. Be it life or death, we crave only reality. If we are really dying, let us hear the rattle in our throats and feel cold in the extremities; if we are alive, let us go about our business.

让我们如自然般从容度一日,不被落轨上每一果壳或蚊翅扰。让我们早起,或禁食,或早餐,从容不乱；任客来去,任钟鸣孩哭--决心过好这日。我们为何屈从随流？让我们不被那位于正午浅滩、称为“正餐”的可怕急流漩涡掀吞。闯此险,你便安,因余路皆下坡。神不弛,携晨力,像尤利西斯那样绑桅,目向他方,驶过它。若引擎鸣笛,任它鸣至嘶。若钟响,我们为何跑？我们会思它们似何乐。让我们安下,工作,将脚楔入那覆球泥浆--意见、偏见、传统、幻觉和表象--穿过巴黎和伦敦,穿过纽约、波士顿和康科德,穿过教会与国家,穿过诗哲宗,直至我们抵一硬底实岩,可称现实,并说,此是,无误；然后始,有立足点,在洪水霜火下,一处你可稳建墙或州,或立灯柱,或或许一量规--非尼罗河水位计,而是真实度测量仪--让未来代知,虚伪表象洪水曾积多深。若你正对事实,面对面视之,你将见阳闪其两面,如似弯刀,觉其甜刃分你心髓,于是你将悦终你凡生。无论生死,我们只渴真实。若我们真死,让我们听喉中痰音,感肢冷；若我们活,让我们理己事。

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deliberately /dɪˈlɪbərətli/

adv. 故意地；审慎地,从容地➕

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perturbation /ˌpɜːrtərˈbeɪʃn/

n. 不安,扰乱；微扰➕

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meridian /məˈrɪdiən/

n. 子午线；顶点,鼎盛时期➕

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shallows /ˈʃæloʊz/

n. 浅水处,浅滩（shallow的复数）➕

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unrelaxed /ˌʌnrɪˈlækst/

adj. 未放松的,紧张的➕

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Ulysses /juːˈlɪsiːz/

n. 尤利西斯（希腊神话中的英雄奥德修斯的拉丁名）➕

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hoarse /hɔːrs/

adj. 嘶哑的,沙哑的➕

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alluvion /əˈluːviən/

n. 冲积层；洪水➕

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freshet /ˈfreʃɪt/

n. 洪水,河水暴涨；（入海的）淡水水流➕

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gauge /ɡeɪdʒ/

n. 测量仪器；标准,尺度；铁轨间距➕

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Nilometer /naɪˈlɒmɪtər/

n. 尼罗河水位测量仪➕

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Realometer /riːˈæləmiːtər/

n. 现实测量仪（作者自创词,指测量真实的仪器）➕

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cimeter /ˈsɪmɪtər/

n. 弯刀,短弯刀（scimitar的旧式拼法）➕

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marrow /ˈmæroʊ/

n. 骨髓；精华,精髓➕

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rattle /ˈrætl/

n. 咯咯声,咔嗒声；拨浪鼓➕

🔊 Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in. I drink at it; but while I drink I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. Its thin current slides away, but eternity remains. I would drink deeper; fish in the sky, whose bottom is pebbly with stars. I cannot count one. I know not the first letter of the alphabet. I have always been regretting that I was not as wise as the day I was born. The intellect is a cleaver; it discerns and rifts its way into the secret of things. I do not wish to be any more busy with my hands than is necessary. My head is hands and feet. I feel all my best faculties concentrated in it. My instinct tells me that my head is an organ for burrowing, as some creatures use their snout and fore paws, and with it I would mine and burrow my way through these hills. I think that the richest vein is somewhere hereabouts; so by the divining-rod and thin rising vapors I judge; and here I will begin to mine.

时间不过是我垂钓的溪流。我饮之；但饮时,我见沙底,察其浅。其细流滑逝,但永恒留。我欲饮更深；在天空垂钓,那里河底星砾。我一颗难数。我不识字母表首字。我一直憾己不如出生日聪。理智是利斧；它能辨物,并劈入物秘。除必要,我不愿手更忙。我头即是手足。我感到我最佳能皆集于此。我本能告我,我头是掘器,如某些物用其吻前爪,我要用它在此群山中开矿穿行。我以为最富矿脉便在此近；我凭占卜杖与袅袅升雾如此判；我要在此始掘。

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a-fishing /ə ˈfɪʃɪŋ/

adj. 钓鱼的（古语或诗语,a- 为古英语前缀）➕

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pebbly /ˈpebli/

adj. 多卵石的,铺满卵石的➕

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cleaver /ˈkliːvər/

n. 切肉刀,砍刀➕

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rifts /rɪfts/

n. 裂缝,裂口；不和（rift的复数）➕

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burrowing /ˈbɜːroʊɪŋ/

v. 挖洞,掘穴（burrow的现在分词）➕

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snout /snaʊt/

n. （动物的）口鼻部,吻➕

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divining-rod /dɪˈvaɪnɪŋ rɒd/

n. 占卜杖,探矿杖➕

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vapors /ˈveɪpərz/

n. 蒸汽,雾气；抑郁情绪（vapor的复数,古语）➕

Chapter two: Where I Lived, and What I Lived For (第二章:我生活的地方；我为何生活)

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