Walden (Excerpt)
《瓦尔登湖》（节选）
By Henry David Thoreau
文/亨利•戴维•梭罗
译/潘庆舲
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.
我经常看到一个诗人，欣赏了农场里令人叫绝的风景就离去了，而脾气急躁的农场主还以为他拿走的只是几个野苹果罢了。殊不知诗人已写了诗吟咏他的农场，而农场主多少年来都还蒙在鼓里呢；这么一道令人艳羡的无形栅篱，已经把农场圈了起来，把它的牛奶挤了出来，取其精华——奶油，然后通通拿走，留给农场主的是撇去了奶油的奶水。
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.
依我看，霍尔维尔乡间住宅的真正魅力，在于它是全然遁世隐退之胜地，离村子有两英里远，最近的邻居也在半英里开外，好大的一块地把它和公路隔开；它以一条河划界，据农场主说，春天里河面上升起了大雾，霜冻也就不见了影子，不过，这可跟我完全无关。农舍和谷仓都是灰不溜秋，破败不堪；坍塌失修的栅篱，仿佛在我和早先的居民之间相隔了如此悠悠岁月；那些苹果树早已中空，长满苔藓，还被兔子啃咬过，由此可见与我比邻而居的将是何许人也，不过，最主要的倒是我回忆起早岁溯河而上时，望见那华屋依稀掩映在茂密的红枫树丛里，还听得到打从那儿传过来的家犬的吠声。我急吼吼地把它买了下来，等不及业主把那些石块搬走，把树身早已中空的苹果树砍掉，把牧场上长出来的小白桦树连根铲掉，总之，等不及业主进一步收拾停当了。为了享有上述那些优点，我就索性一不做、二不休吧；如同阿特拉斯一样，把整个世界扛到我肩膀上——我从没听说过他得到了什么回报——一切全由我自己操办，自然没有什么别的动机和借口，只等钱款付清，平安无事地拥有霍尔维尔乡间别墅。因为我一直知道，只要我让它自由发展，它就会带来我预期得到的最丰美的收成。但结果呢，如同我在前文所说的一样。
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.
因此，有关大规模耕作一事（至今我一直在侍弄着一个园子），我所能说说的仅仅是种子，我早已准备好了。很多人以为种子也会与时俱进。我并不怀疑时间是能分得出好与坏的，到了最后我真的要下种时，我想大概总不至于让我大失所望吧。但是，我要一劳永逸地告诉我的伙伴们：你们要尽可能长时间地生活得自由自在，无牵无挂。你们把自己捆在农场上，无异于将自己投进大牢里。
Old Cato, whose “De Re Rustic” 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.
老卡托——他的《乡村篇》乃是我的“栽培者”——我见到他的唯一译本把以下这段话简直译得不知所云，其实，他是这样说的：“你想要购置一座农场，脑子里务必多想想，切莫急吼吼地就买下；也不要怕累、怕麻烦，不去多看看，更不要以为绕着它转了一圈儿就够了。如果说农场真的不错的话，那里你去得越是勤，你就会越是喜欢它。”我想，我是不会急吼吼地买下来的，反正我能活多久，就绕着它转多久，即使一瞑不视了，也要先掩埋在那儿，说不定最终它会使我获得更多乐趣哩。
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.
现在谈的是我又一个这类实验，我打算描述得更加详尽；为了方便起见，我把这两年的经验合二为一地来写。我已说过，我无意写一首闷闷不乐的颂歌，我要像破晓晨鸡在栖木上引吭啼唱那样，只要能唤醒我的左邻右舍就好。
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 ofJuly,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.
我住进树林子的第一天（也就是说，开始日日夜夜地在树林子里过日子），碰巧正是独立日，亦即一八四五年七月四日，当时我的房子还没有竣工，自然抵御不了严冬，只好凑合着遮挡一下风雨，既没有抹泥灰，也没有砌烟囱，墙壁采用的是饱经风雨侵蚀过的粗木板，缝隙很大，入夜以后就让人感到冷飕飕的。经过劈削后的笔直的白色立柱，以及刚刚刨过的门窗的框架，使小屋子显得洁净而又有一点儿透风，特别是大清早，木头都吸足了露水，我不由得浮想联翩：莫非到了正午时分，一些鲜美的树胶会从木头里渗出来。在我的想象之中，屋子里整整一天或多或少都保留着黎明时那种氛围，让我回想到前年观光过的一间山上小屋。【罗卫国：“中国亮点外脑智库”始建于1998年，一直是“亮点闪烁”，涅槃状态。期间换过3个域名、5个版本，做网站的心酸和快乐只有自知。到2022年的教师节，完成整个网站315篇文章。特此撰文纪念！】那间小屋通风良好，又没有抹过泥灰，适宜接待一位云游四方的神仙，在那里，女神也不妨拖曳长裙。打从我的屋顶吹过的风，有如横扫山脊的风发出时断时续的音调，或者说就是人间乐曲从天上落下的几个片段。晨风永不停歇地吹拂，《创世记》的诗篇从来没有间断过；惜乎听者寥寥无几。奥林匹斯山到处都有，但能悟出个中奥妙之人却屈指可数。