孤独Solitude（1/2）

亨利·大卫·梭罗/ Henry David Thoreau

亨利·大卫·梭罗（1817—1862），散文家、超验主义哲学家。出生于美国以超验主义中心著称的康科德，并在那儿度过了大半生。梭罗毕生以超验主义作为自己的生活准则，并将之发挥到极致；他一生未娶，曾隐居瓦尔登湖两年有余，过着与世隔绝的生活，并在湖边的木屋里写下了著名的《瓦尔登湖》一书。本文即选自此书。

Acethe Hole

Uand these new words before you read this article.

1. ngenial [k?nd?i:nj?l] adj. 意气相投的，性格相似的，一致的

2. suffit [s?fi??nt] adj. 足够的，充分的

3. profane [pr??fe] v. 亵渎，玷污

4. etiquette [eti,ket] n. 礼节，礼仪，规矩

5. sorrel [s?:r?l] n. 栗色，栗色毛的动物

This is a delicio eveng, when the whole body is one sense, and ibibes delight through every pore. I go ah a strange libertyNature, a part of herself. As I walk along the stony shore of the pondy shirt-sleeves, though it is ol as well as cloudy and dy, and I see nothg special to attract , all the elents are unually ngenial to . The bullfrogs trup to herthe night, and the note of the whippoorwill is borne on the ripplg d fro over the water. Sypathy with the ftterg alder and popr leaves alost takes away y breath; yet, like the ke, y serenity is rippled but not ruffled. These sall waves raised by the eveng d are as reote fro stor as the sooth reflectg surface. Though it is now dark, the d still blows and roarsthe wood, the waves still dash, and so creatures ll the rest with their he repose is never plete. The wildest anials do not repose, but seek their prey now; the fox, and skunk, and rabbit, now roa the fields and woods without fear. They are Nature’s wat—lks whiect the days of aniated life.

When I return to y hoe I fd that visitors have been there aheir cards, either a bunch of flowers, or a wreath of evergreen, or a napencil on a yellow walnut leaf or a chip. They who e rarely to the woods take so little piece of the forest to their hands to py with by the way, which they leave, either tentionally or aidentally. One has peeled a willow wand, woven it t, and dropped it on y table. I uld always tell if visitors had calledy absence, either by the bended igs rass, or the prt of their shoes, and generally of what sex e or quality they were by so slight trace left, as a flower dropped, or a bunch of grass pcked and thrown away, even as far off as the railroad, half a ile distant, or by the lgerg odor of a ent of his pipe.

There is only suffit space about . Our horizon is never quite at our elbows. The thick wood is not jt at our door, nor the pond, but sowhat is always clearg, failiar and worn by , appropriated and fencedso way, and recid fro Nature. For what reason have Ithis vast range and circuit, so square iles of unfrequented forest, for y privacy, abaoby n?Myneighbor is a ile distant, and no hoe is visible fro any pce but the hill-s with half a ile of y own. I have y horizon bounded by woods all to yself; a distant view of the railroad where it touches the pond on the one hand, and of the fence which skirts the woodnd road oher. But for the ost part it is as solitary where I live as on the prairies. It is as uch Asia or Africa as New Engnd. I have, as it were, y own sun and oon and stars, and a little world all to yself. At night there was never a traveller passed y hoe, or k y door, ore than if I were the first or st an; unless it werethe sprg, when at long tervals so ca fro the vilge to fish for pouts—they ply fished uch orethe Walden Pond of their own natures, and baited their hooks with darkness—but they sooreated, ually with light baskets, a he world to darkness and to , and the bck kernel of the night was never profaned by any huan neighborhood. I believe that n are generally still a little afraid of the dark, though the witches are all hung, and Christianity and dles have been troduced.

Yet I experienced sotis that the ost sweet and tehe ostand enuragg society ay be foundany natural object, even for the poor isanthrope and ost ncholy an. Therebe no very bcholy to hi who livesthe idst of Nature and has his seill. While I enjoy the friendship of the seasons I trt that nothgake life a burden to .

Men frequently say to ,“I should thk you would feel loneso down there, and want to be o folks, ray and snowy days and nights especially.”I a tepted to reply to such—this whole earth which we habit is but a potspace. Hoart, thk you, dwell the o ost distant habitants of yoar, the breadth of whose disk ot be appreciated by our strunts? Why should I feel lonely? Is not our pthe Milky Way? This which you put sees tonot to be the ost iportant question. What sort of space is that which separates a an fro his fellows and akes hi solitary? I have found that ion of the legsbrg o ds uearer to one another.

...

I fd it wholeso to be alohe greater part of the ti. To bepany, even with the best, is soon weariso and dissipatg. I love to be alone. I never found the panion that was so panionable as solitude. We are for the ost part ore lonely when we go abroad aong n than wheayour chabers. A an thkg or w is always alone, let hi be where he will. Solitude is not asured by the iles of space that tervene beeen a an and his fellows. The really diligent studentone of the crowded hives of Cabridge College is as solitary as a dervishthe desert. The farrwork alohe field or the woods all day, hoeg or choppg, and not feel loneso, becae he is eployed; but when he es ho at night he ot sit downa roo alo the rcy of his thoughts, but t be where he “see the folks,”and recreate, and, as he thks, reue hiself for his day’s solitude; and hence he wonders how the studentsit alohe hoe all night and ost of the day without ennui and“the bes”; but he does not realize that the student, thoughthe hoe, is still at workhis field, and choppghis woods, as the farrhis, andturhe sa recreation and society that the tter does, though it ay be a ore ndensed for of it.

Society is only too cheap. We et at very short tervals, not havg had ti to acquire any new vae for each other. We et at als three tis a day, and give each other a aste of that old ty cheese that we are. We have had to agree on a certa set of rules, called etiquette and politeness, to ake this frequeolerable and that we need o open war. We et at the post-office, and at the sociable, and about the fireside every night; we live thid areeach other’s way, and stuble over one another, and I thk that we th lose so respect for one another. Certaly less frequency would suffice for all iportant ay unications. sider the girlsa factory—never alone, hardlytheir dreas. It would be better if there were but one habitant to a square ile, as where I live. The vae of a an is nothis sk, that we should touch hi.

...

I have a great deal of panyy hoe;especiallythe , when nobody calls. Letsuggest a few parisons, that so one ay nvey an idea of y situation. I a no ore lohan the loonthe pond that ughs so loud, or than Walden Pond itself. any has that lonely ke, I pray.A has not the be devils, but the be angelsit,the azure tt of its waters. The sun is alone, exceptthick weather, when there sotis appear to be o, but one is a ock sun. God is alo the devil, he is far fro beg alone; he sees a great deal of pany; he is legion. I a no ore lohan a sgle ulle or dandeliona pasture, or a bean leaf, or sorrel, or a horse-fly, or a bublebee. I a no ore lohan the Mill Brook, or a weatherck, or the north star, or the south d, or an April shower, or a January thaw, or the first spidera new hoe.

参考译文

这是一个愉快的夜晚，周身就只有一种感觉，全身的毛孔都浸透着喜悦。我以一种奇异的姿态穿行于大自然之间，成为她的一部分。我身着衬衫，漫步于铺满石头的湖滨，虽然天气有些寒冷，云多风也大，而且我也没看到什么吸引了我的东西，没有什么很让我挂心的事情，但这样的天气对于我却是很适宜的。牛蛙用呜呜的低鸣声迎来了黑夜，晚风让湖面**起涟漪，湖面上也传来了夜鹰的音乐。赤杨和白杨迎风摇曳，激起我的**，使我无法呼吸，然而像湖面一样，我的宁静也是水波不兴，如镜面般平静的湖水，不会掀起惊涛骇浪。天虽然已经黑了，可是风还在森林里吹拂咆哮，浪涛依旧拍打着湖岸，一些动物还在奏乐，催使其他动物入眠，这里没有绝对的宁静。最凶猛的动物还没有安静下来，正在寻觅它们的猎物；狐狸、臭鼬、兔子，也还在原野上漫游，在这大森林里，它们一点都不感到恐惧，它们是大自然的守护者——是连接着一个个生机勃勃的白天的链环。

当我回到家里的时候，发现有客人来访过，他们还留下了名片，要么是一束花，要么是一个常青树的花环，要么是在黄色的胡桃叶或木片上用铅笔写下的名字。那些不经常到é?林的人喜欢一路上拿些小玩意儿在手上玩，有时是故意地，有时是偶然地就把它们留下了。有一位客人剥下了柳树皮，用来做了一个环圈，放在我的桌子上。我总是可以知道在我出门的时候有没有客人来过，不是树枝或青草弯倒了，就是一些脚印被留下了。一般情况下，我还能从他们留下的微妙痕迹里猜测出他们的年龄、性别和性格；有的丢下了花朵，有的抓来一把草又把它扔掉，甚至还有些一直带到半英里外的铁路上才扔掉；也有的时候，这里还残留着雪茄烟和烟斗的味道。我经常从烟斗的味道里注意到六十杆之外的公路上正在行走的旅行者。

应该说我们周围的空间是很大的。我们不可能一伸手就触摸到地平线。郁郁葱葱的森林或湖泊也并不是就在我的门口，在这中间还有一块我们熟悉而且使用着的空地，我们多多少少整理了一些，还围了篱笆。我们仿佛是从大自然手中把它索取来的。我有什么理由要占领这么大的范围和规模，为什么这不见人烟、遭受人类遗弃、有着这么大面积的森林会归我所有呢？离我最近的邻居在一英里外，见不到什么房子，除非登上半里以外的小山顶举目远眺，才能看见一点房屋。我的地平线被森林包围起来，供我独自享用，望得最远的地方，也只是湖的一端铺设的铁路和湖的另一端沿着山林的公路上围建的篱笆。从大体上看，我居住在这个地方，和生活在大草原上一样寂寞。这里离新英格兰像离亚洲和非洲一样远。可以说，我拥有自己的太阳、月亮和星星，这是一个完全属于自己的小世界。晚上的时候，从来没有人经过我的屋子，或者是敲我的门，我仿佛成了人类的第一个人或是最后一个人。除非是在春天，隔了很长时间，才会有人来钓鱼，而在瓦尔登湖，很显然他们只能钓到自己的本性，而鱼钩也只能钩起黑夜——于是他们很快就走了，常常是带着轻飘飘的鱼篓离开的，把“世界留给黑夜和我”，而黑夜的核心从来没有被人类任何一个邻舍亵渎过。我确信，通常人们还是有些害怕黑暗的，虽然妖魔都被绞死了，基督教和蜡烛的火焰也被引进来了。

然而有时我会有这样的经历，在任何一样大自然的事物中，你总能找到最甜蜜、最柔和、最纯真、最让人精神振奋的伴侣，就是对那些愤世嫉俗和忧心忡忡的人也是一样。生活在大自然中，只要感官还在发挥作用，就不可能有太深重的忧郁……当我享受着四季的友爱时，不管什么都不会让生命成为我沉重的负担。

……

常有人对我说：“我想你住在那里一定很寂寞，总想着和其他的人接触一下吧，尤其是在下雨下雪的日子和夜晚。”这个问题诱使我想做这样一番解释——我们居住的整个地球，在宇宙中也不过是一个小点罢了。而别的星球，我们用天文仪器还不能测其大小，你想象一下它上面两个相隔最远的居民间的距离又是多远呢？我怎么会感到寂寞呢？我们的地球不是在银河之中吗？在我看来，你提出的是一个最无关紧要的问题。人和人群要被怎样的空间分开才会感到寂寞呢？我已经找到了，人腿再努力也只能让人们走在一起，却无法使他们的心彼此靠近。

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