I weathered some merry snow-storms, and spent some cheerful winter evenings by my fireside, while the snow whirled wildly without, and even the hooting of the owl was hushed. —
我经历了一些欢乐的暴风雪，度过了一些在炉边愉快的冬夜，外面的雪在疯狂地旋转，甚至猫头鹰的鸣叫也停止了。 —

For many weeks I met no one in my walks but those who came occasionally to cut wood and sled it to the village. —
多个星期以来，我在散步中遇到的都只是偶尔来砍柴并把它拉到村庄的人。 —

The elements, however, abetted me in making a path through the deepest snow in the woods, for when I had once gone through the wind blew the oak leaves into my tracks, where they lodged, and by absorbing the rays of the sun melted the snow, and so not only made a my bed for my feet, but in the night their dark line was my guide. —
但是元素们协助我在树林中穿过最深的积雪，一旦我通过了，风就会把橡树叶吹到我的足迹中，它们停留在那里，并吸收了太阳的光线融化了雪，这样不仅为我的脚踏铺就了道路，而且在夜晚它们黑暗的线条成了我的向导。 —

For human society I was obliged to conjure up the former occupants of these woods. —
为了人类社会，我只得召唤这片树林以前的居民。 —

Within the memory of many of my townsmen the road near which my house stands resounded with the laugh and gossip of inhabitants, and the woods which border it were notched and dotted here and there with their little gardens and dwellings, though it was then much more shut in by the forest than now. —
在我镇上很多人的记忆中，我房子附近的马路上曾经充满了居民们的欢笑和闲话，沿路边的树林上到处都能看到他们的小花园和住宅，虽然那时它比现在更深入树林。 —

In some places, within my own remembrance, the pines would scrape both sides of a chaise at once, and women and children who were compelled to go this way to Lincoln alone and on foot did it with fear, and often ran a good part of the distance. —
在我记忆中的某些地方，松树会同时刮到马车的两侧，在这里，被迫独自步行前往林肯的妇女和孩子会感到害怕，往往会跑一大段路。 —

Though mainly but a humble route to neighboring villages, or for the woodman’s team, it once amused the traveller more than now by its variety, and lingered longer in his memory. —
虽然这条路主要只是通往相邻村庄的一条谦卑路线，或是伐木工队的马车道，但它曾经因为它的多样性而更多地取悦旅行者，并在他的记忆中停留更久。 —

Where now firm open fields stretch from the village to the woods, it then ran through a maple swamp on a foundation of logs, the remnants of which, doubtless, still underlie the present dusty highway, from the Stratton, now the Alms-House Farm, to Brister’s Hill.
在现在从村庄延伸到树林的坚实开阔田野上，那时它穿过一片枫树沼泽，基础是木头，现在产尘的高速公路上仍然可以找到这些木头的残余，从Stratton，现在是救济院农场，到Brister’s Hill。

East of my bean-field, across the road, lived Cato Ingraham, slave of Duncan Ingraham, Esquire, gentleman, of Concord village, who built his slave a house, and gave him permission to live in Walden Woods; —
豆田东面在路对面，住着Duncan Ingraham先生的奴隶Cato Ingraham，康科德村绅士，他为他的奴隶建了一座房子，并允许他住在瓦尔登树林里； —

– Cato, not Uticensis, but Concordiensis. —
–Cato，不是乌提卡人，而是康科德人。 —

Some say that he was a Guinea Negro. There are a few who remember his little patch among the walnuts, which he let grow up till he should be old and need them; —
有人说他是非洲的一名Guinea黑人。仍有一些人记得他的核桃树下的小菜园，他让这些树长起来，直到他年老时需要它们； —

but a younger and whiter speculator got them at last. —
但是一位更年轻更白的投机者最终得到了它们。 —

He too, however, occupies an equally narrow house at present. —
然而，他现在也住在一个同样狭窄的房子里。 —

Cato’s half-obliterated cellar-hole still remains, though known to few, being concealed from the traveller by a fringe of pines. —
Cato已经模糊的地窖仍然存在，虽然为数不多的人知道，被一片松树林掩盖住了。 —

It is now filled with the smooth sumach (Rhus glabra), and one of the earliest species of goldenrod (Solidago stricta) grows there luxuriantly.
现在这里长着光滑的漆树（Rhus glabra），并且一种最早的一种金黄色的金鸡菊（Solidago stricta）在那里生长得十分茂盛。

Here, by the very corner of my field, still nearer to town, Zilpha, a colored woman, had her little house, where she spun linen for the townsfolk, making the Walden Woods ring with her shrill singing, for she had a loud and notable voice. —
在我田地的最角落，离镇子更近一些的地方，居住着一位有名的有色妇女Zilpha，她有间小房子，为镇上的人纺织亚麻，她用悦耳的歌声使沃尔登森林回荡，因为她那响亮且引人注目的嗓音。 —

At length, in the war of 1812, her dwelling was set on fire by English soldiers, prisoners on parole, when she was away, and her cat and dog and hens were all burned up together. —
最终，在1812年的战争中，英国士兵们烧毁了她的住所，当时她刚好不在家，她的猫、狗和母鸡都被一起焚烧了。 —

She led a hard life, and somewhat inhumane. —
她过着艰苦且有些残酷的生活。 —

One old frequenter of these woods remembers, that as he passed her house one noon he heard her muttering to herself over her gurgling pot – “Ye are all bones, bones!” —
一位老来往这片森林的人记得，某天中午路过她的房子时，听到她在加热锅里的食物时不停的自言自语：“你们都是骨头，骨头！” —

I have seen bricks amid the oak copse there.
我看见橡树丛中有砖块。

Down the road, on the right hand, on Brister’s Hill, lived Brister Freeman, “a handy Negro,” slave of Squire Cummings once – there where grow still the apple trees which Brister planted and tended; —
马路那边，在布里斯特山的右手边，住着布里斯特·弗里曼”一个很灵巧的黑人”，曾经是庄园主卡明斯的奴隶–现在还有他种植和照料的苹果树; —

large old trees now, but their fruit still wild and ciderish to my taste. —
现在已是大树，但它们的果实依然野味十足，像苹果酒一样，这是我个人的品味。 —

Not long since I read his epitaph in the old Lincoln burying-ground, a little on one side, near the unmarked graves of some British grenadiers who fell in the retreat from Concord – where he is styled “Sippio Brister” – Scipio Africanus he had some title to be called – “a man of color,” as if he were discolored. —
不久前我在老的林肯埋葬地看到了他的墓志铭，有点偏向一侧，附近有一些无名的从康科德撤退中死去的英国近卫兵–墓志铭上写着”Sippio Brister”–有资格称为撒伯尼非洲尼斯–“一个有色皮肤的人”，好像他脸色不正常一样。 —

It also told me, with staring emphasis, when he died; —
它还告诉了我，用着夸张的口气，他什么时候去世; —

which was but an indirect way of informing me that he ever lived. —
这只是一种间接地告诉我他曾经存在过。 —

With him dwelt Fenda, his hospitable wife, who told fortunes, yet pleasantly – large, round, and black, blacker than any of the children of night, such a dusky orb as never rose on Concord before or since.
他和他慷慨好客的妻子芬达一起居住，她也是一个算命的，但让人愉悦–浑圆而黑，比夜晚的任何孩子都黑，是康科德以前或以后从未升起过的一个暗黑的大球体。

Farther down the hill, on the left, on the old road in the woods, are marks of some homestead of the Stratton family; —
山坡往下走，在左手边，林中古老道路上，留下了斯特拉顿家族某个住所的痕迹; —

whose orchard once covered all the slope of Brister’s Hill, but was long since killed out by pitch pines, excepting a few stumps, whose old roots furnish still the wild stocks of many a thrifty village tree.
他们的果园曾经覆盖了整个布里斯特山的斜坡，但很久以前就被杀死了松树，除了一些树桩，它们的旧根仍然是许多繁荣村庄树的杂交树的根基。

Nearer yet to town, you come to Breed’s location, on the other side of the way, just on the edge of the wood; —
越靠近市镇，你会来到布里德斯的所在地，道路的对面，就在树林的边缘; —

ground famous for the pranks of a demon not distinctly named in old mythology, who has acted a prominent and astounding part in our New England life, and deserves, as much as any mythological character, to have his biography written one day; —
这块地方因一个没有明确在古代神话中命名的恶魔的恶作剧而著名，他在我们新英格兰的生活中扮演了一个突出且惊人的角色，像任何神话人物一样，他值得有一天写一部传记； —

who first comes in the guise of a friend or hired man, and then robs and murders the whole family – New-England Rum. But history must not yet tell the tragedies enacted here; —
有人最初化身为朋友或雇佣工人，然后抢劫并谋杀整个家庭 - 新英格兰朗姆。但历史还不能讲述这里发生的悲剧； —

let time intervene in some measure to assuage and lend an azure tint to them. —
让时间在一定程度上介入，稍作缓和并给它们一层湛蓝色调； —

Here the most indistinct and dubious tradition says that once a tavern stood; —
在这里，最模糊、可疑的传说称曾经有一家客栈； —

the well the same, which tempered the traveller’s beverage and refreshed his steed. —
井仍然在，调节旅人的饮料，给他们的蹄畜提供清凉； —

Here then men saluted one another, and heard and told the news, and went their ways again.
于是人们互相问候，传递和分享消息，然后离开；

Breed’s hut was standing only a dozen years ago, though it had long been unoccupied. —
不到十几年前布里德的小屋还屹立着，尽管长久无人居住； —

It was about the size of mine. It was set on fire by mischievous boys, one Election night, if I do not mistake. —
大约是在选举日的这个夜晚，被恶作剧的男孩点燃了； —

I lived on the edge of the village then, and had just lost myself over Davenant’s “Gondibert,” that winter that I labored with a lethargy – which, by the way, I never knew whether to regard as a family complaint, having an uncle who goes to sleep shaving himself, and is obliged to sprout potatoes in a cellar Sundays, in order to keep awake and keep the Sabbath, or as the consequence of my attempt to read Chalmers’ collection of English poetry without skipping. —
那时我住在村庄边缘，正在困惑地阅读戴文特的《冈迪伯特》这本著作，那个冬天我被一种倦怠压倒了 - 顺便说一下，我从未知道这算是家族的怪癖，我有一个叔叔刮胡子时总是会睡着，为了保持清醒和守安息日，周日还得在地下室里种土豆，还是我的尝试阅读查尔默斯的英国诗歌集而忽略了； —

It fairly overcame my Nervii. I had just sunk my head on this when the bells rung fire, and in hot haste the engines rolled that way, led by a straggling troop of men and boys, and I among the foremost, for I had leaped the brook. —
正当我沉浸在其中的时候，火警铃声响起，轰隆隆的消防车朝那个方向奔去，领头的是一群零散的男人和男孩，而我是其中之一，因为我跃过小溪； —

We thought it was far south over the woods – we who had run to fires before – barn, shop, or dwelling-house, or all together. —
我们以前参与过扑火 - 谷仓、店铺或住宅，或者全都有可能； —

“It’s Baker’s barn,” cried one. “It is the Codman place,” affirmed another. —
“这是贝克的谷仓，” 有人喊道；” 这是科德曼的地方，” 另一人断言； —

And then fresh sparks went up above the wood, as if the roof fell in, and we all shouted “Concord to the rescue!” —
然后，新的火星在树林上方升起，仿佛屋顶倒塌了，我们都喊道：” 康科德前去援助！” —

Wagons shot past with furious speed and crushing loads, bearing, perchance, among the rest, the agent of the Insurance Company, who was bound to go however far; —
马车飞驰而过，载着愤怒和压迫的负荷，也许其中包括了保险公司的代理商，他必须无论多远都要赶到； —

and ever and anon the engine bell tinkled behind, more slow and sure; —
时不时地，位于最后的消防车铃响起，行进更缓慢、更确实； —

and rearmost of all, as it was afterward whispered, came they who set the fire and gave the alarm. —
事后流传开来，据说最终还是那些纵火的人和报警者到达了。 —

Thus we kept on like true idealists, rejecting the evidence of our senses, until at a turn in the road we heard the crackling and actually felt the heat of the fire from over the wall, and realized, alas! —
因此，我们像真正的理想主义者一样，拒绝确凿的证据，直到在路的转角处听到了噼啪声并实际感受到墙那边的火热，然后意识到，唉！ —

that we were there. The very nearness of the fire but cooled our ardor. —
我们就在那里。火的近在咫尺让我们的热情消退了。 —

At first we thought to throw a frog-pond on to it; —
起初，我们想往火里倒一池塘里的水， —

but concluded to let it burn, it was so far gone and so worthless. —
但最终决定让它燃烧，因为已经快烧完且毫无价值。 —

So we stood round our engine, jostled one another, expressed our sentiments through speaking-trumpets, or in lower tone referred to the great conflagrations which the world has witnessed, including Bascom’s shop, and, between ourselves, we thought that, were we there in season with our “tub,” and a full frog-pond by, we could turn that threatened last and universal one into another flood. —
于是我们站在我们的引擎周围，互相推搡，通过扩音喇叭表达我们的情感，或者用低声音提到世界上曾经发生过的大火灾，包括巴斯康的店，私下商量时，我们认为，如果我们及时赶到那里，带着我们的“桶”和一个满满的青蛙池塘，我们可以将那场威胁世界的最后一场大火转变成另一次洪水。 —

We finally retreated without doing any mischief – returned to sleep and “Gondibert.” —
我们最终离开而没有制造任何麻烦 – 回去睡觉读《甘迪伯特》。 —

But as for “Gondibert,” I would except that passage in the preface about wit being the soul’s powder – “but most of mankind are strangers to wit, as Indians are to powder.”
但是至于《甘迪伯特》，我得排除前言中关于机智是灵魂的火药的那一段话 – “但大多数人都对机智陌生，如同印第安人对火药陌生一样”。

It chanced that I walked that way across the fields the following night, about the same hour, and hearing a low moaning at this spot, I drew near in the dark, and discovered the only survivor of the family that I know, the heir of both its virtues and its vices, who alone was interested in this burning, lying on his stomach and looking over the cellar wall at the still smouldering cinders beneath, muttering to himself, as is his wont. —
碰巧，第二天晚上我当时恰巧走过那片田野，在大约同一时间听到了这个地方传来的低声呻吟，我在黑暗中走近，发现我所知道的这个家庭的唯一幸存者，那家庭的美德和恶习的继承人，他是唯一对这场火灾感兴趣的人，趴在地上，探视着仍然冒着烟的余烬，自言自语，像他的习惯一样。 —

He had been working far off in the river meadows all day, and had improved the first moments that he could call his own to visit the home of his fathers and his youth. —
他整天在河边的草地上工作，一天结束后终于抽出了一点时间去看望他祖先和他年轻时的家。 —

He gazed into the cellar from all sides and points of view by turns, always lying down to it, as if there was some treasure, which he remembered, concealed between the stones, where there was absolutely nothing but a heap of bricks and ashes. —
他不时地从各个角度观察地窖，总是躺在地上，似乎记得储藏在石头之间的一些宝藏，实际上那里什么都没有，只是一堆砖和灰。 —

The house being gone, he looked at what there was left. —
房子没有了，他看着剩下的东西。 —

He was soothed by the sympathy which my mere presence, implied, and showed me, as well as the darkness permitted, where the well was covered up; —
我的出现所暗示的同情让他感到宽慰，他尽量照暗处允许的范围向我展示井盖的位置； —

which, thank Heaven, could never be burned; —
感谢上苍，井永远不会被烧掉； —

and he groped long about the wall to find the well-sweep which his father had cut and mounted, feeling for the iron hook or staple by which a burden had been fastened to the heavy end – all that he could now cling to – to convince me that it was no common “rider.” —
他在墙上摸索了很长时间，以找到他父亲切制并安装的打井绳，摸索着找到那个铁钩或挂钩，这是他现在唯一还能相依的东西 – 以让我确信这并不是一般的“犁头”。 —

I felt it, and still remark it almost daily in my walks, for by it hangs the history of a family.
我感受到了，并且几乎每天在散步时都看到它，因为这件事情挂着一个家族的历史。

Once more, on the left, where are seen the well and lilac bushes by the wall, in the now open field, lived Nutting and Le Grosse. —
在左侧，可以看到井和紫丁香丛，现在的开阔地里住着纳丁和勒格罗斯。 —

But to return toward Lincoln.
但还是回到林肯那里。

Farther in the woods than any of these, where the road approaches nearest to the pond, Wyman the potter squatted, and furnished his townsmen with earthenware, and left descendants to succeed him. —
比这些人更深入树林的地方，道路最靠近池塘的地方，陶工维曼蹲在那里，为镇上的人提供陶器，留下后代来继承他。 —

Neither were they rich in worldly goods, holding the land by sufferance while they lived; —
他们在世时并不富有，只是暂时占有这片土地。 —

and there often the sheriff came in vain to collect the taxes, and “attached a chip,” for form’s sake, as I have read in his accounts, there being nothing else that he could lay his hands on. —
有时，税务官来征税，却徒劳无功，在他的账目中曾写道“查封了一块木片”，实际上除此之外他无法动摸别的东西。 —

One day in midsummer, when I was hoeing, a man who was carrying a load of pottery to market stopped his horse against my field and inquired concerning Wyman the younger. —
一个盛夏的日子，我正在锄地，一名正在把陶器运往市场的人停下马车，询问维曼的年轻人的情况。 —

He had long ago bought a potter’s wheel of him, and wished to know what had become of him. —
他很久以前从他那里购买了一个陶工的车轮，想要知道他现在怎样了。 —

I had read of the potter’s clay and wheel in Scripture, but it had never occurred to me that the pots we use were not such as had come down unbroken from those days, or grown on trees like gourds somewhere, and I was pleased to hear that so fictile an art was ever practiced in my neighborhood.
我在圣经中读到过陶工的黏土和车轮，但我从没想过我们使用的陶罐不是从那些年代完整传承下来的，或者像葫芦那样长在树上，我很高兴得知这么一个如此易损的艺术在我附近曾有人从事过。

The last inhabitant of these woods before me was an Irishman, Hugh Quoil (if I have spelt his name with coil enough), who occupied Wyman’s tenement – Col. Quoil, he was called. —
在我之前这片树林的最后一位居民是一个爱尔兰人，休·科伊尔（如果我拼错了他的名字，希望拼写得足够好），他住在维曼的宅邸里，人们称他为科伊尔上校。 —

Rumor said that he had been a soldier at Waterloo. —
有传言说他曾是滑铁卢的一名士兵。 —

If he had lived I should have made him fight his battles over again. —
如果他还活着，我会让他重新打一遍他的战役。 —

His trade here was that of a ditcher. Napoleon went to St. Helena; —
他在这里的职业是掘沟工。拿破仑被流放到圣赫勒拿； —

Quoil came to Walden Woods. All I know of him is tragic. —
科伊尔来到了瓦尔登森林。我对他的一切认识都是悲惨的。 —

He was a man of manners, like one who had seen the world, and was capable of more civil speech than you could well attend to. —
他是一个有礼貌的人，似乎曾见多识广，说话的方式比你能够听得进去。 —

He wore a greatcoat in midsummer, being affected with the trembling delirium, and his face was the color of carmine. —
他在盛夏穿着大衣，患有颤抖狂热症，脸色是胭脂色。 —

He died in the road at the foot of Brister’s Hill shortly after I came to the woods, so that I have not remembered him as a neighbor. —
他死在布里斯特山脚下的公路上，就在我来到森林后不久，所以我没有把他记作邻居。 —

Before his house was pulled down, when his comrades avoided it as “an unlucky castle,” I visited it. There lay his old clothes curled up by use, as if they were himself, upon his raised plank bed. —
在他的房子被拆毁之前，他的同伴们把它避之不及，称之为“不吉利的城堡”，我曾经去过那里。那里堆放着他那身旧衣服，因为使用而卷曲，仿佛它们就是他自己，在他的竹板床上。 —

His pipe lay broken on the hearth, instead of a bowl broken at the fountain. —
他的烟斗摔坏在炉边，不是流泪的喷泉碗摔坏。 —

The last could never have been the symbol of his death, for he confessed to me that, though he had heard of Brister’s Spring, he had never seen it; —
最后他肯定不会以它为死亡的象征，因为他向我承认，虽然他听说过布里斯特泉，但从来没有见过它。 —

and soiled cards, kings of diamonds, spades, and hearts, were scattered over the floor. —
在地板上散落着沾满泥土的扑克牌，方片、黑桃和红心的国王。 —

One black chicken which the administrator could not catch, black as night and as silent, not even croaking, awaiting Reynard, still went to roost in the next apartment. —
有一只黑鸡，无法被管理员捉住，黑得像夜晚一样寂静，甚至不发出一声鸣叫，等待狐狸，依旧在隔壁屋睡觉。 —

In the rear there was the dim outline of a garden, which had been planted but had never received its first hoeing, owing to those terrible shaking fits, though it was now harvest time. —
后面有一个昏暗的花园的轮廓，虽然曾经被种植，但由于那些可怕的抽搐发作，从未受到初次锄地，尽管现在是收获季节。 —

It was overrun with Roman wormwood and beggar-ticks, which last stuck to my clothes for all fruit. —
被罗马苦艾和蛇麻草占据，后者粘在我的衣服上，替代了所有的果实。 —

The skin of a woodchuck was freshly stretched upon the back of the house, a trophy of his last Waterloo; —
一只土拨鼠的皮新鲜地展开在屋子后面，是他的最后一场滑铁卢的战利品。 —

but no warm cap or mittens would he want more.
但他不会再需要温暖的帽子或手套了。

Now only a dent in the earth marks the site of these dwellings, with buried cellar stones, and strawberries, raspberries, thimble-berries, hazel-bushes, and sumachs growing in the sunny sward there; —
现在，只有地面上的一个凹痕标志着这些住所的位置，埋着地下室的石头，还有草地上生长着草莓、覆盆子、悬钩子、榛树和漆树； —

some pitch pine or gnarled oak occupies what was the chimney nook, and a sweet-scented black birch, perhaps, waves where the door-stone was. —
一些松树或扭曲的橡树占据了原来的烟囱角落，也许那里挥动着一个香气四溢的黑桦，门前的石头的位置。 —

Sometimes the well dent is visible, where once a spring oozed; now dry and tearless grass; —
有时可以看到井洞，曾经泉水涌出；现在干燥无泪的草地； —

or it was covered deep – not to be discovered till some late day – with a flat stone under the sod, when the last of the race departed. —
或者被深深覆盖 – 直到某一天才被发现 – 草地下的一块扁石头下面，当最后一个家族成员离开时。 —

What a sorrowful act must that be – the covering up of wells! —
多么忧伤的一幕啊 – 封闭井口！ —

coincident with the opening of wells of tears. —
与眼泪之泉的涌现同时发生。 —

These cellar dents, like deserted fox burrows, old holes, are all that is left where once were the stir and bustle of human life, and “fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute,” in some form and dialect or other were by turns discussed. —
这些地窖的凹痕，像废弃的狐狸洞，老旧的洞穴，现在只剩下曾经充满人类生活喧嚣和“命运、自由意志、绝对先见之明”等形式和说法轮番讨论的痕迹。 —

But all I can learn of their conclusions amounts to just this, that “Cato and Brister pulled wool”; —
但我能了解的他们的结论只是这样的，“卡托和布里斯特拉羊毛”； —

which is about as edifying as the history of more famous schools of philosophy.
这与更著名的哲学学派的历史一样引人入胜。

Still grows the vivacious lilac a generation after the door and lintel and the sill are gone, unfolding its sweet-scented flowers each spring, to be plucked by the musing traveller; —
春风依旧吹拂着生机勃勃的丁香，门楣和门槛已经消失，但它每个春天都绽放出香甜的花朵，供若有所思的旅人采摘； —

planted and tended once by children’s hands, in front-yard plots – now standing by wallsides in retired pastures, and giving place to new-rising forests; —
曾经由孩子们的双手栽种和呵护，在前院的小块土地上—现在站在退隐的牧场墙边，为新生的森林让出空间； —

– the last of that stirp, sole survivor of that family. —
——那族系的最后一株，家族的唯一幸存者。 —

Little did the dusky children think that the puny slip with its two eyes only, which they stuck in the ground in the shadow of the house and daily watered, would root itself so, and outlive them, and house itself in the rear that shaded it, and grown man’s garden and orchard, and tell their story faintly to the lone wanderer a half-century after they had grown up and died – blossoming as fair, and smelling as sweet, as in that first spring. —
黑黢黢的孩子们没想到，他们一颗微不足道的嫩苗，只有两只眼睛，他们把它插在房子的阴影处时每天浇水，竟然能生根发芽，超越他们存活下来，并依靠背后的树荫自居，成年后的花园和果园，并在半个世纪后淡淡向孤独的游人诉述他们的故事——与春天初开时一样绽放美丽，散发甜香。 —

I mark its still tender, civil, cheerful lilac colors.
我留心它依然柔和、文明、愉悦的丁香色。

But this small village, germ of something more, why did it fail while Concord keeps its ground? —
但这个小村庄，更大事物的种子，为什么失败了而康科德依然屹立不倒呢？ —

Were there no natural advantages – no water privileges, forsooth? —
难道没有自然优势吗——难道没有水资源优势吗？ —

Ay, the deep Walden Pond and cool Brister’s Spring – privilege to drink long and healthy draughts at these, all unimproved by these men but to dilute their glass. —
啊，深远的瓦尔登池塘和清凉的布里斯特泉——在这里饮用长久健康的口啄可是一种特权，但这些人并没有加以利用，只是用来稀释他们的酒。 —

They were universally a thirsty race. Might not the basket, stable-broom, mat-making, corn-parching, linen-spinning, and pottery business have thrived here, making the wilderness to blossom like the rose, and a numerous posterity have inherited the land of their fathers? —
他们无一例外是一群口渴的种族。篮子、马厩扫帚、编织垫子、玉米烘烤、亚麻纺纱和制陶业难道就不能在这里兴旺，让荒野开出玫瑰，让众多后代继承祖辈的土地吗？ —

The sterile soil would at least have been proof against a low-land degeneracy. Alas! —
即使贫瘠的土壤也至少能对抗低地变质。唉！ —

how little does the memory of these human inhabitants enhance the beauty of the landscape! —
这些人类居民的记忆对于风景的美丽有多少增色呢！ —

Again, perhaps, Nature will try, with me for a first settler, and my house raised last spring to be the oldest in the hamlet.
再次，也许大自然会尝试与我成为首位定居者，使我去年春天搭建的房子成为村子里最古老的房屋。

I am not aware that any man has ever built on the spot which I occupy. —
我没有意识到有任何人曾在我所处的这个地方建造过房屋。 —

Deliver me from a city built on the site of a more ancient city, whose materials are ruins, whose gardens cemeteries. —
救我免于建在更古老城市遗址上的城市，其建筑材料是废墟，花园也是墓地。 —

The soil is blanched and accursed there, and before that becomes necessary the earth itself will be destroyed. —
那里的土地被漂白且被诅咒，在这种情况变得必要之前，大地本身将被毁灭。 —

With such reminiscences I repeopled the woods and lulled myself asleep.
有了这些回忆，我重新填满了森林，让自己入眠。

At this season I seldom had a visitor. When the snow lay deepest no wanderer ventured near my house for a week or fortnight at a time, but there I lived as snug as a meadow mouse, or as cattle and poultry which are said to have survived for a long time buried in drifts, even without food; —
在这个季节，我很少有访客。当积雪最深时，连一个周或两周也没有人来到我家附近，但我住在那里就像一个草地老鼠一样舒适，或者像传说中在湿雪堆中生存很长时间没有食物的牲畜和家禽一样； —

or like that early settler’s family in the town of Sutton, in this State, whose cottage was completely covered by the great snow of 1717 when he was absent, and an Indian found it only by the hole which the chimney’s breath made in the drift, and so relieved the family. —
或像这个州萨顿镇的早期定居者家庭，当他不在家时，他们的小屋完全被1717年的大雪覆盖，只有一个印第安人通过烟囱呼出的气流在雪堆中找到它，从而解救了这家人。 —

But no friendly Indian concerned himself about me; —
但没有友好的印第安人关心我； —

nor needed he, for the master of the house was at home. The Great Snow! —
也不需要，因为这房子的主人在家。那场大雪！ —

How cheerful it is to hear of! When the farmers could not get to the woods and swamps with their teams, and were obliged to cut down the shade trees before their houses, and, when the crust was harder, cut off the trees in the swamps, ten feet from the ground, as it appeared the next spring.
听到这件事有多么欣慰！当农民们无法用车辆到达树林和沼泽地时，被迫砍伐他们房子前的树木，而当地面的硬壳更坚硬时，在沼泽地砍掉树木时，下部距离地面10英尺，一直延续到来年春天。

In the deepest snows, the path which I used from the highway to my house, about half a mile long, might have been represented by a meandering dotted line, with wide intervals between the dots. —
在最深的积雪中，我从公路通往我家的路径，大约半英里长，可以用一条蜿蜒的虚线表示，虚线之间有很大的间隔。 —

For a week of even weather I took exactly the same number of steps, and of the same length, coming and going, stepping deliberately and with the precision of a pair of dividers in my own deep tracks – to such routine the winter reduces us – yet often they were filled with heaven’s own blue. —
在一个持续一周的平稳天气里，我来回走了完全相同数量和长度的步伐，踏着自己深深的足迹，踱步作为一对保持常规的围线的准确性– 冬天把我们变成这样条理清晰– 然而经常被上帝自己的蓝色填满。 —

But no weather interfered fatally with my walks, or rather my going abroad, for I frequently tramped eight or ten miles through the deepest snow to keep an appointment with a beech tree, or a yellow birch, or an old acquaintance among the pines; —
但没有天气严重阻碍我的漫步，或者说我的外出，因为我经常穿越深达两英尺的积雪，走八到十英里去与一棵山毛榉树、一棵黄桦树或一位松树熟人会面； —

when the ice and snow causing their limbs to droop, and so sharpening their tops, had changed the pines into fir trees; —
当冰雪使它们的树枝下垂，顶部变得更为尖锐时，把松树变成了冷杉树； —

wading to the tops of the highest hills when the show was nearly two feet deep on a level, and shaking down another snow-storm on my head at every step; —
当我是平均地深约两英尺的积雪，涉足最高的山峰的顶端，每一步都给我头上撒下了另一场雪风暴； —

or sometimes creeping and floundering thither on my hands and knees, when the hunters had gone into winter quarters. —
有时我蹒跚地匍匐前进，或者手脚并用，当猎人们已经进入冬季的驻地。 —

One afternoon I amused myself by watching a barred owl (Strix nebulosa) sitting on one of the lower dead limbs of a white pine, close to the trunk, in broad daylight, I standing within a rod of him. —
一个下午，我自己一边看着一只栗林枭（Strix nebulosa），它白天坐在一棵白松的一根低死枝上，靠近树干，我站在离它一杆远的地方。 —

He could hear me when I moved and cronched the snow with my feet, but could not plainly see me. —
当我移动或者踩着雪时他能听见我，但是不能清楚地看见我。 —

When I made most noise he would stretch out his neck, and erect his neck feathers, and open his eyes wide; —
当我发出最大的声响时，他会伸长脖子，竖起脖颈的羽毛，睁大眼睛； —

but their lids soon fell again, and he began to nod. —
但它们的眼皮很快又闭上，开始打瞌睡。 —

I too felt a slumberous influence after watching him half an hour, as he sat thus with his eyes half open, like a cat, winged brother of the cat. —
在观察他半个小时后，我自己也感到困倦，因为他这样坐着，半睁着眼睛，如同一只猫，是猫的有翅兄弟。 —

There was only a narrow slit left between their lids, by which be preserved a pennisular relation to me; —
他的眼睛中只剩下一个狭窄的缝隙，通过这个缝隙，他与我保持了一个半开放的联系； —

thus, with half-shut eyes, looking out from the land of dreams, and endeavoring to realize me, vague object or mote that interrupted his visions. —
他半闭着眼睛，仿佛从梦境的国度里张望出来，努力意识到我，那个中断了他梦境的模糊物体。 —

At length, on some louder noise or my nearer approach, he would grow uneasy and sluggishly turn about on his perch, as if impatient at having his dreams disturbed; —
最终，在更大的声响或我更靠近时，他变得不安，懒洋洋地在栖木上转身，仿佛对梦被打扰感到不耐烦； —

and when he launched himself off and flapped through the pines, spreading his wings to unexpected breadth, I could not hear the slightest sound from them. —
当他飞跃并在松林中拍打翅膀时，我几乎听不到任何声音。 —

Thus, guided amid the pine boughs rather by a delicate sense of their neighborhood than by sight, feeling his twilight way, as it were, with his sensitive pinions, he found a new perch, where he might in peace await the dawning of his day.
因此，他在松树枝间感到航向，更多地依赖对它们附近的一种微妙的感觉，而不是通过视觉，用他敏感的翼感受到他的黄昏之路，他找到一个新的栖木，在那里他可以安静地等待新一天的来临。

As I walked over the long causeway made for the railroad through the meadows, I encountered many a blustering and nipping wind, for nowhere has it freer play; —
当我走过筑造有轨道的长堤时，我遇到了很多肆虐而刺骨的风，因为没有地方比这里更有风。 —

and when the frost had smitten me on one cheek, heathen as I was, I turned to it the other also. —
当霜打到我的一边脸上时，像我这种异教徒，我也让另一边接触到它。 —

Nor was it much better by the carriage road from Brister’s Hill. For I came to town still, like a friendly Indian, when the contents of the broad open fields were all piled up between the walls of the Walden road, and half an hour sufficed to obliterate the tracks of the last traveller. —
从布里斯特山的马车道进城也没有好多少。因为我依旧像友好的印第安人一样前来，当广阔的开阔地之间的内容物都堆积在沃尔登路的墙壁之间时，半小时就足以抹除上一个旅行者的踪迹。 —

And when I returned new drifts would have formed, through which I floundered, where the busy northwest wind had been depositing the powdery snow round a sharp angle in the road, and not a rabbit’s track, nor even the fine print, the small type, of a meadow mouse was to be seen. —
当我返回时，新的飘雪已经形成，我在其中挣扎，西北疾风一直在路边的尖角处堆积细腻的雪，再也找不到兔子的踪迹，甚至连一只草地老鼠的细微印记都找不到。 —

Yet I rarely failed to find, even in midwinter, some warm and springly swamp where the grass and the skunk-cabbage still put forth with perennial verdure, and some hardier bird occasionally awaited the return of spring.
然而，即使是在隆冬季节，我很少找不到一些温暖、春意盎然的沼泽地，那里草木依然郁郁葱葱，甚至还有一些更为顽强的鸟儿在等待春天的归来。

Sometimes, notwithstanding the snow, when I returned from my walk at evening I crossed the deep tracks of a woodchopper leading from my door, and found his pile of whittlings on the hearth, and my house filled with the odor of his pipe. —
有时，虽然地面盖满了积雪，但当我傍晚回家的时候，却穿过了一名伐木工人留下的深深踪迹，通往我家门口，发现他留在炉边的木屑堆，整个房子里弥漫着他抽烟的气味。 —

Or on a Sunday afternoon, if I chanced to be at home, I heard the cronching of the snow made by the step of a long-headed farmer, who from far through the woods sought my house, to have a social “crack”; —
有时候，在一个星期天的下午，如果我碰巧在家，我能听到远处穿过树林的一位长头农夫的脚步声，他正朝我家走来，想和我聊会儿天。 —

one of the few of his vocation who are “men on their farms”; —
在众多农夫中为数不多的“勤劳操劳之人”，穿的是工作服而非教授的长袍，就像能从教堂或国家中汲取道义一样，也能从谷仓里运一车肥料。 —

who donned a frock instead of a professor’s gown, and is as ready to extract the moral out of church or state as to haul a load of manure from his barn-yard. —
我们讨论了简陋而朴实的时代，当人们在寒冷的有劲气的天气里围着大火坐着，头脑清晰； —

We talked of rude and simple times, when men sat about large fires in cold, bracing weather, with clear heads; —
当其他甜食不足时，我们尝试啃下了许多聪明松鼠早就放弃的坚果，因为壳最厚的那些通常是空的。 —

and when other dessert failed, we tried our teeth on many a nut which wise squirrels have long since abandoned, for those which have the thickest shells are commonly empty.
来我小屋走过最深的雪和最凄风苦雨的是一位诗人。

The one who came from farthest to my lodge, through deepest snows and most dismal tempests, was a poet. —
一个农夫、一个猎人、一个士兵、一个记者，甚至一个哲学家，可能受挫； —

A farmer, a hunter, a soldier, a reporter, even a philosopher, may be daunted; —
但没有什么能阻止一位诗人，因为他受纯粹的爱驱使。 —

but nothing can deter a poet, for he is actuated by pure love. —
谁能预测他的来去？他的事务叫他在任何时间出门，即使医生在睡觉。 —

Who can predict his comings and goings? His business calls him out at all hours, even when doctors sleep. —
我们使那座小屋回荡着欢快的笑声，充斥着许多认真而思慎的对话，为长期的寂静向瓦尔登谷赔礼。 —

We made that small house ring with boisterous mirth and resound with the murmur of much sober talk, making amends then to Walden vale for the long silences. —
与百老汇相比，那里依然静悄悄。 —

Broadway was still and deserted in comparison. —
在合适的间隔中，总是有笑声的欢呼，或者可以漫不经心地归属于刚才说的笑话，或者即将讲的笑话。 —

At suitable intervals there were regular salutes of laughter, which might have been referred indifferently to the last-uttered or the forth-coming jest. —
我们在一碟清淡的稀饭旁讨论了许多全新的生活理论，这种饭菜既具有欢乐的优点，又具有哲学所需的头脑清晰。 —

We made many a “bran new” theory of life over a thin dish of gruel, which combined the advantages of conviviality with the clear-headedness which philosophy requires.
我们曾在卧室里挑灯夜聊，直到凌晨。

I should not forget that during my last winter at the pond there was another welcome visitor, who at one time came through the village, through snow and rain and darkness, till he saw my lamp through the trees, and shared with me some long winter evenings. —
在我上次在池塘度过的最后一个冬天，我不能忘记另一位受欢迎的访客，他曾穿过村庄，穿过雪地和暴雨，直到他看到我在林中的灯，与我分享了一些漫长的冬天夜晚。 —

One of the last of the philosophers – Connecticut gave him to the world – he peddled first her wares, afterwards, as he declares, his brains. —
最后一位哲学家之一——康涅狄格让他诞生于这个世界——他起初兜售她的商品，后来，正如他所说，兜售他的大脑。 —

These he peddles still, prompting God and disgracing man, bearing for fruit his brain only, like the nut its kernel. —
他至今仍然以此为业，心怀上帝，却羞辱人类，只以他的大脑为果实，就像坚果的果仁一样。 —

I think that he must be the man of the most faith of any alive. —
我认为他必定是活着的最有信念的人。 —

His words and attitude always suppose a better state of things than other men are acquainted with, and he will be the last man to be disappointed as the ages revolve. —
他的言辞和态度总是预设着比其他人熟悉到的更美好的境况，当时光周期循环时，他将是最后一个感到失望的人。 —

He has no venture in the present. But though comparatively disregarded now, when his day comes, laws unsuspected by most will take effect, and masters of families and rulers will come to him for advice.
他对当下没有冒险。但尽管现在相对被忽视，当他的日子来临时，大多数人未曾察觉的法则将会生效，家长和统治者们会向他寻求建议。

“How blind that cannot see serenity!”
“多盲无法看到宁静！”

A true friend of man; almost the only friend of human progress. —
人类真正的朋友；近乎是人类进步的唯一朋友。 —

An Old Mortality, say rather an Immortality, with unwearied patience and faith making plain the image engraven in men’s bodies, the God of whom they are but defaced and leaning monuments. —
一个老的不朽者，更恰当地说是一个永恒存在，以不知疲倦的耐心和信念，揭示出刻在人们身上的形象，那位造物之神，他们不过是玷污和倾斜的纪念碑而已。 —

With his hospitable intellect he embraces children, beggars, insane, and scholars, and entertains the thought of all, adding to it commonly some breadth and elegance. —
凭借他好客的智慧，他拥抱儿童、乞丐、疯人和学者，招待所有的思想，通常加入一些广度和优雅。 —

I think that he should keep a caravansary on the world’s highway, where philosophers of all nations might put up, and on his sign should be printed, “Entertainment for man, but not for his beast. —
我认为他应该在世界大道上开一家旅馆，各国哲学家都可以在那里停留，门头应该印着“招待人类，但不招待他的兽”的字样。 —

Enter ye that have leisure and a quiet mind, who earnestly seek the right road.” —
进来吧，你们有空闲和宁静心灵，真诚追求正确道路的人。 —

He is perhaps the sanest man and has the fewest crotchets of any I chance to know; —
他也许是最明智的人，也是我碰巧认识的最少怪癖的人； —

the same yesterday and tomorrow. Of yore we had sauntered and talked, and effectually put the world behind us; —
昔日我们漫步并会谈，有效地将世界抛在身后； —

for he was pledged to no institution in it, freeborn, ingenuus. —
因为他对其中任何机构都没有承诺，自由出生的，天真的。 —

Whichever way we turned, it seemed that the heavens and the earth had met together, since he enhanced the beauty of the landscape. —
不管我们转向哪个方向，似乎天地已经相会，因为他增添了风景的美丽。 —

A blue-robed man, whose fittest roof is the overarching sky which reflects his serenity. —
一个穿蓝袍的人，他最适合的屋顶是反映他宁静的广阔天空。 —

I do not see how he can ever die; Nature cannot spare him.
我看不出他怎么可能会死；大自然不能放弃他。

Having each some shingles of thought well dried, we sat and whittled them, trying our knives, and admiring the clear yellowish grain of the pumpkin pine. —
每个人都有些经过干燥的思绪瓦片，我们坐下来削削它们，试试我们的小刀，赞赏南瓜松木清晰黄色的纹理。 —

We waded so gently and reverently, or we pulled together so smoothly, that the fishes of thought were not scared from the stream, nor feared any angler on the bank, but came and went grandly, like the clouds which float through the western sky, and the mother-o’-pearl flocks which sometimes form and dissolve there. —
我们如此轻柔和虔诚地涉水前行，或者一起如此顺畅地拉动，以至于思想的鱼儿不会被惊吓，也不惧怕河岸上的任何钓鱼者，而是大气地来来去去，就像飘过西方天空的云，有时形成又消散的母牡蛎群。 —

There we worked, revising mythology, rounding a fable here and there, and building castles in the air for which earth offered no worthy foundation. —
我们在那里努力工作，修正神话，逐渐完善寓言，并在天空构建一座地球无值得基石的空中城堡。 —

Great Looker! Great Expecter! to converse with whom was a New England Night’s Entertainment. Ah! —
伟大的观察者！伟大的期待者！与你交谈是一部新英格兰之夜的娱乐。啊！ —

such discourse we had, hermit and philosopher, and the old settler I have spoken of – we three – it expanded and racked my little house; —
我们所进行的那种对话，隐士、哲学家和我已经提到的老定居者——我们三人——它扩展并撕裂了我的小屋； —

I should not dare to say how many pounds’ weight there was above the atmospheric pressure on every circular inch; —
我不敢说在每个圆形英寸上的压力之上有多少磅重； —

it opened its seams so that they had to be calked with much dulness thereafter to stop the consequent leak; —
它使缝隙敞开，以致从此以后就不得不用大量无聊的东西填塞它们以阻止随之而来的泄漏； —

– but I had enough of that kind of oakum already picked.
——但我已经有足够数量的那种麻楠了。

There was one other with whom I had “solid seasons,” long to be remembered, at his house in the village, and who looked in upon me from time to time; —
在村里他的房子里，我曾与另一个人有过“美好的季节”，让人久久难忘，他不时来看看我； —

but I had no more for society there.
但我在那里已经没有更多的社交了。

There too, as everywhere, I sometimes expected the Visitor who never comes. —
在这地方，在每一个地方，我有时都在等待那个永远不会到来的访客。 —

The Vishnu Purana says, “The house-holder is to remain at eventide in his courtyard as long as it takes to milk a cow, or longer if he pleases, to await the arrival of a guest.” —
《毗湿奴摩诃婆罗多》说：“家庭主人应该留在庭院里，直到挤完奶牛的时间，或者更久，等候客人的到来。” —

I often performed this duty of hospitality, waited long enough to milk a whole herd of cows, but did not see the man approaching from the town.
我经常尽责地款待客人，等到了挤完整群奶牛的时间，但却没有看到这个从镇里走来的人。