At a certain season of our life we are accustomed to consider every spot as the possible site of a house. —
在我们生命的某个季节，我们习惯于把每一个地方都看作是建房的可能地点。 —

I have thus surveyed the country on every side within a dozen miles of where I live. —
我曾经在我所居住的地方周围十几英里的范围内调查过乡村的每一侧。 —

In imagination I have bought all the farms in succession, for all were to be bought, and I knew their price. —
在想象中，我按顺序购买了所有的农场，因为所有农场都可以购买，而且我知道它们的价格。 —

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; —
我走遍每一个农民的财产，品尝他们的野生苹果，和他们讨论农业，在心里按照他们的价格买下了他们的农场，不惜一切代价，甚至开出更高的价格，仅仅没有买下它的契约——拿他们的言论作为拥有权，因为我喜欢交谈——耕种它，对农民也有一定程度的教导，我相信，当我玩够了，就会撤离。 —

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. —
这种经历使我的朋友们把我视为一种房地产经纪人。 —

This experience entitled me to be regarded as a sort of real-estate broker by my friends. —
无论我坐在哪里，都可以在那里生活，风景也相应地从我身边辐射。 —

Wherever I sat, there I might live, and the landscape radiated from me accordingly. —
一个房屋又何尤非座位？——如果是乡村庄园更好。 —

What is a house but a sedes, a seat? – better if a country seat. —
我发现了许多不太可能很快改造的住房地点，有些人可能认为离村庄太远，但在我看来，村庄离它太远。 —

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. —
嗯，我可以在那里居住，我说；而且我确实在那里居住过，一个小时，一个夏天和一个冬天的生活； —

Well, there I might live, I said; and there I did live, for an hour, a summer and a winter life; —
看到自己如何让岁月流逝，冬季抵御，春天降临。 —

saw how I could let the years run off, buffet the winter through, and see the spring come in. —
这个地区的未来居民，无论他们把房子建在哪里，都可以确信他们已经被提前考虑到了。 —

The future inhabitants of this region, wherever they may place their houses, may be sure that they have been anticipated. —
一个下午就足够把土地规划成果园、林地和牧场，并决定门前应留下哪些优美的橡树或松树，以及在哪里能最好地看到每棵枯树； —

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; —
然后我让它空置，让其荒废，也许一个人富有，取决于他可以放弃多少东西。 —

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.
我的想象力带我走得很远，我甚至有了几块农场的优先购买权——而优先购买权正是我想要的——但我从未因实际拥有而受到烫伤。

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. —
我走过那里，劳动趁隙在一片荒地上设计果园、林地和牧场，并决定门前哪些橡树或松树最好保留，从哪个角度能最好地看到每棵被雷击倒的大树；然后我让它留着，让它荒凉，也许是耕者富贵，因为他可以不理会多少事物。 —

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; —
我最接近真正的拥有的时候，是当我买下了霍洛维尔家的地方，开始整理我的种子，收集用来做推车的材料； —

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. —
但在业主给我契约之前，他的妻子 — 每个人都有这样的妻子 — 改变主意，希望留下来，他给了我十美元让我放弃； —

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. —
说实话，我手头只有十美分，面对算术，我无法判断自己到底是那个有十美分的人，还是那个有一块农场的人，还是那个有十美元的人，或者全都是； —

However, I let him keep the ten dollars and the farm too, for I had carried it far enough; —
不过，我让他留下了那十美元和农场，因为我认为我对此已经远不够了； —

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. —
或者更慷慨一点，我把农场以我买的价钱卖给他，因为他不是个富人，我还送了他十美元，并且留下了自己的十美分、种子和做推车的材料； —

I found thus that I had been a rich man without any damage to my poverty. —
我发现我一直是一个富有的人，没有损害到我的贫穷； —

But I retained the landscape, and I have since annually carried off what it yielded without a wheelbarrow. —
但我保留了这片景色，后来每年都没有用推车就收获它所给予的。 —

With respect to landscapes,
就风景而言，

“I am monarch of all I survey,
“我统领一切在眼前，

My right there is none to dispute.”
无人可争我的权利。”

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. —
我经常看到一位诗人撤退，享受着一块农场中最宝贵的部分，而那个脾气暴躁的农夫却以为他只是摘了几个野苹果。 —

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.
为什么呢，农场主要许多年才知道，当一个诗人用诗歌来定义他的农场时，这是最奏效的隐形栅栏，他已经牢牢围住了它，挤取了奶油，留给农夫的仅仅是挤掉的牛奶。

The real attractions of the Hollowell farm, to me, were: —
对我来说，Hollowell农场真正的吸引力在于： —

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; —
完全的隐秘，离村庄大约两英里，离最近的邻居半英里，被一片广阔的田野与公路隔开； —

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; —
毗邻河流，所有者称，春天河流上的雾气使之免受霜冻的侵害，虽然这对我来说无关紧要； —

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; —
房屋和谷仓的灰色和破败状态，以及破旧的栅栏，让我与上一个居住者之间形成了巨大的鸿沟； —

the hollow and lichen-covered apple trees, nawed by rabbits, showing what kind of neighbors I should have; —
被兔子啃食，长满地衣的中空苹果树，展示了我将要拥有的邻居的模样； —

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. —
但最重要的是，我对它的记忆来自我最早上河航行时，当时房屋被一片密密的红枫树丛所掩盖，透过树丛我听到了屋内的犬吠声。 —

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. —
我急于购买它，还未完成砍除中空苹果树、挖掘在牧场里长出的一些小白桦树，或者说，再进行任何改进之前。 —

To enjoy these advantages I was ready to carry it on; —
为了享受这些优势，我愿意付出一切； —

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; —
像阿特拉斯一样，承担起这个世界的重担–我从未听说他为此获得了什么补偿–做所有这些毫无动机或借口的事情，只是为了支付并在拥有它时不受干扰； —

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. —
因为我知道，只要让它自生自灭，它一定会给我带来我想要的最丰硕的收成。 —

But it turned out as I have said.
但事实证明如我所言。

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. —
就大规模农业而言，我总是种植自己的花园，我已经准备好了种子。 —

Many think that seeds improve with age. I have no doubt that time discriminates between the good and the bad; —
许多人认为种子存放时间越久越好。我毫不怀疑时间能够区分好坏； —

and when at last I shall plant, I shall be less likely to be disappointed. —
所以最后当我开始种植时，我更不太可能失望。 —

But I would say to my fellows, once for all, As long as possible live free and uncommitted. —
但我想对我的同伴们说一次，尽可能地活得自由而不受束缚。 —

It makes but little difference whether you are committed to a farm or the county jail.
你是被绑在农场上还是被囚禁在监狱里对你来说没什么太大的区别。

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; —
《农事》的作者老卡托说，“当你想要买农场时，在你的脑海中转动这样的想法，不要贪得无厌； —

nor spare your pains to look at it, and do not think it enough to go round it once. —
不要懒得花时间去看它，不要以为走一圈就足够了。 —

The oftener you go there the more it will please you, if it is good.” —
你越频繁地去那里，如果那个农场好的话，它会越来越让你喜欢。” —

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.
我想我不会贪得无厌，而是一生多次地绕着它走，直到我生命尽头埋葬在那里，这样最后它会更让我喜欢。

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. —
下一个是我进行的下一个类似实验，我打算详细描述一下，为了方便把两年的经验合为一体。 —

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.
正如我所说，我不打算写一首悲伤的颂歌，而是像清晨的雄鸡一样自夸，站在它的栖木上，只是为了唤醒我的邻居们。

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. —
当我第一次在树林中安家，也就是说，开始在那里度过夜晚，这是偶然的，是在1845年独立日，或者是7月4日，我的房子尚未为冬天完工，只是一座防雨的遮蔽物，没有抹灰或烟囱，墙壁由粗糙的、被风吹日晒得斑驳的木板构成，之间有宽宽的裂缝，所以夜晚凉爽。 —

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. —
直立的白色锯光桩和新刨的门窗套线让它看起来干净而通风，尤其是在早晨，当它的横梁被露水浸透时，让我想象能有一些甜蜜的树胶从中分泌出来。 —

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. —
在我想象中，它整天保持着这种极显金色光辉的特性，让我想起一年前曾拜访的一座山上的房子。 —

This was an airy and unplastered cabin, fit to entertain a travelling god, and where a goddess might trail her garments. —
这是一座通风良好、未抹灰的小屋，适合招待旅行的神祇，也是女神可以在里面穿行她的衣裳的地方。 —

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. —
吹过我住所的风仿佛掠过山脊，携带着地球音乐中破碎的旋律或天上的乐章。 —

The morning wind forever blows, the poem of creation is uninterrupted; —
清晨的风永远在吹拂，创世诗永不间断； —

but few are the ears that hear it. Olympus is but the outside of the earth everywhere.
但几乎没有人能听到它。奥林匹斯只是遍布大地的外表。

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; —
在此之前我拥有的唯一住所，如果不计一只小船，就是一个帐篷，我偶尔在夏天的郊游中使用，如今它仍然卷藏在我的阁楼里； —

but the boat, after passing from hand to hand, has gone down the stream of time. —
但那只小船在经历多人之手后，流淌在时间的长河中。 —

With this more substantial shelter about me, I had made some progress toward settling in the world. —
有了这个更为坚固的庇护，我已经开始在世界上安家落户了。 —

This frame, so slightly clad, was a sort of crystallization around me, and reacted on the builder. —
这轻薄的架构仿佛是我周围的一种结晶，对建造者产生了反应。 —

It was suggestive somewhat as a picture in outlines. —
这有点类似于一幅线描图。 —

I did not need to go outdoors to take the air, for the atmosphere within had lost none of its freshness. —
我不需要出门呼吸新鲜空气，因为室内的空气仍然清新。 —

It was not so much within doors as behind a door where I sat, even in the rainiest weather. —
我坐的地方不仅仅是在室内，而是在一个门后。 —

The Harivansa says, “An abode without birds is like a meat without seasoning.” —
《哈里万沙传》说：“没有鸟儿的住所就像没有调味的肉。” —

Such was not my abode, for I found myself suddenly neighbor to the birds; —
我的住所并非如此，因为我突然发现自己成了鸟儿的邻居； —

not by having imprisoned one, but having caged myself near them. —
并非因为把一只鸟囚禁，而是自己与它们相邻。 —

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.
我不仅靠近一些常在花园和果园出没的鸟儿，还靠近那些更小更令人激动的森林中的歌者们，这些歌者很少或从不给村民们表演——灰鹂、林鸲、赤红衫、田麻雀、扇尾夜鹰，还有许多其他鸟儿。

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; —
我坐在一个小池塘的岸边，离康科德村约一英里半，略高于它，在康科德镇和林肯之间的一个广阔树林中，距离我们唯一有名的战场——康科德战场——大约两英里南面； —

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. —
但我所在的树林深处，对岸还有半英里远，和其他地方一样，也是一片树木茂密，是我最遥远的地平线； —

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. —
在第一个星期，每当我看着池塘，它仿佛是高山斜坡上的碧潭，底部远高于其他湖泊的水面，太阳升起的时候，我看到它褪去夜间的薄雾，在某些地方，逐渐显露出它柔软的涟漪或平滑的反射表面，而薄雾则像幽灵一样悄悄地朝着四面八方消散到树林中，就像某个夜间秘密聚会的瓦解一样； —

The very dew seemed to hang upon the trees later into the day than usual, as on the sides of mountains.
清晨的露水似乎比平常更晚从树上消失，就像山坡上的树上一样；

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. —
这个小湖在8月的某个轻雨暴风雨中对我来说价值最大的是，在这时，空气和水都是完全静止的，但天空被遮蔽，午后的宁静就有了夜晚的祥和感觉，林中画眉鸟唱着围绕着，声音从岸边传到岸边； —

A lake like this is never smoother than at such a time; —
在这个时候，像这样的湖面从未如此平静； —

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. —
天空上的清晰部分被深云伴着，水充满了光和倒影，成为一个更重要的下级天堂； —

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. —
从附近的一个山顶上，那里的树木最近被砍伐，向南望去，穿过山脊中的一处宽阔凹地，那里形成了湖岸，相对的两边向彼此倾斜，暗示着有一条流向那个方向的小溪通过一片树木繁茂的山谷，但没有流水； —

That way I looked between and over the near green hills to some distant and higher ones in the horizon, tinged with blue. —
我向那个方向看着，在和过去靠近的绿色山丘之上，有一个愉快的景色，远望一些在地平线上略带蓝色的更远更高的山峰； —

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. —
事实上，通过趾高气昂，我可以瞥见西北方更远的山脉中某些峰顶，那些来自天堂自己的纯蓝色硬币，还可以看到村庄的一部分； —

But in other directions, even from this point, I could not see over or beyond the woods which surrounded me. —
但在其他方向，即使在这个点上，我也看不到周围的树林之后或之上； —

It is well to have some water in your neighborhood, to give buoyancy to and float the earth. —
在你的邻近有些水，能使大地更轻盈并漂浮； —

One value even of the smallest well is, that when you look into it you see that earth is not continent but insular. —
即使是最小的井，也有一个价值，那就是当你往里看时，看到大地并非一个大陆而是一座岛屿； —

This is as important as that it keeps butter cool. —
这和保持黄油凉爽一样重要。 —

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.
当我从这座山峰俯瞰池塘对面的萨德伯里草地时，我看到在洪水中，它们似乎被一个海市蜃楼所隆起，就像一个盆里的硬币，池塘之外的整个大地看起来像是一个薄薄的地壳，被这一小片倒映的水隔绝和漂浮着，让我想起我居住的这片土地只是干燥的陆地。

Though the view from my door was still more contracted, I did not feel crowded or confined in the least. —
虽然我门前的景色仍然有限，但我丝毫没有感到拥挤或困窘。 —

There was pasture enough for my imagination. —
我的想象有足够的牧场。 —

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. —
对岸拔起的低矮栎树高原一直延伸到西部的大草原和塔尔塔利草原，为所有游荡的家庭提供了足够的空间。 —

“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.
“世上唯有那些自由享受广阔地平线的生物才幸福” —— 当达摩达拉的牛群需要新的更大的牧场时如是说。

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. —
地点和时间都发生了变化，我更接近那些吸引我的宇宙部分和历史时代。 —

Where I lived was as far off as many a region viewed nightly by astronomers. —
我居住的地方就像天文学家每晚看到的许多地区一样遥远。 —

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. —
我们常常在系统的某个偏僻和更加神秘的角落，位于仙后座椅的星座后面，远离嘈杂和干扰，想象到一些罕见而令人愉悦的地方。 —

I discovered that my house actually had its site in such a withdrawn, but forever new and unprofaned, part of the universe. —
我发现我的房子实际上就位于宇宙中这种隐蔽但永远崭新而未被亵渎的部分。 —

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. —
如果定居在那些靠近昴宿星团或昴星团、金牛座星、飞马座星、牧夫座或天鹰座的地方是值得的，那么我真的在那里，或者与我留下的生活同样遥远，只有在无月之夜才能以同等的微光被我的邻居看到。 —

Such was that part of creation where I had squatted;
这就是我蹲下的创造的那一部分；

“There was a shepherd that did live,
“有一个牧羊人

And held his thoughts as high
把他的思想放得很高

As were the mounts whereon his flocks
就像他的羊群所在的高地

Did hourly feed him by.”
每时每刻都在喂养他。”

What should we think of the shepherd’s life if his flocks always wandered to higher pastures than his thoughts?
如果牧羊人的羊群总是漫步到比他的思想更高的牧场，我们应该如何看待牧人的生活呢？

Every morning was a cheerful invitation to make my life of equal simplicity, and I may say innocence, with Nature herself. —
每个早晨都是一种愉快的邀请，让我的生活与自然本身一样简单，我可以说是无罪的。 —

I have been as sincere a worshipper of Aurora as the Greeks. I got up early and bathed in the pond; —
我一直像希腊人一样真诚地崇拜曙光女神。我早起在池塘里沐浴； —

that was a religious exercise, and one of the best things which I did. —
那是一种宗教锻炼，也是我所做的最好的事情之一。 —

They say that characters were engraven on the bathing tub of King Tchingthang to this effect: —
他们说商汤王的浴缸上刻着这样的字： —

“Renew thyself completely each day; do it again, and again, and forever again.” —
“每天都让自己焕然一新；再做一遍，再做一遍，永远如此。” —

I can understand that. Morning brings back the heroic ages. —
我可以理解那个感觉。清晨让人回忆起英雄时代。 —

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. —
当我坐在门窗敞开之时，清晨最早时，一只蚊子发出微弱的嗡嗡声，就像最有名的号角一样打动我。 —

It was Homer’s requiem; itself an Iliad and Odyssey in the air, singing its own wrath and wanderings. —
这是荷马的安魂曲；它本身是一部《伊利亚特》和《奥德赛》在空中演唱着它自己的愤怒和漫游。 —

There was something cosmical about it; a standing advertisement, till forbidden, of the everlasting vigor and fertility of the world. —
这种感觉是宇宙的；一种永恒的活力和世界肥沃性的常设广告，直到被禁止。 —

The morning, which is the most memorable season of the day, is the awakening hour. —
清晨是一天中最难忘的时节，是唤醒的时刻。 —

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. —
在那时我们最不昏昏欲睡；至少有一个小时，我们中的一部分会在白天和黑夜休息的时候苏醒。 —

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; —
如果我们不是被我们的天赋所唤醒，而是被某个仆人的机械推挤所唤醒，就不该期待那一天会有什么成果；我们苏醒于自身新获得的力量和内在的热望，伴随天籁般的音乐起伏，而非工厂的钟声，空气中弥漫着香气–迈向比我们入睡时更高级的生活； —

and thus the darkness bear its fruit, and prove itself to be good, no less than the light. —
这样黑暗会结果实，证明自身同样善良，不亚于光明。 —

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. —
如果一个人不相信每一天都包含比他过去亵渎过的更早、更神圣、更明亮的时刻，他对生活已经绝望，正在走下坡路，变得日益黑暗。 —

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. —
在部分停滞了感官生活之后，人的灵魂，或者更确切地说，他的器官每天都会重新振作起来，他的天才会再次尝试创造何等高尚的生活。 —

All memorable events, I should say, transpire in morning time and in a morning atmosphere. —
我要说，所有值得纪念的事件都发生在早晨时分和清晨的氛围中。 —

The Vedas say, “All intelligences awake with the morning.” —
吠陀经说：“所有智慧在清晨醒来”。 —

Poetry and art, and the fairest and most memorable of the actions of men, date from such an hour. —
诗歌和艺术，以及男人们最美丽、最难忘的行动，都起源于这样一个时刻。 —

All poets and heroes, like Memnon, are the children of Aurora, and emit their music at sunrise. —
所有诗人和英雄，就像美旦诺，都是黎明的孩子，他们在日出时奏响音乐。 —

To him whose elastic and vigorous thought keeps pace with the sun, the day is a perpetual morning. —
对于那些能够跟上太阳的弹性和精力充沛的思想，白天就是永恒的清晨。 —

It matters not what the clocks say or the attitudes and labors of men. —
时钟所说的时间、人们的姿态和劳动态度等都并不重要。 —

Morning is when I am awake and there is a dawn in me. —
在我醒着的时候，我就是清晨，我的内心有黎明。 —

Moral reform is the effort to throw off sleep. —
道德改革是试图抛开睡意。 —

Why is it that men give so poor an account of their day if they have not been slumbering? —
为什么人们对自己的一天表现得如此差劲，如果他们没有陷入昏睡呢？ —

They are not such poor calculators. If they had not been overcome with drowsiness, they would have performed something. —
他们并不是那么糟糕的计算者。如果他们没有被嗜睡所克服，他们本应该有所作为。 —

The millions are awake enough for physical labor; —
数百万人足够醒着进行体力劳动； —

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. —
但是只有百万分之一的人足够清醒进行有效的智力劳动，只有一亿分之一的人能够过上诗意或神圣的生活。 —

To be awake is to be alive. I have never yet met a man who was quite awake. —
保持清醒就是活着。我还从未遇到过一个真正清醒的人。 —

How could I have looked him in the face?
我怎么能够正眼看他呢？

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. —
我们必须学会重新唤醒并保持警觉，不是靠机械的帮助，而是通过对黎明无限的期待，即使在我们最沉睡的时候也不会放弃我们。 —

I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor. —
我知道没有比人类通过自觉的努力提升自己生活更鼓舞人心的事实。 —

It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful; —
能够绘制一幅特定的画，或雕刻一尊雕像，让一些物体变得美丽，这是一种能耐； —

but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look, which morally we can do. —
但更加光荣的是雕刻和绘制我们所看到的，那种给予我们精神力量的大气和环境，道德上我们是能够做到这一点的。 —

To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts. —
影响一天的品质，这是最高的艺术。 —

Every man is tasked to make his life, even in its details, worthy of the contemplation of his most elevated and critical hour. —
每个人都被赋予使自己的生活，甚至在细节上，值得他最崇高和挑剔的时刻去思考的任务。 —

If we refused, or rather used up, such paltry information as we get, the oracles would distinctly inform us how this might be done.
如果我们拒绝，或者用光我们所获得的那些琐碎信息，神谕就会明确告诉我们如何做到这一点。

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. —
我走进树林是因为我希望过自觉的生活，直面生活的基本事实，看看我是否能学到它的教训，而不是，在我临终时才发现自己没有真正地活过。 —

I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; —
我并不希望活在非生活的状态，生活是如此珍贵； —

nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. —
也不希望练习顺从，除非确有必要。 —

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; —
我想要过上深沉的生活，吸尽生活的骨髓，像斯巴达人一样坚韧地生活，把所有不是生活的事物都彻底击败，切割开广阔的道路，丝毫不留余地，将生活逼入角落，将其降至最低程度，如果发现它卑鄙，那么就尽情体验其真实的卑鄙，并把它的卑鄙展现给全世界； —

or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion. —
如果它是崇高的，也要通过经历来认识它，并在我的下次远足中能够真实地表述它。 —

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.”
对于大多数人而言，我觉得他们对此心存疑虑，不确定它是来自魔鬼还是上帝，匆忙得出结论，认为人类在这里的首要目的是“荣耀上帝，永远享受他”。

Still we live meanly, like ants; though the fable tells us that we were long ago changed into men; —
尽管寓言告诉我们很久以前我们已经变成了人类；我们仍然像蚂蚁一样卑贱生活； —

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. —
我们像侏儒一样与鹤战斗；这是错误之上的错误，是修补之上的补丁，我们最好的德行只是为了多余和可避免的不幸而产生。 —

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. —
我们的生活被细枝末节消磨掉了。一个诚实的人几乎只需要数数自己的十个手指，或者在极端情况下他可以加上十个脚趾，把其余的都归为一类。 —

Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; —
简单，简单，简单！我说，让你的事务只有两三件，而不是一百或一千件； —

instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb-nail. —
而不是数百万，只数半打，并在你的指甲上记账。 —

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. —
在这个文明生活的汪洋大海中，有着如此之多的云彩、风暴、流沙和要考虑的事项，一个人必须靠死算来生存，要不然他就会沉没毁于深海，一无所获，除非他是一个真正了不起的计算家。 —

Simplify, simplify. Instead of three meals a day, if it be necessary eat but one; —
简化，简化。如果必须的话，一天只吃一顿饭； —

instead of a hundred dishes, five; and reduce other things in proportion. —
每餐不要超过五道菜，其他事情也按比例减少。 —

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. —
我们的生活就像一个德意志联邦，由一些小国组成，其边界永远波动不定，以至于连一个德国人也说不清楚在任何时刻它的边界在哪里。 —

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; —
这个国家本身，所有所谓的内部改进，顺便一提都是外部的和表面的，就像一个笨重并且过度臃肿的机构，充斥着家具，被自己设下的陷阱绊倒，被奢侈和盲目支出摧毁，缺乏计算和崇高目标，就像国内的百万家庭一样； —

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. —
针对此，作为对症之策，唯有严格的节俭，生活中更胜于斯巴达式的简朴和高尚的目标。 —

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; —
它生活得过快了。人们认为国家必须有商业，出口冰块，用电报交流，以每小时三十英里的速度骑马，毫无疑问，不管他们是否需要； —

but whether we should live like baboons or like men, is a little uncertain. —
但我们应该过像狒狒还是像人，这有点不确定。 —

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? —
如果我们不搭枕木，不铸造铁路轨道，不日夜奋战于工作中，而是去改善我们的生活，谁会来修铁路呢？ —

And if railroads are not built, how shall we get to heaven in season? —
如果不建造铁路，我们怎么能及时到达天堂呢？ —

But if we stay at home and mind our business, who will want railroads? —
但如果我们待在家里，只顾自己的事务，那又有谁会需要铁路呢？ —

We do not ride on the railroad; it rides upon us. —
我们不是在铁路上骑行；是铁路载着我们。 —

Did you ever think what those sleepers are that underlie the railroad? —
你有没有想过那些铁路下面的枕木是什么？ —

Each one is a man, an Irishman, or a Yankee man. —
每一个都是一个人，一个爱尔兰人，或一个洋基人。 —

The rails are laid on them, and they are covered with sand, and the cars run smoothly over them. —
铁轨铺在它们上面，它们被覆盖着沙子，车辆平稳地在上面行驶。 —

They are sound sleepers, I assure you. And every few years a new lot is laid down and run over; —
它们是好睡的人，我向你保证。每隔几年，一批新的枕木被铺设，并被车辆碾过； —

so that, if some have the pleasure of riding on a rail, others have the misfortune to be ridden upon. —
所以，如果有人享受乘坐火车的乐趣，其他人就不幸被乘坐。 —

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. —
当它们碰到一个梦游的人，一个错误位置上的多余的梦游者，并把他吵醒时，它们会突然停车，然后大声疾呼，好像这是个例外。 —

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.
我很高兴知道，为了让枕木保持平整，每五英里需要一队人去艰苦地工作，因为这表明它们可能会再次起身。

Why should we live with such hurry and waste of life? —
我们为什么要如此匆忙地浪费生命呢？ —

We are determined to be starved before we are hungry. —
我们决定在挨饿之前就饿着自己。 —

Men say that a stitch in time saves nine, and so they take a thousand stitches today to save nine tomorrow. —
人们说，做工夫要提前，能节省九份工夫，所以他们今天要做上千份工夫，目的是为了明天节省九份。 —

As for work, we haven’t any of any consequence. —
至于工作，我们没有重要的工作。 —

We have the Saint Vitus’ dance, and cannot possibly keep our heads still. —
我们得到圣维特舞病，根本无法让我们的头保持静止。 —

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; —
如果我只是在教区的钟绳上用力拉几下，好像发生了火灾，也就是说不用摇动钟，那么在康科德郊外的农场里，几乎没有人不管多少次今天早上那些处理繁忙的言辞作为借口，也没有人，或男孩，甚至可说没有女人，但会抛下一切追随那声音，主要不是为了从火灾中拯救财产，而实事求是地说，更多地是为了看它燃烧，因为它必须燃烧，而且我们，不妨让人们知道，没有放火 - 或者看着它被熄灭，如果那样做得漂亮； —

yes, even if it were the parish church itself. —
是的，即使是教区教堂本身。 —

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?” —
几乎没有人在午饭后打个半小时的盹，但是醒来后他抬起头，询问，“有什么新闻？” —

as if the rest of mankind had stood his sentinels. —
䶴好像其他人类都成了他的警卫一样。 —

Some give directions to be waked every half-hour, doubtless for no other purpose; —
有些人要求每半个小时唤醒一次，毫无其他目的； —

and then, to pay for it, they tell what they have dreamed. —
然后，为此付出代价，讲述自己的梦境。 —

After a night’s sleep the news is as indispensable as the breakfast. —
经过一夜的睡眠，新闻和早餐一样不可或缺。 —

“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; —
“请告诉我在这个地球上发生过的任何新鲜事” —— 他一边喝咖啡吃面包，一边读着，据说今早在瓦奇托河有人被挖掉了眼睛； —

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.
他却没有梦想，他生活在这个世界上深不可测的巨大洞穴中，自己的眼睛只是原始的。

For my part, I could easily do without the post-office. —
就我而言，我很容易就能够没有邮局。 —

I think that there are very few important communications made through it. —
我认为通过报纸传达的重要信息很少。 —

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. —
说实话，我一生中收到的信件不超过一两封 – 几年前我写过这样的话 – 邮费甚至不值得。 —

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. —
通常来说，邮政是一种机构，通过它你正式地向一个人提供那一文钱以换取他的想法，而这种心意常常开玩笑时安全地提供。 —

And I am sure that I never read any memorable news in a newspaper. —
我确信我从来没有在报纸上读到过令人难忘的新闻。 —

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. —
如果我们读到有一个人被抢劫、被谋杀、意外身亡，或是有一座房屋被烧毁，一艘船难，一艘轮船爆炸，或是一头牛在西方铁路上被撞，或是有一批蝗虫在冬天 – 我们完全不需要再读到其他类似的事情。 —

One is enough. If you are acquainted with the principle, what do you care for a myriad instances and applications? —
一个足矣。如果你了解原理，你对无数的实例和应用又有何兴致？ —

To a philosopher all news, as it is called, is gossip, and they who edit and read it are old women over their tea. —
对一位哲学家来说，所有新闻，俗称的八卦，都是闲言碎语，而编辑和阅读它的人就像是喝茶的老太太。 —

Yet not a few are greedy after this gossip. —
然而也不乏一些人对这些闲言碎语显得贪心。 —

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. —
据我所闻，几天前有人在某个办公室里疯狂地拥挤，想通过最新的外国消息了解情况，结果把该机构的几块大玻璃窗都压碎了 – 我认真认为，聪明才智过人的人可能在一年或者十二年前就已经足够准确地写出这个消息。 —

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: —
举例来说，要是你知道如何交代唐卡洛斯和玛德丽娜，唐佩德罗和塞维利亚以及格拉纳达，每适当的时候按照正确的比例提及他们 – 他们可能后来把名字稍微改了一下 – 并在其他节目不受欢迎的时候安排一场斗牛，那么这个消息将会十拿九稳，并且让我们对西班牙的真实状况或是毁灭有了透彻的认知，就像是报纸上此类报道中所述那样： —

and as for England, almost the last significant scrap of news from that quarter was the revolution of 1649; —
至于英国，几乎最近一条有意义的消息是1649年的革命； —

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. —
如果你已经了解过她每年的作物收成情况，你就再也不需要关心那些事情了，除非你的投机行为仅仅是出于金钱的考量。 —

If one may judge who rarely looks into the newspapers, nothing new does ever happen in foreign parts, a French revolution not excepted.
如果一个很少看报纸的人可以判断，国外从未发生过什么新鲜事，甚至包括一次法国革命。

What news! how much more important to know what that is which was never old! —
看这报道！更重要的是知道那些从未过时的事情！ —

“Kieou-he-yu (great dignitary of the state of Wei) sent a man to Khoung-tseu to know his news. —
“求尊称阙由(魏国大臣)派人去问孔子有何新闻。 —

Khoung-tseu caused the messenger to be seated near him, and questioned him in these terms: —
康子让使者坐在他旁边，用这样的话问他： —

What is your master doing? The messenger answered with respect: —
你的主人在做什么？使者尊敬地回答说： —

My master desires to diminish the number of his faults, but he cannot come to the end of them. —
我的主人希望减少他的过错数量，但他无法结束它们。 —

The messenger being gone, the philosopher remarked: What a worthy messenger! —
使者离开后，哲学家评论道：多么可敬的使者！ —

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! —
“多么可敬的使者！”传教士，而不是在礼拜日让稻农在他们度过一周中没用的一天的时候受扰（因为礼拜日是结束不尽的失误一周的合适结局，而不是新一周的勇敢开始），应当大声呼喊：“停下来！ —

Avast! Why so seeming fast, but deadly slow?”
休船！为什么看似快速，但实则死慢？”

Shams and delusions are esteemed for soundest truths, while reality is fabulous. —
人们认为虚幻和欺骗是最可靠的真理，而现实则是神话。 —

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. —
如果人们始终只观察现实，并不让自己被欺骗，生活将会像童话和《天方夜谭》一样。 —

If we respected only what is inevitable and has a right to be, music and poetry would resound along the streets. —
如果我们只尊重不可避免且有权存在的事物，音乐和诗歌会响彻大街小巷。 —

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. —
当我们不匆忙且明智时，我们会发现只有伟大和值得的事情具有任何永久和绝对的存在，琐碎的恐惧和琐碎的快乐只是现实的影子。 —

This is always exhilarating and sublime. —
这总是让人振奋和崇高的。 —

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. —
闭上眼睛进入梦乡，并同意被表象所骗，人们在每个地方都建立并确认他们纯粹虚幻基础上的日常生活和习惯。 —

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. —
与失败的人相比，只玩弄生活的孩子更清楚地认识到生活的真正法则和关系，而失败的人认为他们通过经历更加聪明，也就是说，通过失败。 —

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. —
我在一本印度书中读到，说“有一个被婴儿时期被流放出生地的国王之子，被一个森林管理员抚养长大，在那个状态下，他认为自己属于与他生活的蛮族。 —

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. —
某位他父王的大臣发现了他，向他透露他的真实身份，解除了他对自己的错误看法，并且他知道自己是王子。 —

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.” —
因此，灵魂，”继续印度哲学家说，”由于所处的环境，误解了自己的特质，直到有一位圣洁的老师将真相启示给它，然后它才知道自己是梵天。” —

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. —
我看到我们新英格兰的居民过着这种平庸的生活是因为我们的视野没有穿透事物的表面。 —

We think that that is which appears to be. —
我们认为表象就是实际。 —

If a man should walk through this town and see only the reality, where, think you, would the “Mill-dam” go to? —
如果一个人走过这个小镇，只看到现实，你认为”Mill-dam”会去哪里？ —

If he should give us an account of the realities he beheld there, we should not recognize the place in his description. —
如果他要给我们描述他所看到的现实，我们将不会在他的描述中认出那个地方。 —

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. —
看一个会堂，或者一座法院大楼，或者一座监狱，或者一家商店，或者一座住宅，说出那个东西在一个真实的凝视前是什么，它们会在你的描述中崩溃。 —

Men esteem truth remote, in the outskirts of the system, behind the farthest star, before Adam and after the last man. —
人们认为真理很遥远，在体系的边缘，在最遥远的星星后面，在亚当之前，在最后一个人之后。 —

In eternity there is indeed something true and sublime. —
在永恒中确实有一些真实而崇高的东西。 —

But all these times and places and occasions are now and here. —
但所有这些时刻和地点和场合都是现在和这里。 —

God himself culminates in the present moment, and will never be more divine in the lapse of all the ages. —
上帝本身在当前时刻达到顶点，并且在所有年代的流逝中永远不会更加神圣。 —

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. —
我们只有通过我们周围现实的不断灌输和浸透才能理解什么是崇高和高尚。 —

The universe constantly and obediently answers to our conceptions; —
宇宙不断地并顺从地回应着我们的观念； —

whether we travel fast or slow, the track is laid for us. —
无论我们快走还是慢走，路都为我们铺设好了。 —

Let us spend our lives in conceiving then. —
让我们把生命花在构思上。 —

The poet or the artist never yet had so fair and noble a design but some of his posterity at least could accomplish it.
诗人或艺术家从未有过如此美丽和高尚的设计，但至少他的一些后代可以实现它。

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. —
让我们像大自然那样谨慎地度过一天，不要因为每一个小事或蚊子的翅膀落在铁轨上而被抛离轨道。 —

Let us rise early and fast, or break fast, gently and without perturbation; —
让我们早起并快速斋戒，或者温柔地打破斋戒，毫不惊慌； —

let company come and let company go, let the bells ring and the children cry – determined to make a day of it. —
让公司来了又去，让铃声响起，孩子们大声哭喊 —— 下定决心好好过一天。 —

Why should we knock under and go with the stream? —
我们为何要顺流而下？ —

Let us not be upset and overwhelmed in that terrible rapid and whirlpool called a dinner, situated in the meridian shallows. —
让我们不被那可怕的快速和漩涡所淹没和压倒，那就是被称为子午线浅滩上的一顿饭。 —

Weather this danger and you are safe, for the rest of the way is down hill. —
顶住这种危险，你就安全了，因为剩下的路是下坡路。 —

With unrelaxed nerves, with morning vigor, sail by it, looking another way, tied to the mast like Ulysses. —
怀着紧绷的神经，早晨充满活力，绕着它航行，看向另一个方向，像尤利西斯一样被绑在桅杆上。 —

If the engine whistles, let it whistle till it is hoarse for its pains. —
如果引擎鸣笛，就让它鸣笛直到声音嘶哑。 —

If the bell rings, why should we run? We will consider what kind of music they are like. —
如果铃响，我们为何要奔跑？我们会考虑它们是什么音乐类型。 —

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; —
让我们安定下来，把脚插进舆论、偏见、传统、错觉和表象的泥泞中，这一切掩盖了整个地球，穿过巴黎和伦敦，穿过纽约和波士顿和康科德，穿过教会和国家，穿越诗歌、哲学和宗教，直到我们到达一个坚硬的底部和真实的地方，并说，这就是，毫不错误； —

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. —
然后开始，有了一个支点，在洪水、霜冻和火灾之下，一个你可以建立一堵墙或一个国家，或者安全地设置一个灯柱，或者或许一个标准，一个不是尼罗河測量器，而是真实度量器，使将来的年代能知道虚伪和表象不时积累的深度。 —

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. —
如果你正对着一个事实正面面对，你会看到太阳在它的两个表面上闪耀，就像它是一把弯刀，感受到它甜蜜的刃将你贯穿心脏和骨髓，这样你将幸福地结束你的生命。 —

Be it life or death, we crave only reality. —
无论生或死，我们只求真实。 —

If we are really dying, let us hear the rattle in our throats and feel cold in the extremities; —
如果我们正在真的临死，让我们听到喉咙嘶嘶声，感受到四肢冰冷； —

if we are alive, let us go about our business.
如果我们还活着，让我们去做我们的事。

Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in. I drink at it; —
时间只是我打渔时所流逝的河流。 我在其中饮水； —

but while I drink I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. —
但当我饮水时，我看见沙底，发现它多么浅。 —

Its thin current slides away, but eternity remains. I would drink deeper; —
它薄薄的水流滑走了，但永恒依然存在。 我要喝得更深； —

fish in the sky, whose bottom is pebbly with stars. I cannot count one. —
在天空中打鱼，那里的底部星光闪烁。 我数不清一个。 —

I know not the first letter of the alphabet. —
我不知道字母表的第一个字母。 —

I have always been regretting that I was not as wise as the day I was born. —
我一直后悔，觉得自己没有出生那一天那么聪明。 —

The intellect is a cleaver; it discerns and rifts its way into the secret of things. —
智慧是一把利刃；它能洞悉并深入了解事物的秘密。 —

I do not wish to be any more busy with my hands than is necessary. My head is hands and feet. —
我不想用手比必要的更忙。 我的脑袋就是手和脚。 —

I feel all my best faculties concentrated in it. —
我感觉我的所有最佳能力集中在其中。 —

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. —
我的直觉告诉我，我的脑袋是一个用来挖掘的器官，就像某些生物使用鼻子和前爪一样，我会用它在这些山丘中钻探和挖掘出一条道路。 —

I think that the richest vein is somewhere hereabouts; —
我觉得最富有的矿脉就在附近； —

so by the divining-rod and thin rising vapors I judge; —
所以通过寻水晶杖和薄薄的升腾雾气我来判断； —

and here I will begin to mine.
我将在这里开始挖掘。