With a little more deliberation in the choice of their pursuits, all men would perhaps become essentially students and observers, for certainly their nature and destiny are interesting to all alike. —-
只要在选择追求的目标上再多考虑一下，所有的人或许最终都会成为实质上的学生和观察者，因为毫无疑问，人类的本性和命运对所有人都是有趣的。 —-

In accumulating property for ourselves or our posterity, in founding a family or a state, or acquiring fame even, we are mortal; —-
在为自己或子孙积累财产，建立家庭或国家，或者甚至获得名望时，我们都是凡人； —-

but in dealing with truth we are immortal, and need fear no change nor accident. —-
但在追求真理时，我们是不朽的，不需要担心任何变化或意外。 —-

The oldest Egyptian or Hindoo philosopher raised a corner of the veil from the statue of the divinity; —-
最古老的埃及或印度哲学家曾经掀开神性雕像的一角； —-

and still the trembling robe remains raised, and I gaze upon as fresh a glory as he did, since it was I in him that was then so bold, and it is he in me that now reviews the vision. —-
但尚且颤动的长袍仍然被掀起，我凝视的仍是同样璀璨的荣耀，因为当时是我在他的身上是如此大胆，而现在是他在我身上回顾这个幻想。 —-

No dust has settled on that robe; no time has elapsed since that divinity was revealed. —-
那长袍上没有落灰；自那个神性被揭示以来，没有消逝任何时间。 —-

That time which we really improve, or which is improvable, is neither past, present, nor future.
我们真正利用的时间，或者可以被利用的时间，既不是过去，也不是现在，更不是未来。

My residence was more favorable, not only to thought, but to serious reading, than a university; —-
我的居所不仅对思考有利，对认真阅读也有利，胜过大学； —-

and though I was beyond the range of the ordinary circulating library, I had more than ever come within the influence of those books which circulate round the world, whose sentences were first written on bark, and are now merely copied from time to time on to linen paper. —-
尽管我远离普通的流通图书馆的范围，但我却比以往更多地接触到那些在世界范围内流通的书籍，它们的句子最初是写在树皮上的，现在则仅仅是不时地被复制到亚麻纸上。 —-

Says the poet Mr Udd, “Being seated, to run through the region of the spiritual world; —-
诗人Mr Udd说：“坐着，漫游精神世界； —-

I have had this advantage in books. To be intoxicated by a single glass of wine; —-
我在书籍中有这种好处。只需一杯酒就陶醉； —-

I have experienced this pleasure when I have drunk the liquor of the esoteric doctrines.” —-
当我饮下秘传教义的酒时，我有过这种快乐。” —-

I kept Homer’s Iliad on my table through the summer, though I looked at his page only now and then. —-
整个夏天我将荷马的《伊利亚特》放在桌上，虽然只是偶尔翻看几页。 —-

Incessant labor with my hands, at first, for I had my house to finish and my beans to hoe at the same time, made more study impossible. —-
一开始我要不停地用手劳作，因为我需要完成房子，也需要除草，所以无法进行更多的学习。 —-

Yet I sustained myself by the prospect of such reading in future. —-
然而我通过未来能进行这样的阅读来支撑自己。 —-

I read one or two shallow books of travel in the intervals of my work, till that employment made me ashamed of myself, and I asked where it was then that I lived.
我在工作间隙读了一两本浅显的旅行书，直到那份工作让我感到羞愧，然后我问自己我当时到底住在哪里。

The student may read Homer or AEschylus in the Greek without danger of dissipation or luxuriousness, for it implies that he in some measure emulate their heroes, and consecrate morning hours to their pages. —-
学生可以无忧无虑地阅读荷马或伊斯库罗斯的希腊作品，因为这意味着他在某种程度上效仿他们的英雄，并将清晨的时光奉献给他们的著作。 —-

The heroic books, even if printed in the character of our mother tongue, will always be in a language dead to degenerate times; —-
英雄之书，即使印刷成我们母语的文字，也将永远对堕落时代是一种死语。 —-

and we must laboriously seek the meaning of each word and line, conjecturing a larger sense than common use permits out of what wisdom and valor and generosity we have. —-
我们必须辛苦地寻求每个词语和句子的意义，猜测比普通用法更大的意义，从我们拥有的智慧、勇气和慷慨中。 —-

The modern cheap and fertile press, with all its translations, has done little to bring us nearer to the heroic writers of antiquity. —-
现代廉价且肥沃的印刷术，以及所有的翻译，几乎没有让我们更接近古代的英雄作家。 —-

They seem as solitary, and the letter in which they are printed as rare and curious, as ever. —-
它们看起来像孤独的存在，印在上面的信件也像是稀有且有趣的，就像以往一样。 —-

It is worth the expense of youthful days and costly hours, if you learn only some words of an ancient language, which are raised out of the trivialness of the street, to be perpetual suggestions and provocations. —-
如果你只学会一些古语言中被提升出街头琐碎的单词，那就值得花费年轻的时光和昂贵的时间，因为它们会成为永恒的启示和挑逗。 —-

It is not in vain that the farmer remembers and repeats the few Latin words which he has heard. —-
农民记住并不断重复他所听到的几个拉丁词并非徒劳无功。 —-

Men sometimes speak as if the study of the classics would at length make way for more modern and practical studies; —-
有些人说，研究经典最终会为更现代和实用的研究所取代； —-

but the adventurous student will always study classics, in whatever language they may be written and however ancient they may be. —-
但冒险的学生总是会研究经典，无论用什么语言写的，无论它们有多古老。 —-

For what are the classics but the noblest recorded thoughts of man? —-
因为在经典作品中记录着人类最高尚的思想。 —-

They are the only oracles which are not decayed, and there are such answers to the most modern inquiry in them as Delphi and Dodona never gave. —-
它们是唯一没有腐朽的神谕，其中的答案比德尔斐和多多纳从未给过的更适用于现代的探究。 —-

We might as well omit to study Nature because she is old. —-
我们可以因为大自然古老而忽略去研究它。 —-

To read well, that is, to read true books in a true spirit, is a noble exercise, and one that will task the reader more than any exercise which the customs of the day esteem. —-
好好阅读，也就是以真正的精神阅读真正的书籍，是一种崇高的锻炼，比当今社会评价最高的任何锻炼都更能考验读者。 —-

It requires a training such as the athletes underwent, the steady intention almost of the whole life to this object. —-
它需要类似运动员所接受的训练，近乎一生的持续意愿来达成这个目标。 —-

Books must be read as deliberately and reservedly as they were written. —-
书籍必须像写作时那样审慎专注地阅读。 —-

It is not enough even to be able to speak the language of that nation by which they are written, for there is a memorable interval between the spoken and the written language, the language heard and the language read. —-
甚至能够说出这些书籍所用语言仍然是不够的，因为口语和书面语言之间有着显著的差异，听到的语言和阅读的语言之间存在着明显的间隔。 —-

The one is commonly transitory, a sound, a tongue, a dialect merely, almost brutish, and we learn it unconsciously, like the brutes, of our mothers. —-
前者通常是短暂的，只是一种声音、一种语言、一种方言，几乎是动物般简单，我们像动物一样在母亲那里无意识地学习。 —-

The other is the maturity and experience of that; —-
后者是那种成熟和经验； —-

if that is our mother tongue, this is our father tongue, a reserved and select expression, too significant to be heard by the ear, which we must be born again in order to speak. —-
如果前者是我们的母语，那么后者就是我们的父语，这是一种保留和选择的表达，太有意义以至于无法通过耳朵来听，我们必须获得新生才能说话。 —-

The crowds of men who merely spoke the Greek and Latin tongues in the Middle Ages were not entitled by the accident of birth to read the works of genius written in those languages; —-
中世纪那些仅懂希腊语和拉丁语的人群，并非因出生偶然而有权阅读用那些语言写成的天才作品； —-

for these were not written in that Greek or Latin which they knew, but in the select language of literature. —-
因为这些作品并非用他们所了解的那种希腊或拉丁语写成的，而是用文学精选语言写成的。 —-

They had not learned the nobler dialects of Greece and Rome, but the very materials on which they were written were waste paper to them, and they prized instead a cheap contemporary literature. —-
他们未曾学会古希腊和罗马的高级方言，而这些作品所用的材料对他们来说就像废纸一样，他们更珍视廉价的当代文学。 —-

But when the several nations of Europe had acquired distinct though rude written languages of their own, sufficient for the purposes of their rising literatures, then first learning revived, and scholars were enabled to discern from that remoteness the treasures of antiquity. —-
但是当欧洲各民族掌握了自己独特而粗糙的文字语言，足以满足他们崛起的文学需求时，学问才得以复兴，学者们才能从远处辨认出古代的珍宝。 —-

What the Roman and Grecian multitude could not hear, after the lapse of ages a few scholars read, and a few scholars only are still reading it.
罗马和希腊的众多群众不能听到的东西，数百年后仅有少数学者读到，而现在仍有少数学者在阅读。

However much we may admire the orator’s occasional bursts of eloquence, the noblest written words are commonly as far behind or above the fleeting spoken language as the firmament with its stars is behind the clouds. —-
尽管我们可能钦佩演讲家时不时爆发的雄辩，但最崇高的文字往往比瞬息即逝的口语更为遥远或高超，就像星空与云层的距离。 —-

There are the stars, and they who can may read them. —-
那里有星星，愿意的人可以阅读它们。 —-

The astronomers forever comment on and observe them. —-
天文学家们永远在评注和观察它们。 —-

They are not exhalations like our daily colloquies and vaporous breath. —-
它们不像我们日常的谈话和蒸发的气息。 —-

What is called eloquence in the forum is commonly found to be rhetoric in the study. —-
在法庭上被称为雄辩的东西，通常在研究室被发现是修辞。 —-

The orator yields to the inspiration of a transient occasion, and speaks to the mob before him, to those who can hear him; —-
演讲家屈从于一时的灵感，并对面前的人群说话，对那些可以听到他的人； —-

but the writer, whose more equable life is his occasion, and who would be distracted by the event and the crowd which inspire the orator, speaks to the intellect and health of mankind, to all in any age who can understand him.
但作家，他的更为平静的生活本身就是他的灵感，他不会受到激发演讲者的事件和人群的干扰，他在与人类的智慧和健全说话，与任何时代能理解他的人。

No wonder that Alexander carried the Iliad with him on his expeditions in a precious casket. —-
不足为奇，亚历山大在远征中随身携带着《伊利亚特》。 —-

A written word is the choicest of relics. —-
一言为定的遗物中，文字是最珍贵的。 —-

It is something at once more intimate with us and more universal than any other work of art. —-
它与我们更为亲密，也比任何其他艺术作品更为普遍。 —-

It is the work of art nearest to life itself. —-
它是距离生活本身最近的艺术作品。 —-

It may be translated into every language, and not only be read but actually breathed from all human lips; —-
它可能被翻译成每一种语言，并不仅被阅读而且实际上被所有人类的嘴唇呼吸； —-

— not be represented on canvas or in marble only, but be carved out of the breath of life itself. —-
——并不仅仅在画布或大理石上表现，而是由生活的气息雕刻而成。 —-

The symbol of an ancient man’s thought becomes a modern man’s speech. —-
古人思想的象征变成了现代人的话语。 —-

Two thousand summers have imparted to the monuments of Grecian literature, as to her marbles, only a maturer golden and autumnal tint, for they have carried their own serene and celestial atmosphere into all lands to protect them against the corrosion of time. —-
两千个夏天为希腊文学的纪念物，如同她的大理石一样，只留下了更加成熟的金色和秋色色调，因为它们已经将自己的宁静和天国般的氛围带入各地，以抵御时间的侵蚀。 —-

Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations. —-
书籍是世界的珍贵财富，是世代和国家的合适遗产。 —-

Books, the oldest and the best, stand naturally and rightfully on the shelves of every cottage. —-
书籍，最古老且最优秀的，自然而然地立在每个小屋的书架上。 —-

They have no cause of their own to plead, but while they enlighten and sustain the reader his common sense will not refuse them. —-
它们没有自己的主张要表达，但在启发和支持读者的同时，他的常识不会拒绝它们。 —-

Their authors are a natural and irresistible aristocracy in every society, and, more than kings or emperors, exert an influence on mankind. —-
他们的作者是社会中自然而又不可抗拒的贵族阶层，并且比国王或皇帝对人类产生更大影响。 —-

When the illiterate and perhaps scornful trader has earned by enterprise and industry his coveted leisure and independence, and is admitted to the circles of wealth and fashion, he turns inevitably at last to those still higher but yet inaccessible circles of intellect and genius, and is sensible only of the imperfection of his culture and the vanity and insufficiency of all his riches, and further proves his good sense by the pains which be takes to secure for his children that intellectual culture whose want he so keenly feels; —-
当没有受过教育，也许鄙视贸易的商人凭借进取心和勤奋赢得了他向往已久的闲暇和独立，被允许加入财富和时尚的圈子后，最终转向那些更高但又不可接触的智慧和天才的圈子，只感受到自己文化的不完美以及所有财富的虚荣和不足，而进一步通过努力去保证为其孩子们获得他如此深切感受到的知识文化; —-

and thus it is that he becomes the founder of a family.
因此他成为了家族的创建者。

Those who have not learned to read the ancient classics in the language in which they were written must have a very imperfect knowledge of the history of the human race; —-
那些没有用原文阅读古典著作的人对人类历史的了解一定是非常不完整的;—-

for it is remarkable that no transcript of them has ever been made into any modern tongue, unless our civilization itself may be regarded as such a transcript. —-
因为值得注意的是，除非我们的文明本身可以被视为这样一种文本，否则从未有人将它们译成任何现代语言。—-

Homer has never yet been printed in English, nor AEschylus, nor Virgil even — works as refined, as solidly done, and as beautiful almost as the morning itself; —-
荷马的作品从未用英文印刷过，埃斯库罗斯和维吉尔的作品也是如此——这些作品既精致、稳健，几乎与清晨本身一样美丽；； —-

for later writers, say what we will of their genius, have rarely, if ever, equalled the elaborate beauty and finish and the lifelong and heroic literary labors of the ancients. —-
因为后来的作家，不管我们如何评价他们的天赋，很少有人，甚至可以说从未有人达到古人在精致的美感、完美的完成度以及毕生英勇的文学劳动上的成就。。 —-

They only talk of forgetting them who never knew them. —-
只有那些从未真正了解过它们的人，才会谈论忘记它们。。 —-

It will be soon enough to forget them when we have the learning and the genius which will enable us to attend to and appreciate them. —-
只有当我们拥有了足够的学识和天赋，能够理解和欣赏它们时，才到了可以忘记它们的时候。。 —-

That age will be rich indeed when those relics which we call Classics, and the still older and more than classic but even less known Scriptures of the nations, shall have still further accumulated, when the Vaticans shall be filled with Vedas and Zendavestas and Bibles, with Homers and Dantes and Shakespeares, and all the centuries to come shall have successively deposited their trophies in the forum of the world. —-
当那个时代被丰富地储备，在这里我们称之为经典的遗物，以及更古老、更超越经典但更少人知的各国文献，当梵蒂冈被吠陀经、琐罗亚斯德经和圣经、荷马、但丁和莎士比亚充满，所有未来的世纪将陆续将他们的奖杯在世界的广场上留下。 —-

By such a pile we may hope to scale heaven at last.
强盛的塔尖会让我们最终攀越至天国。

The works of the great poets have never yet been read by mankind, for only great poets can read them. They have only been read as the multitude read the stars, at most astrologically, not astronomically. —-
伟大诗人的作品从来没有被人类真正阅读过，因为只有伟大诗人才能阅读它们。然而，人们只是象众人读星相那样读它们，顶多是占星术性地读，而不是天文学性地读。 —-

Most men have learned to read to serve a paltry convenience, as they have learned to cipher in order to keep accounts and not be cheated in trade; —-
大多数人学习阅读是为了服务琐碎的需要，就像他们学算术是为了记账和在贸易中不被欺骗一样； —-

but of reading as a noble intellectual exercise they know little or nothing; —-
但对于阅读作为一种高贵的智力锻炼几乎一无所知； —-

yet this only is reading, in a high sense, not that which lulls us as a luxury and suffers the nobler faculties to sleep the while, but what we have to stand on tip-toe to read and devote our most alert and wakeful hours to.
然而这才是真正的阅读，不是那种让我们沉湎于奢侈，并让更高贵的能力处于沉睡状态的阅读，而是我们只能踮起脚尖才能阅读，而且要将我们最机警且觉醒的时光奉献给它。

I think that having learned our letters we should read the best that is in literature, and not be forever repeating our a-b-abs, and words of one syllable, in the fourth or fifth classes, sitting on the lowest and foremost form all our lives. —-
我认为在学会了字母之后，我们应该阅读文学中最好的作品，而不是一生中一直去重复我们的a-b-c，和单音节词汇，坐在生活中最低最前的位置。 —-

Most men are satisfied if they read or hear read, and perchance have been convicted by the wisdom of one good book, the Bible, and for the rest of their lives vegetate and dissipate their faculties in what is called easy reading. —-
大多数男人会满足于阅读或听到读出，也许被一本好书《圣经》的智慧所说服，并在其余的一生里在所谓的轻松阅读中消磨和浪费自己的才能。 —-

There is a work in several volumes in our Circulating Library entitled “Little Reading,” which I thought referred to a town of that name which I had not been to. —-
在我们的流通图书馆中有一套分卷的作品，名为《小读物》，我认为这指的是一个我从未去过的名叫那个的城镇。 —-

There are those who, like cormorants and ostriches, can digest all sorts of this, even after the fullest dinner of meats and vegetables, for they suffer nothing to be wasted. —-
有些人像鸬鹚和鸵鸟一样，可以消化各种这种东西，甚至在吃过最丰盛的肉类和蔬菜晚餐之后也能接受，因为他们不让任何东西被浪费。 —-

If others are the machines to provide this provender, they are the machines to read it. —-
如果其他人是提供这些食物的机器，那么他们就是阅读这些食物的机器。 —-

They read the nine thousandth tale about Zebulon and Sophronia, and how they loved as none had ever loved before, and neither did the course of their true love run smooth — at any rate, how it did run and stumble, and get up again and go on! —-
有关齐布隆和索菲罗尼亚的第九千个故事，以及他们如何爱得像没有人爱过一样，至少他们真爱的道路并不平坦 - 无论如何，他们是如何奔跑、跌倒、再起身，并继续前行的！ —-

how some poor unfortunate got up on to a steeple, who had better never have gone up as far as the belfry; —-
有些可怜的不幸之人竟登上一座尖塔，他们本来永远不应该爬得那么高，连到钟楼里都没有好好考虑； —-

and then, having needlessly got him up there, the happy novelist rings the bell for all the world to come together and hear, O dear! —-
然后，明明没有必要把他们弄上去的快乐小说家却敲响钟簧，叫全世界都来聚会并聆听，哦，亲爱的！ —-

how he did get down again! For my part, I think that they had better metamorphose all such aspiring heroes of universal noveldom into man weather-cocks, as they used to put heroes among the constellations, and let them swing round there till they are rusty, and not come down at all to bother honest men with their pranks. —-
他们是如何下来的！就我而言，我认为他们最好把所有这种不求上进的普世小说英雄变成人造风标，就像把英雄放在星座中一样，让他们在那里一直摆动，直到锈掉，根本不要下来再来烦扰诚实的人。 —-

The next time the novelist rings the bell I will not stir though the meeting-house burn down. —-
下一次小说家敲响钟时，我不会动，哪怕会堂都烧了。 —-

“The Skip of the Tip-Toe-Hop, a Romance of the Middle Ages, by the celebrated author of `Tittle-Tol-Tan,’ to appear in monthly parts; —-
“蹑脚尖跳跃者，《中世纪的传奇》，由著名作家‘西多-丘-坦’创作，分月出版； —-

a great rush; don’t all come together.” All this they read with saucer eyes, and erect and primitive curiosity, and with unwearied gizzard, whose corrugations even yet need no sharpening, just as some little four-year-old bencher his two-cent gilt-covered edition of Cinderella — without any improvement, that I can see, in the pronunciation, or accent, or emphasis, or any more skill in extracting or inserting the moral. —-
大热闹；不要一起来。”他们都是以杯子眼睛阅读这一切，直立而原始的好奇心，以及一颗不知疲倦的砂囊，即使这些砂囊的褶皱甚至现在也无需磨尖，就像一些四岁小孩持着他两便士铺金封套的灰姑娘故事的版本一样 - 我看不出任何发音、重音、语调或任何在抽取或插入道德方面更有技巧。 —-

The result is dulness of sight, a stagnation of the vital circulations, and a general deliquium and sloughing off of all the intellectual faculties. —-
结果是视力的迟钝，生命循环的停滞，以及智力能力的一般组织和脱落。 —-

This sort of gingerbread is baked daily and more sedulously than pure wheat or rye-and-Indian in almost every oven, and finds a surer market.
这种姜饼比纯小麦或黑麦和玉米面每日每夜在几乎每个烤炉里都被更细心地烘烤，而且更能找到稳定的市场。

The best books are not read even by those who are called good readers. —-
最好的书甚至被称为好读者的人都不怎么读。 —-

What does our Concord culture amount to? —-
我们康科德的文化到底算什么？ —-

There is in this town, with a very few exceptions, no taste for the best or for very good books even in English literature, whose words all can read and spell. —-
在这个城镇里，除了极少数例外，几乎没有人对最好或非常好的书籍有品味，即使是英文文学的，所有人都能看懂和拼写它们的单词。 —-

Even the college-bred and so-called liberally educated men here and elsewhere have really little or no acquaintance with the English classics; —-
即使在这里和其他地方接受过大学教育并号称受过广泛教育的人，实际上对英文经典作品几乎一无所知； —-

and as for the recorded wisdom of mankind, the ancient classics and Bibles, which are accessible to all who will know of them, there are the feeblest efforts anywhere made to become acquainted with them. —-
至于人类的智慧结晶，古代经典和圣经，这些对任何想了解它们的人来说都是可以获取的，却很少有人会付出努力去了解它们。 —-

I know a woodchopper, of middle age, who takes a French paper, not for news as he says, for he is above that, but to “keep himself in practice,” he being a Canadian by birth; —-
我认识一位砍柴工，中年，他订阅了一份法文报纸，不是为了新闻，因为他认为他不需要新闻，而是为了“保持练习”，他出生在加拿大； —-

and when I ask him what he considers the best thing he can do in this world, he says, beside this, to keep up and add to his English. —-
当我问他认为在这个世界上自己能做的最好的事情是什么时，他说，除此之外，就是继续并增加自己的英语水平。 —-

This is about as much as the college-bred generally do or aspire to do, and they take an English paper for the purpose. —-
这基本上就是大多数受过大学教育的人通常所做或渴望做的事情，他们会因此阅读英语报纸。 —-

One who has just come from reading perhaps one of the best English books will find how many with whom he can converse about it? —-
刚读过可能是最好的一本英文书的人会发现能与谁讨论它？ —-

Or suppose he comes from reading a Greek or Latin classic in the original, whose praises are familiar even to the so-called illiterate; —-
或者假设他刚读完了希腊或拉丁语中的一部经典原著，甚至所谓的文盲也耳熟能详它的赞美； —-

he will find nobody at all to speak to, but must keep silence about it. —-
他将发现根本没有人可以交谈，只能对此保持沉默。 —-

Indeed, there is hardly the professor in our colleges, who, if he has mastered the difficulties of the language, has proportionally mastered the difficulties of the wit and poetry of a Greek poet, and has any sympathy to impart to the alert and heroic reader; —-
事实上，在我们的大学里，几乎没有哪位教授会像掌握了语言的难点一样，同样地掌握了希腊诗人的智慧和诗歌的难点，并且能够传授给那些充满激情和英勇的读者； —-

and as for the sacred Scriptures, or Bibles of mankind, who in this town can tell me even their titles? —-
至于圣经，或者全人类的圣经，这个城市里除了标题，有谁能告诉我它们的内容？ —-

Most men do not know that any nation but the Hebrews have had a scripture. —-
大多数人不知道除了希伯来人以外还有哪个国家有圣经。 —-

A man, any man, will go considerably out of his way to pick up a silver dollar; —-
一个人，任何人，都会远道前去拾起一枚银元； —-

but here are golden words, which the wisest men of antiquity have uttered, and whose worth the wise of every succeeding age have assured us of; —-
但这里却有黄金般珍贵的文字，古代最智慧的人类已经说过的，每个后代的智者都向我们保证过它们的价值； —-

— and yet we learn to read only as far as Easy Reading, the primers and class-books, and when we leave school, the “Little Reading,” and story-books, which are for boys and beginners; —-
— 但我们只学会读到初级程度，从简易读物、启蒙读物和课本开始，离开学校后只读点“浅显易懂”的读物和童话书，这些都是给孩子和初学者的； —-

and our reading, our conversation and thinking, are all on a very low level, worthy only of pygmies and manikins.
我们的阅读，我们的对话和思考，都处于一个非常低的水平，只配得上侏儒和木偶。

I aspire to be acquainted with wiser men than this our Concord soil has produced, whose names are hardly known here. —-
我渴望结识比康科德这块土地所产生的更智慧的人，他们的名字在这里几乎是未知的。 —-

Or shall I hear the name of Plato and never read his book? —-
还是我听到柏拉图的名字，却从未读过他的书？ —-

As if Plato were my townsman and I never saw him — my next neighbor and I never heard him speak or attended to the wisdom of his words. —-
好像柏拉图是我的邻居，而我从未见过他 — 他是我的隔壁，我从未听他说话或倾听他的智慧言论。 —-

But how actually is it? His Dialogues, which contain what was immortal in him, lie on the next shelf, and yet I never read them. —-
可实际上又如何呢？他的对话录，包含他的永生之物，就在隔壁的书架上，然而我从未读过。 —-

We are underbred and low-lived and illiterate; —-
我们文化水平不高，生活贫乏，缺乏教养； —-

and in this respect I confess I do not make any very broad distinction between the illiterateness of my townsman who cannot read at all and the illiterateness of him who has learned to read only what is for children and feeble intellects. —-
在这方面，我承认我并没有在完全没有读过书的我的乡亲和只读过儿童和弱智者专用书籍的我的乡亲之间做出很大的区别。 —-

We should be as good as the worthies of antiquity, but partly by first knowing how good they were. —-
我们应该和古代的伟人一样出色，但部分是通过了解他们的伟大才能变得出色。 —-

We are a race of tit-men, and soar but little higher in our intellectual flights than the columns of the daily paper.
我们是一群渺小的人，我们的思想飞翔的高度比日报上的专栏文章稍高一点而已。

It is not all books that are as dull as their readers. —-
并不是所有的书籍读起来都像他们的读者一样乏味。 —-

There are probably words addressed to our condition exactly, which, if we could really hear and understand, would be more salutary than the morning or the spring to our lives, and possibly put a new aspect on the face of things for us. —-
可能有一些正是针对我们的状况的文字，如果我们真正能听懂，对我们的生活可能比清晨或春天更有益，并可能让事物对我们呈现新的面貌。 —-

How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book! —-
多少人从阅读一本书开始他人生中的新纪元！ —-

The book exists for us, perchance, which will explain our miracles and reveal new ones. —-
也许存在着一本书，会为我们解释我们的奇迹并揭示新的奇迹。 —-

The at present unutterable things we may find somewhere uttered. —-
目前无法言表的事物可能在某处已经被说出。 —-

These same questions that disturb and puzzle and confound us have in their turn occurred to all the wise men; —-
这些困扰、迷惑和困扰我们的同样问题，已开始困扰所有智者； —-

not one has been omitted; and each has answered them, according to his ability, by his words and his life. —-
没有一个被省略；每个人都根据自己的能力，用言行回答了这些问题。 —-

Moreover, with wisdom we shall learn liberality. —-
再者，通过智慧，我们将学会慷慨。 —-

The solitary hired man on a farm in the outskirts of Concord, who has had his second birth and peculiar religious experience, and is driven as he believes into the silent gravity and exclusiveness by his faith, may think it is not true; —-
在康科德郊外一片农场上做雇工的独自一人，他已经有了第二次出生和特殊的宗教体验，被他的信仰推动，认为这不是真实； —-

but Zoroaster, thousands of years ago, travelled the same road and had the same experience; —-
但是数千年前的琐罗亚斯德走过了同样的道路，有了同样的经历； —-

but he, being wise, knew it to be universal, and treated his neighbors accordingly, and is even said to have invented and established worship among men. —-
但他，智慧的他，认为这是普遍的，并据说他甚至发明并建立了人类的崇拜。 —-

Let him humbly commune with Zoroaster then, and through the liberalizing influence of all the worthies, with Jesus Christ himself, and let “our church” go by the board.
那么让他谦卑地与琐罗亚斯德交流，通过所有伟人的自由化影响，与耶稣基督本人交流，让“我们的教堂”不要重要。

We boast that we belong to the Nineteenth Century and are making the most rapid strides of any nation. —-
我们自豪地说我们属于十九世纪，是任何国家中进步最快的。 —-

But consider how little this village does for its own culture. —-
但考虑一下这个村庄为自身文化所做的微不足道。 —-

I do not wish to flatter my townsmen, nor to be flattered by them, for that will not advance either of us. —-
我不想谄媚我的乡亲们，也不想被他们谄媚，因为那不会使我们任何一方前进。 —-

We need to be provoked — goaded like oxen, as we are, into a trot. —-
我们需要被激怒——被驱策着前进，如同我们是耕牛一样。 —-

We have a comparatively decent system of common schools, schools for infants only; —-
我们有相对体面的普通学校系统，只有幼儿学校； —-

but excepting the half-starved Lyceum in the winter, and latterly the puny beginning of a library suggested by the State, no school for ourselves. —-
但除了冬天半饿不饱的演讲学会，以及近来国家提议的图书馆的微不足道的开端，对自己没有学校。 —-

We spend more on almost any article of bodily aliment or ailment than on our mental aliment. —-
我们在任何身体营养品或疾病上花得比在我们的精神营养上多。 —-

It is time that we had uncommon schools, that we did not leave off our education when we begin to be men and women. —-
是时候我们有非凡的学校了，当我们成年时不要停止我们的教育。 —-

It is time that villages were universities, and their elder inhabitants the fellows of universities, with leisure — if they are, indeed, so well off — to pursue liberal studies the rest of their lives. —-
是时候村庄成为大学，他们的年长居民成为大学的研究员，有空闲时间——如果他们确实这么富裕的话——可以终身从事自由的学习。 —-

Shall the world be confined to one Paris or one Oxford forever? —-
世界会永远局限于一个巴黎或一个牛津吗？ —-

Cannot students be boarded here and get a liberal education under the skies of Concord? —-
学生不能在这里就读并在康科德的天空下接受开明教育吗？ —-

Can we not hire some Abelard to lecture to us? Alas! —-
我们难道不能雇佣一些像亚伯拉罕那样给我们上课吗？ 唉！ —-

what with foddering the cattle and tending the store, we are kept from school too long, and our education is sadly neglected. —-
因为喂牲口和管理商店，我们被迫离开学校太久，我们的教育被严重忽视。 —-

In this country, the village should in some respects take the place of the nobleman of Europe. —-
在这个国家，村庄在某些方面应该取代欧洲的贵族。 —-

It should be the patron of the fine arts. It is rich enough. —-
它应该是美术的赞助者。它有足够的财富。 —-

It wants only the magnanimity and refinement. —-
它只是需要宽宏和精致。 —-

It can spend money enough on such things as farmers and traders value, but it is thought Utopian to propose spending money for things which more intelligent men know to be of far more worth. —-
它可以花足够的钱在农民和商人重视的事物上，但提议为更有价值的事物花钱被认为是乌托邦式的。 —-

This town has spent seventeen thousand dollars on a town-house, thank fortune or politics, but probably it will not spend so much on living wit, the true meat to put into that shell, in a hundred years. —-
这个镇花了一万七千美元建造一个市政厅，感谢命运或政治，但很可能需要一百年才能花这么多钱在真正该放进那个壳子里的智慧，。 —-

The one hundred and twenty-five dollars annually subscribed for a Lyceum in the winter is better spent than any other equal sum raised in the town. —-
每年为冬季讲堂捐款的一百二十五美元比镇上筹集的任何等额款项都更好。 —-

If we live in the Nineteenth Century, why should we not enjoy the advantages which the Nineteenth Century offers? —-
如果我们生活在19世纪，为什么我们不能享受19世纪提供的优势呢？ —-

Why should our life be in any respect provincial? —-
为什么我们的生活在任何方面都应该是地方性的呢？ —-

If we will read newspapers, why not skip the gossip of Boston and take the best newspaper in the world at once? —-
如果我们要阅读报纸，为什么不跳过波士顿的八卦，直接一口气看世界上最好的报纸？ —-

— not be sucking the pap of “neutral family” papers, or browsing “Olive Branches” here in New England. —-
- 不要吸吮“中立家庭”报纸的乳汁，也不要在新英格兰这里涂抹“橄榄枝”。 —-

Let the reports of all the learned societies come to us, and we will see if they know anything. —-
让所有学术学会的报告都来到我们这里，我们将看看他们是否懂得一些东西。 —-

Why should we leave it to Harper & Brothers and Redding & Co. to select our reading? —-
为什么我们要让哈珀兄弟公司和雷丁公司来选择我们的阅读材料呢？ —-

As the nobleman of cultivated taste surrounds himself with whatever conduces to his culture — genius — learning — wit — books — paintings — statuary — music — philosophical instruments, and the like; —-
就像一个有修养品味的贵族会围绕自己选用那些有利于他的修养的东西—天才—学识—机智—书籍—绘画—雕塑—音乐—哲学仪器等； —-

so let the village do — not stop short at a pedagogue, a parson, a sexton, a parish library, and three selectmen, because our Pilgrim forefathers got through a cold winter once on a bleak rock with these. —-
所以让村庄也一样—不要只停留在一个教师、一位牧师、一个守墓人、一个社区图书馆和三名选民，因为我们的清教徒先辈曾经在一块荒凉的岩石上靠这些东西渡过了一个寒冷的冬天。 —-

To act collectively is according to the spirit of our institutions; —-
集体行动符合我们制度的精神； —-

and I am confident that, as our circumstances are more flourishing, our means are greater than the nobleman’s. —-
我相信，由于我们的情况更加繁荣，我们的资源比贵族还要丰富。 —-

New England can hire all the wise men in the world to come and teach her, and board them round the while, and not be provincial at all. —-
新英格兰可以雇佣全世界的智者来教育她，同时提供食宿，完全可以不再局限于地方。 —-

That is the uncommon school we want. Instead of noblemen, let us have noble villages of men. —-
这就是我们需要的非凡学校。让我们不再需要贵族，而是要有拥有高贵理想的村庄。 —-

If it is necessary, omit one bridge over the river, go round a little there, and throw one arch at least over the darker gulf of ignorance which surrounds us.
如果必要的话，可以少建一座桥梁穿过河流，在那里绕过去，至少要在围绕我们的黑暗无知之深渊上搭建一座桥梁。