作者：[美] 亨利·戴维·梭罗（Henry David Thoreau ）
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letter one第一封信[From Harrison G. O. Blake; March 1848; Worcester, Massachusetts]
[ 来自哈里森.G. O. 布莱克；1848 年3 月；马萨诸塞州伍斯特]
In March 1848 Henry David Thoreau (1817—1862) was thirty years of age, Harrison Gray Otis Blake (1816—1898) a year older. After residing at Walden twenty-six months, Thoreau had left his retreat at the pond on September 6, 1847, six months before receiving this letter. While there he had written most of the manuscript for his first book, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, which would not see publication until May 1849, and had written a complete draft of his second and most famous book, Walden, which remained unpublished until August 1854. Those were the only two books he published during his lifetime. As he mentions in Letter 3, he was at this time living in the Emerson1household, where he kept Lidian Emerson (1802—1892) company and served as handyman while her husband Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803—1882) lectured in England. Forty-two years after writing this letter Blake remarked, "Perhaps the best definite service I ever performed for my fellow-men was, like our best services generally, the unintended one of simply recognizing Thoreau at a time when he was yet so little recognized, giving him, as he said, 'an opportunity to live,' making by my letters an occasion for his…” I have added the paragraph breaks to this letter.
1848 年3 月， 亨利. 大卫. 梭罗（1817—1862）30岁， 哈里森.G. O. 布莱克（1816—1898） 比梭罗大一岁。在瓦尔登湖畔居住了26 个月后，梭罗于1847 年9 月6 日离开了他在湖畔的隐居地，6 个月后收到了下面这封信。梭罗在湖畔写出了他的第一本书——《在康科德河和梅里马克河上的一周》——的大部分手稿，这本书直到1849 年5 月才出版，同时他还写完了《瓦尔登湖》的初稿，这是他的第二本书，也是最著名的一本，这本书直到1854 年8 月才出版。梭罗一生中只出版过这两本书。正如梭罗在第三封信中提到的，他当时住在爱默生家中，与莉迪安. 爱默生（1802—1892）作伴，同时做些家庭修补的杂事，而莉迪安的丈夫拉尔夫. 瓦尔多. 爱默生（1803—1882）正在英格兰讲学。写完这封信42 年后，布莱克说：“也许我曾为同胞提供的最好的确切无疑的服务，如同一般意义上我们最好的服务，就是无意中在梭罗还不为人知时承认了他，如他所说，给了他‘生存的机会’，通过我的信，为他提供了一个机会……”我已经给这封信划分了段落。
It [Thoreau's essay "Aulus Persius Flaccus"] has revived in me a haunting impression of you, which I carried away from some spoken words of yours…
它（梭罗的文章《佩尔西乌斯》）让我对你的印象又复苏了，这种印象一直萦绕在我心中，它来自你说过的几句话……
When I was last in Concord, you spoke of retiring farther from our civilization. I asked you if you would feel no longings for the society of your friends. Your reply was in substance, "No, I am nothing."
我上次在康科德时，你谈到要进一步远离我们的文明。我问你会不会思念你的一帮朋友。你的回答大体意思是：“不，我无足轻重。”
That reply was memorable to me. It indicated a depth of resources, a completeness of renunciation, a poise and repose in the universe, which to me is almost inconceivable; which in you seemed domesticated, and to which I look up with veneration. I would know of that soul which can say "I am nothing." I would be roused by its words to a truer and purer life.
这个回答令我难忘。它显示了一种深刻的思想，一种彻底的摈弃自我的精神，以及一种融入自然的泰然自若和安宁，这对我来说几乎是不可想象的，然而在你身上却自然地流露出来，这种品质令我崇敬。我希望了解这个能够说“我无足轻重”的灵魂。这个灵魂的话会使我觉醒，将我引向一种更真实、更纯洁的生活。
Upon me seems to be dawning with new significance the idea that God is here; that we have but to bow before Him in profound submission at every moment, and He will fill our souls with his presence. In this opening of the soul to God, all duties seem to centre; what else have we to do? …
上帝在这里的观点，我似乎渐渐明白了其中的新意；只要我们时时刻刻无比虔诚地向上帝膜拜，他的存在将充满我们的灵魂。在向上帝敞开灵魂的过程中，所有责任似乎都汇聚于中心；除此之外，我们还要做什么呢？……
If I understand rightly the significance of your life, this is it: You would sunder yourself from society, from the spell of institutions, customs, conventionalities, that you may lead a fresh, simple life with God. Instead of breathing a new life into the old forms, you would have a new life without and within. There is something sublime to me in this attitude,—far as I may be from it myself…
如果我的理解正确，你人生的意义就在于：你将从社会中抽身而出，从机构、风俗和陈规陋习的束缚中解脱出来，于是你会与上帝为伴，过上一种清新、简单的生活。你不是要向旧的形式注入新的生活，而是要过上一种里里外外全新的生活。在我看来，这种态度里包含着某些崇高的东西——尽管我自己可能离它很远……
Speak to me in this hour as you are prompted…
如果此刻你有所参悟，请对我说……
I honor you because you abstain from action, and open your soul that you may be somewhat. Amid a world of noisy, shallow actors it is noble to stand aside and say, "I will simply be." Could I plant myself at once upon the truth, reducing my wants to their minimum, … I should at once be brought nearer to nature, nearer to my fellow-men,—and life would be infinitely richer. But, alas! I shiver on the brink…
我尊敬你，因为你选择无为，并敞开了你的灵魂，从而得以存在。在这个充满了聒噪的、肤浅的演员的世界里，能站到一边并且说“我只想存在”，这是高尚的。如果我能立刻将自己植根于真理之中，将需求减到最少……我立刻就会更接近自然，更接近我的同胞——而生活将会变得无限充实。但是，哎呀！我在真理的边缘颤抖……
(1)爱默生（1803—1882），美国散文 作 家、 思 想家、诗人。letter two第二封信
March 27, 1848, Monday; Concord, Massachusetts
1848 年3 月27 日，星期一；马萨诸塞州康科德
Concord, March 27, 1848.
1848 年3 月27 日于康科德
I am glad to hear that any words of mine, though spoken so long ago that I can hardly claim identity with their author, have reached you. It gives me pleasure, because I have therefore reason to suppose that I have uttered what concerns men, and that it is not in vain that man speaks to man. This is the value of literature. Yet those days are so distant, in every sense, that I have had to look at that page again, to learn what was the tenor of my thoughts then. I should value that article, however, if only because it was the occasion of your letter.
听说我的一些话对你产生了影响，我感到很高兴, 虽然这些话是很久之前说的，我几乎不敢宣称它们出自我的口中。我感到高兴是因为这样我就有理由相信，我说出过一些人们关注的东西，而且人与人之间的对话也不是徒劳的。这就是文学的价值。然而不管怎么说，那些日子太遥远了，我不得不重新翻开那一页，才能了解我当时大概的想法。但是，仅仅因为那篇文章是你写信的契机，我也应该重视它。
I do believe that the outward and the inward life correspond; that if any should succeed to live a higher life, others would not know of it; that difference and distance are one. To set about living a true life is to go [on] a journey to a distant country, gradually to find ourselves surrounded by new scenes and men; and as long as the old are around me, I know that I am not in any true sense living a new or a better life. The outward is only the outside of that which is within. Men are not concealed under habits, but are revealed by them; they are their true clothes. I care not how curious a reason they may give for their abiding by them. Circumstances are not rigid and unyielding, but our habits are rigid. We are apt to speak vaguely sometimes, as if a divine life were to be grafted on to or built over this present as a suitable foundation. This might do if we could so build over our old life as to exclude from it all the warmth of our affection, and addle it, as the thrush builds over the cuckoo's egg, and lays her own atop, and hatches that only; but the fact is, we—so there is the partition—hatch them both, and the cuckoo's always by a day first, and that young bird crowds the young thrushes out of the nest. No. Destroy the cuckoo's egg, or build a new nest.
外部生活和内心生活是一致的，对此我确信无疑；如果有人会成功地过上一种更高境界的生活，其他人是无从得知的；差别和距离是同一的。开始过一种真正的生活，就是要踏上一段通往遥远国度的征程，渐渐地，我们会发现四周都是新的景致和陌生的人；只要旧事物还围绕在我身边，我就知道我并没有真正过上一种崭新的或更好的生活。外部生活只是内部生活的外显。人类本性不是隐藏于习惯下面，而是被习惯透露出来；习惯是人类真实的外衣。至于人们用何等稀奇的理由来解释他们为何遵守习惯，我并不关心。环境不是一成不变的，但我们的习惯是顽固的。我们有时容易说话含糊，似乎一种神圣的生活要嫁接到或建立在这个当前的状态上，而这个当前的状态是一个合适的基础。如果我们这样利用旧生活，这可能行得通：从旧生活中剔除我们情感中的所有温暖，然后使它腐坏，就像画眉鸟把巢建在杜鹃蛋上，把自己的蛋产在上面，然后只孵上面的蛋；但事实上，我们同时孵了两个蛋——这就是区别，而杜鹃的总是早一日孵出来，那只孵出的小杜鹃将那些小画眉挤到巢外。这是不行的，要么破坏杜鹃的蛋，要么重筑一个新巢。
Change is change. No new life occupies the old bodies;—they decay. It is born, and grows, and flourishes. Men very pathetically inform the old, accept and wear it. Why put it up with the almshouse when you may go to heaven? It is embalming,—no more. Let alone your ointments and your linen swathes, and go into an infant's body. You see in the catacombs of Egypt the result of that experiment,—that is the end of it.
改变就是改变。新生活不会占据旧躯壳；——因为旧躯壳会腐烂。新生活要新生，要成长，要繁荣。十分可悲的是，人们熟悉旧生活，欣然接受它并且保持它。如果可以去往天堂，为什么要忍受济贫院呢？这只是防止躯体腐烂——再无其他。更别提放下你的药膏和亚麻布绷带，进入一个新生儿的躯体。你在埃及的地下墓穴里看到了那个试验的结果——那就是它的终结。
I do believe in simplicity. It is astonishing as well as sad, how many trivial affairs even the wisest man thinks he must attend to in a day; how singular an affair he thinks he must omit. When the mathematician would solve a difficult problem, he first frees the equation of all encumbrances, and reduces it to its simplest terms. So simplify the problem of life, distinguish the necessary and the real. Probe the earth to see where your main roots run. I would stand upon facts. Why not see,—use our eyes? Do men know nothing? I know many men who, in common things, are not to be deceived; who trust no moonshine; who count their money correctly, and know how to invest it; who are said to be prudent and knowing, who yet will stand at a desk the greater part of their lives, as cashiers in banks, and glimmer and rust and finally go out there. If they know anything, what under the sun do they do that for? Do they know what bread is? or what it is for? Do they know what life is? If they knew something, the places which know them now would know them no more forever.
我确实崇尚简单。即使是最聪明的人，也认为他在一天内必须处理那么多琐碎的事情；他还觉得必须省略一件杂事是不可思议的，这真让人既难过又吃惊。而数学家解决一道难题时，他会首先为方程式除去所有障碍，把它化为最简单的形式。因此，生活中的问题要简单化，要分清必要的和真实的东西。要深入地下，看看你的主根到底伸向何处。我将立足于事实。为什么不去看——用我们自己的眼睛去看呢？人类真的一无所知吗？我认识许多这样的人，他们在日常的事情上，不会受到欺骗；他们不相信空谈；他们精确地计算钱财，知道如何投资；人们说他们审慎、博学，但是他们生命的大部分时光仍然是站在桌旁，像银行的出纳员一样，发微光，生锈，最后离开。如果他们真的知道4 4一点什么，到底为什么还要那样做？他们知道面包4 4是什么吗？或面包是用来干什么的？他们知道生命是什么吗？如果他们知道4 4什么，那么他们应该知道现在认识他们的地方并非会永远认识他们。
This, our respectable daily life, in which the man of common sense, the Englishman of the world, stands so squarely, and on which our institutions are founded, is in fact the veriest illusion, and will vanish like the baseless fabric of a vision; but that faint glimmer of reality which sometimes illuminates the darkness of daylight for all men, reveals something more solid and enduring than adamant, which is in fact the corner-stone of the world.
有常识的人们，世界上的英国人，都规规矩矩地过着这样一种体面的日常生活，我们的社会制度也是以这种生活为基础，但是它其实是十足的假象，会像虚无缥缈的幻景一样消散；但是那缕现实的微光，有时会为大家照亮白天的黑暗，揭示出一些比硬石还要坚固、持久的东西，事实上这才是世界的基石。
Men cannot conceive of a state of things so fair that it cannot be realized. Can any man honestly consult his experience and say that it is so? Have we any facts to appeal to when we say that our dreams are premature? Did you ever hear of a man who had striven all his life faithfully and singly toward an object and in no measure obtained it? If a man constantly aspires, is he not elevated? Did ever a man try heroism, magnanimity, truth, sincerity, and find that there was no advantage in them? that it was a vain endeavor? Of course we do not expect that our paradise will be a garden. We know not what we ask. To look at literature;—how many fine thoughts has every man had! how few fine thoughts are expressed! Yet we never have a fantasy so subtile and ethereal, but that talent merely, with more resolution and faithful persistency, after a thousand failures, might fix and engrave it in distinct and enduring words, and we should see that our dreams are the solidest facts that we know. But I speak not of dreams.
事物的状态凡是人们能想象出来的，没有不能实现的。是否有人能诚实地比照自己的经历，说确实如此呢？当我们说我们的梦想不够成熟时，我们有任何事实根据吗？你听说过有人一生都忠诚和单独地向着某个目标努力，而始终不能成功的吗？如果一个人不断地追求，他能不提高吗？有没有人一直保持真诚宽宏大量，并且践行英雄主义、追求真理，最后却发现这些没有任何益处？这一切都是徒劳？当然我们并不期望我们的天堂是一个花园。我们不知道自己所求的是什么。看看文学吧——每个人的好想法如此之多！但是表达出来的却如此之少！但是我们的幻想从来不会如此微妙、缥缈，然而只有天才，再加上更大的决心和不懈的坚持，在历经千百次的失败后，才能将它用清晰的、连贯的词汇雕琢成型并表达出来，而且我们应该明白，梦想是我们知道的最可靠的事实。但是我要谈的不是梦想。
What can be expressed in words can be expressed in life.
文字能表达的东西，生活也能表达。
My actual life is a fact in view of which I have no occasion to congratulate myself, but for my faith and aspiration I have respect. It is from these that I speak. Every man's position is in fact too simple to be described. I have sworn no oath. I have no designs on society—or nature—or God. I am simply what I am, or I begin to be that. I live in the present. I only remember the past—and anticipate the future. I love to live, I love reform better than its modes. There is no history of how bad became better. I believe something, and there is nothing else but that. I know that I am—I know that another is who knows more than I who takes interest in me, whose creature and yet whose kindred, in one sense, am I. I know that the enterprise is worthy—I know that things work well. I have heard no bad news.
我的实际生活是一个平凡的事实，倘若没有我所敬重的信念和追求，我就没有理由自豪。我尊重生活。我正是从这些出发来谈的。每个人的立场事实上都简单得不用描述。我不曾立誓；对社会、自然或上帝也没有任何企图；我就是我，或者说我开始成为我；我生活在现在；只是记得过去，并且期待未来；我热爱生活，热爱改革胜过它的方式。历史上还没有坏东西能变好的先例。我相信某些事，除此之外再不相信其他。我知道我是谁——我还知道另外一位是谁，他比我还了解我，对我感兴趣，但从某种意义来说，他的产物，他的血亲，是我。我知道这项事业是高尚的，我也知道万事都会顺利。我还没有听到不好的消息。
As for positions—as for combinations and details—what are they? In clear weather when we look into the heavens, what do we see, but the sky and the sun?
至于那些职位——至于组合和细节——它们是什么？天气晴朗的时候，如果我们仰望天空，除了天空和太阳，我们还会看到什么？
If you would convince a man that he does wrong do right. But do not care to convince him.—Men will believe what they see. Let them see.
如果你要使一个人承认他做错了，你就要做出正确的行为。但是不要试图说服他——人们都愿意相信他们亲眼所见的东西。让他们自己看吧。
Pursue, keep up with, circle round and round your life as a dog does his master's chaise. Do what you love. Know your own bone; gnaw at it, bury it, unearth it, and gnaw it still. Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life so. Aim above morality. Be not simply good—be good for something.—All fables indeed have their morals, but the innocent enjoy the story.
追求、跟上、环绕着你的生活和在你的生活周围，如同狗追赶主人的马车。做你爱做的事。认准属于你自己的骨头；啃它，埋掉它，再挖出来啃。不要过分顾及道德，否则你的大半生里都可能这样自欺欺人。让自己的目标高于道德，不要一味地善良——要有原则的善良——所有寓言都有自己的寓意，但是天真的人才能欣赏这个故事。
Let nothing come between you and the light. Respect men as brothers only. When you travel to the celestial city, carry no letter of introduction. When you knock ask to see God—none of the servants. In what concerns you much do not think that you have companions—know that you are alone in the world.
不要让任何东西挡在你和光明之间。把别人只当成兄弟一样来尊重。当你到天国的城市去旅行，不必带着介绍信。当你叩响天国之门要求见上帝——而不是上帝的仆人们时，在与你相关的事情上，不要认为你还有同伴——要知道你在这个世界是孑然一身的。
Thus I write at random. I need to see you, and I trust I shall, to correct my mistakes. Perhaps you have some oracles for me.
我写得比较随意。为改正我的错误，我需要见到你，我相信我会的。也许你能为我带来一些神谕。
Henry Thoreau.
亨利. 梭罗letter three第三封信
May 2, 1848, Tuesday; Concord, Massachusetts
1848 年5 月2 日，星期二；马萨诸塞州康科德
The quotation beginning this letter—"We must have our bread"—is the first clear indication that Thoreau often and perhaps usually wrote on topics of Blake's choosing. In other words, his letters should be understood as one side of what was actually a dialogue between the two men.
信的开头引用了“我们需要面包”，这第一次清楚地表明，梭罗经常也可能总是按照布莱克选择的话题写信。换句话说，他的信应该当成对话双方的一方来理解。
Concord, May 2, 1848.
1848 年5 月2 日于康科德
"We must have our bread." But what is our bread? Is it baker's bread? Methinks it should be very home-made bread. What is our meat? Is it butcher's meat? What is that which we must have? Is that bread which we are now earning sweet? Is it not bread which has been suffered to sour, and then been sweetened with an alkali, which has undergone the vinous, acetous, and sometimes the putrid fermentation, and then been whitened with vitriol? Is this the bread which we must have? Man must earn his bread by the sweat of his brow, truly, but also by the sweat of his brain within his brow. The body can feed the body only. I have tasted but little bread in my life. It has been mere grub and provender for the most part. Of bread that nourished the brain and the heart, scarcely any. There is absolutely none even on the tables of the rich.“我们需要面包。”但什么是我们的面包呢？是面包房里的面包吗？我觉得应该就是家里自制的面包。什么是我们的肉？是肉铺里的肉吗？什么是我们必需的？我们现在通过劳动挣来的面包香甜吗？有的面包变质变酸，放入碱后却有了甜味，再经过酒精发酵、醋酸发酵，有时甚至是腐化发酵，然后放入明矾使之变白，不是这样的面包吗？这是我们必需的面包吗？的确，人类必须挥洒额头的汗水来挣自己的面包，但也要通过额头里面大脑的努力来挣面包。身体只能喂养身体。我一生中几乎没有品尝过面包。大多数面包不过是果腹的食物，滋养大脑和心灵的面包则极其罕见，即使在富人的餐桌上也绝对没有。
There is not one kind of food for all men. You must and you will feed those faculties which you exercise. The laborer whose body is weary does not require the same food with the scholar whose brain is weary. Men should not labor foolishly like brutes, but the brain and the body should always, or as much as possible, work and rest together, and then the work will be of such a kind that when the body is hungry the brain will be hungry also, and the same food will suffice for both; otherwise the food which repairs the waste energy of the overwrought body will oppress the sedentary brain, and the degenerate scholar will come to esteem all food vulgar, and all getting a living drudgery.
没有一种食物适合所有人。你必须并且势必喂养那些你使用的器官。筋疲力尽的体力劳动者与耗尽脑力的学者需要的食物是不同的。人类不应该像野兽那样愚蠢地劳动，应该让大脑和身体总是或尽可能地同时工作，同时休息，这样，当身体饥饿时，大脑也会饥饿，而相同的食物将满足两者的需要；否则，身体疲累后，为身体补充能量的食物会压迫习惯于案头工作的大脑，而体能退化的学者会认为所有食物都是粗糙的，一切谋生手段都是苦差事。
How shall we earn our bread is a grave question; yet it is a sweet and inviting question. Let us not shirk it, as is usually done. It is the most important and practical question which is put to man. Let us not answer it hastily. Let us not be content to get our bread in some gross, careless, and hasty manner. Some men go a-hunting, some a-fishing, some a-gaming, some to war; but none have so pleasant a time as they who in earnest seek to earn their bread. It is true actually as it is true really; it is true materially as it is true spiritually, that they who seek honestly and sincerely, with all their hearts and lives and strength, to earn their bread, do earn it, and it is sure to be very sweet to them. Avery little bread,—a very few crumbs are enough, if it be of the right quality, for it is infinitely nutritious. Let each man, then, earn at least a crumb of bread for his body before he dies, and know the taste of it,—that it is identical with the bread of life1, and that they both go down at one swallow.
我们应该如何挣得面包，这是一个重大的问题，但也是一个令人愉快且引人入胜的问题。我们不要像往常那样逃避它。它是人类面对的最重要、最实际的问题。对这个问题，我们不要草率作答。我们不要满足于以某种粗俗、粗心、草率的方式获得面包。有人打猎，有人捕鱼，有人赌博，有人打仗；但他们的快乐程度都比不上认真挣取面包的人。通过诚挚的方式，全心全意、不遗余力地挣取面包的人，一定能获得面包，面包对他们来说也必定格外香甜。从真实的角度和实际的角度来说，这是毋庸置疑的，从物质的角度和精神的角度来说，这也是毋庸置疑的。一小块面包——少许面包屑就足够了，如果质量是上好的，因为好面包将提供无穷的营养。那就请每个人在去世之前，为他的身体至少挣得一片面包，然后品尝面包的味道——它与生命的面包是相同的，而且两种面包都是一口就能咽下去。
Our bread need not ever be sour or hard to digest. What Nature is to the mind she is also to the body. As she feeds my imagination, she will feed my body; for what she says she means, and is ready to do. She is not simply beautiful to the poet's eye. Not only the rainbow and sunset are beautiful, but to be fed and clothed, sheltered and warmed aright, are equally beautiful and inspiring. There is not necessarily any gross and ugly fact which may not be eradicated from the life of man. We should endeavor practically in our lives to correct all the defects which our imagination detects. The heavens are as deep as our aspirations are high. So high as a tree aspires to grow, so high it will find an atmosphere suited to it. Every man should stand for a force which is perfectly irresistible. How can any man be weak who dares to be at all? Even the tenderest plants force their way up through the hardest earth, and the crevices of rocks; but a man no material power can resist. What a wedge, what a beetle, what a catapult, is an earnest man! What can resist him?
我们的面包从来都不必是酸的或者是难以消化的。大自然中有益心灵的也有益于身体。她滋养了我的想象力的同时，也将滋养我的身体；因为大自然向来说话算话，并且随时准备付诸行动。大自然不仅仅有诗人眼中的美丽。彩虹和落日固然是美丽的，而人类得到食物、衣服、住所和温暖，也同样是美好的、令人欢欣鼓舞的。在人类的生命中未必有根除不了的粗俗和丑陋。我们要在生活中实事求是地努力弥补想象力察觉到的一切缺陷。天空是高远的，而我们的抱负是远大的。无论一颗树渴望长到多高，它总会在那个高度找到适合自己生长的环境。每个人都应该代表一种完全不可抗拒的力量。敢于存在4 4的人怎么可能软弱呢？即使是最娇嫩的植物都能冲破最坚硬的土壤和岩石的缝隙向上生长，人类更是任何物质力量都不能阻挡的。一个认真的人，就是一根楔子、一把大槌、一支弹弓！有什么能阻挡他呢？
It is a momentous fact that a man may be good, or he may be bad; his life may be true, or it may be false; it may be either a shame or a glory to him. The good man builds himself up; the bad man destroys himself.
一个人可能是好人，也可能是坏人；他的生活可能是真实的，也可能是虚假的；对他来说生活可能是一种耻辱，也可能是一种荣耀；这是一个重要的事实。好人会逐步完善自我；坏人则逐渐毁灭自我。
But whatever we do we must do confidently (if we are timid, let us, then, act timidly), not expecting more 1ight, but having light enough. If we confidently expect more, then let us wait for it. But what is this which we have? Have we not already waited? Is this the beginning of time? Is there a man who does not see clearly beyond, though only a hair's breadth beyond where he at any time stands?
但是，不管做什么，我们都要充满信心地去做（如果我们胆小，我们就按照胆小的方式去做），不期待更多的光明，但已经拥有足够的光明。如果我们充满信心地期待更多，那就让我们耐心地等待。但是我们现在拥有的是什么呢？我们不是已经等待过了吗？这是时间的开始吗？会有人无法看清前方吗，即使前方距离他站立的地方仅一寸之遥？
If one hesitates in his path, let him not proceed. Let him respect his doubts, for doubts, too, may have some divinity in them. That we have but little faith is not sad, but that we have but little faithfulness. By faithfulness faith is earned. When, in the progress of a life, a man swerves, though only by an angle infinitely small, from his proper and allotted path (and this is never done quite unconsciously even at first; in fact, that was his broad and scarlet sin2,—ah, he knew of it more than he can tell), then the drama of his life turns to tragedy, and makes haste to its fifth act3. When once we thus fall behind ourselves, there is no accounting for the obstacles which rise up in our path, and no one is so wise as to advise, and no one so powerful as to aid us while we abide on that ground. Such are cursed with duties, and the neglect of their duties. For such the decalogue was made, and other far more voluminous and terrible codes.
如果一个人在路上犹豫不决，那就让他停止不前吧。让他尊重自己的疑惑，因为疑惑本身也可能包含着神性。只有一点点信念并不可悲，可悲的是对我们的信念只有一点点的忠诚。通过忠诚，我们获得信念。在生命的旅程中，如果一个人偏离了正确的预定的道路，即使偏离的角度微乎其微（而且即使在最初，这也绝不是在无意中发生的；事实上，这是他又大又红的罪恶——啊，他心里明白，但说不出来），那么他人生这出戏将变成悲剧，匆匆忙忙走向第五幕。一旦我们因此落后于自己，我们将会在途中碰到闻所未闻的障碍，在那条路上彷徨时，没有人拥有足够的智慧向我们提出忠告，没有人拥有足够的力量帮助我们。这些是责任的诅咒，因为他们忽视了自己的责任。因此才出现了十诫和其他更加复杂更加可怕的法典。
These departures,—who have not made them?—for they are as faint as the parallax of a fixed star, and at the commencement we say they are nothing,—that is, they originate in a kind of sleep and forget fullness of the soul when it is naught. A man cannot be too circumspect in order to keep in the straight road, and be sure that he sees all that he may at any time see, that so he may distinguish his true path.
这些偏离——谁没有经历过呢？——因为它们像恒星视差一样微小，开始时我们说它们什么都不是，换句话说，它们从虚无中产生于灵魂的一种休眠和遗忘状态。人要慎之又慎才不会偏离正道，一定要高瞻远瞩，这样才能认清自己真正的道路。
You ask if there is no doctrine of sorrow in my philosophy. Of acute sorrow I suppose that I know comparatively little. My saddest and most genuine sorrows are apt to be but transient regrets. The place of sorrow is supplied, perchance, by a certain hard and proportionately barren indifference. I am of kin to the sod, and partake largely of its dull patience,—in winter expecting the sun of spring. In my cheapest moments I am apt to think that it is not my business to be "seeking thespirit,"4but as much its business to be seeking me. I know very well what Goethe meant when he said that he never had a chagrin but he made a poem out of it. I have altogether too much patience of this kind. I am too easily contented with a slight and almost animal happiness. My happiness is a good deal like that of the woodchucks.
你问我，在我的哲学信条中是不是没有“悲伤”二字。对于极度悲伤，我想我还没怎么体验过。发自肺腑的最真最深切的悲痛在我这里往往化为转瞬即逝的遗憾。或许悲伤的空间已被某种坚实而荒凉的冷漠填满。我和草地是近亲，所以在很大程度上具有草地固执的耐性——在冬天期盼春天的太阳。在我最怠惰的时刻，我会想与其由我来“寻找神灵”，不如由神灵来寻找我。歌德说他从来没有懊恼，但他用懊恼来写诗，我非常明白他的意思。这样的耐性我有很多。我很容易满足于微小的快乐，几乎像动物一样容易满足。我的幸福很像土拨鼠的幸福。
Methinks I am never quite committed, never wholly the creature of my moods, being always to some extent their critic. My only integral experience is in my vision. I see, perchance, with more integrity than I feel.
我认为自己从未沉迷于某物，也从来不是一个完全情绪化的人，在某种程度上，我总是情绪的批评者。我唯一完整的体验是我的视野。或许，我的所见比我的所感更为完整。
But I need not tell you what manner of man I am,—my virtues or my vices. You can guess if it is worth the while; and I do not discriminate them well.
但我不必告诉你我的为人——我的美德或陋习。如果值得这样做，你可以揣测；而我也不能很好地分清自己的优缺点。
I do not write this time at my hut in the woods. I am at present living with Mrs. Emerson, whose house is an old home of mine, for company during Mr. Emerson's absence.
此刻我没有在林中的小屋里写信。目前，我和爱默生夫人住在一起，她的房子是我的老家，爱默生先生外出时我就在这里陪伴他的夫人。
You will perceive that I am as often talking to myself, perhaps, as speaking to you.
你会发现在和你交谈，我也许也是在与自己交谈。
(1)《圣经. 约翰福音》第6 章第35节：“耶稣说，我就是生命的面包。到我这里来的，必定不饿。信我的，永远不渴。”
(2)《圣经. 以赛亚书》第1 章第18节：“耶和华说，你们来，我们彼此辩论。你们的罪虽像朱红，必变成雪白。虽红如丹颜，必白如羊毛。”
(3)著名的西方戏剧（ 古希腊戏剧，文艺复兴时期的戏剧以及新古典主义戏剧）大多数有五幕。
(4)这句话用了圣经上的典故，例如《圣经. 歌罗西书》第3 章第1节：“所以你们若真与基督一同复活，就当求在上面的事。那里有基督坐在神的右边。”letter four第四封信
April 17, 1849, Tuesday; Concord, Massachusetts
1849 年4 月17 日，星期二；马萨诸塞州康科德
During the preceding five months Thoreau had on six occasions delivered one or another of his three Walden lectures in Portland, Maine, and in the Massachusetts towns of Concord, Lincoln, Salem, and Gloucester. Blake had probably arranged for him to deliver all three Walden lectures in Worcester on three successive Friday evenings at 7:30 p.m., the first in City Hall on April 20, the other two in Brinley Hall on April 27 and May 3. The previous month Thoreau contracted with James Munroe and Company of Boston to publish A Week at his own expense, with Walden to be published shortly afterward. He had also agreed to write up his February 1848 lecture on "Resistance to Civil Government" (later retitled "Civil Disobedience") for publication in May. So during this time he was extremely busy preparing his manuscripts and correcting proofs. His older sister Helen was also struggling through a final bout with tuberculosis at this time. She succumbed to the disease on June 14 . Thoreau rode the Fitchburg Railroad fifteen miles northwest to Groton, Massachusetts, where he changed to the Worcester & Nashua Railroad. The mention of Emerson is explained by the fact that Emerson traveled extensively as a professional lecturer and was therefore very familiar with railroad schedules and routes.
梭罗就《瓦尔登湖》写过三篇讲稿，在之前的五个月里，他用这三篇讲稿中的某一篇分别在六个地点做了演讲，这些地点分别是缅因州的波特兰，马萨诸塞州的康科德、林肯、塞勒姆和格洛斯特。布莱克可能帮他安排了在伍斯特演讲这三篇讲稿，时间是连续三个星期五晚上的7 点30 分，第一场是4 月20 日，地点是市政厅，另外两场在布林利大厅，时间分别是4 月27 日和5 月3 日。上个月，梭罗和詹姆斯. 芒罗以及波士顿的出版公司签约，自费出版《在康科德河和梅里河上的一周》，《瓦尔登湖》也将于此后不久出版。他还同意把他1848 年2 月的演讲《抵制国民政府》（后来改名为《论公民的不服从权利》）撰写成文，准备5 月出版。所以这段时间，梭罗在准备手稿和改正校样，非常繁忙。他的姐姐海伦这段时间也正与肺结核作最后的较量，最终还是于6 月14 日病逝。梭罗沿着菲奇堡铁路公司的铁路线向西北行进了15 英里，到达马萨诸塞州的格罗顿，然后转到伍斯特和纳舒厄铁路线。信中他提到了爱默生，是因为作为专业演讲人，爱默生经常旅行，因此非常熟悉列车时刻表和路线。
Concord Apr. 17th 1849
1849 年4 月17 日于康科德
Dear Sir,
亲爱的先生：
It is my intention to leave Concord for Worcester, via Groton, at 12 o'clock on Friday of this week. Mr. Emerson tells me that it will take about two hours to go by this way. At any rate I shall try to secure 3 or 4 hours in which to see you & Worcester before the lecture.
我打算本周五12 点离开康科德去伍斯特，途经格罗顿。爱默生先生告诉我走这条路大约需要两个小时。无论如何，我会尽力在演讲前留出三四个小时去看你和伍斯特。
Yrs in hasteHenry D. Thoreau
匆忙敬上亨利.D. 梭罗letter five第五封信
August 10, 1849, Friday; Concord, Massachusetts
1849 年8 月10 日，星期五；马萨诸塞州康科德
After sending off his corrected proofs of A Week, which had been published at the end of May, Thoreau had returned with redoubled energy to his manuscript of Walden, whose publication had been announced on a page at the end of A Week. But the commercial failure of A Week, perhaps not yet apparent in early August, was to delay Walden's appearance until August 1854.《在康科德河和梅里马克河上的一周》已于5 月末出版，梭罗寄出这本书修改校样的定稿后，以加倍的精力投入到《瓦尔登湖》的写作中，这本书出版的消息已经在《在康科德河和梅里马克河上的一周》的最后一页发布。不过《在康科德河和梅里马克河上的一周》在商业上的失败，在8 月上旬可能还不甚明显，但是后来却导致《瓦尔登湖》的出版延迟到了1854 年8 月。
Concord, August 10, 1849
1849 年8 月10 日于康科德
Mr. Blake,—
布莱克先生：
I write now chiefly to say, before it is too late, that I shall be glad to see you in Concord, and will give you a chamber, etc., in my father's house, and as much of my poor company as you can bear.
我写信主要是想尽早告诉你，如果能在康科德看到你，我会非常高兴，也能为你提供一间我父亲家的房屋，以及其他必需品，如果你乐意，我也愿意陪伴你。
I am in too great haste this time to speak to your, or out of my, condition. I might say,—you might say,—comparatively speaking, be not anxious to avoid poverty. In this way the wealth of the universe may be securely invested. What a pity if we do not live this short time according to the laws of the long time,—the eternal laws! Let us see that we stand erect here, and do not lie along by our whole length in the dirt. Let our meanness be our footstool, not our cushion. In the midst of this labyrinth let us live a thread1of life. We must act with so rapid and resistless a purpose in one direction, that our vices will necessarily trail behind. The nucleus of a comet is almost a star. Was there ever a genuine dilemma? The laws of earth are for the feet, or inferior man; the laws of heaven are for the head, or superior man; the latter are the former sublimed and expanded, even as radii from the earth's centre go on diverging into space. Happy the man who observes the heavenly and the terrestrial law in just proportion; whose every faculty, from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head, obeys the law of its level; who neither stoops nor goes on tiptoe, but lives a balanced life, acceptable to nature and to God.
这次我迫切地想谈谈你的处境，也是我的处境。我可能会说——你也可能会说——相对来说，不要急着逃避贫穷。这样，宇宙的财富才可能安全地授予我们。如果我们在短暂的一生中，不按照长久的法则——永恒的法则来生活，会多么令人遗憾！让我们看着自己笔直地站立在这里，而不是整个身体躺于泥土中。我们要把卑劣当脚凳，不要把它当坐垫。在这个迷宫中间，让我们保有一条生命之线。我们必须为如此不可抗拒的目标，疾速向着一个方向行动，这样我们的缺点必定会落在后面。一个彗核的核心几乎就是一颗恒星。曾经有过真正的难题吗？大地法则属于脚，或者说低等人；天堂法则属于头，或者说上等人；后者是前者的升华和扩张，就算地球半径从地心继续朝太空偏离也不会改变。按照合适的比例遵循大地法则和天堂法则，这样的人是幸福的；他们身上的每一个器官，从脚掌到头顶，都遵循着其所在层次的法则；他们不俯首，也不踮脚，而是过着平衡的生活，为自然和上帝所接受。
These things I say; other things I do.
这些事情是我要说的；其他事情是我要做的。
I am sorry to hear that you did not receive my book2earlier. I addressed it and left it in Munroe's shop to be sent to you immediately, on the twenty-sixth of May, before a copy had been sold.
听说你没有及早地收到我的书，我对此很抱歉。我在书上写好了姓名和地址，于5 月26 日把它留在了芒罗的店里，想在卖出第一本书之前尽快寄给你。
Will you remember me to Mr. Brown3, when you see him next: he is well remembered by
你下次见到布朗先生的时候，请代我向他问好。想他的：
Henry Thoreau.
亨利. 梭罗
I still owe you a worthy answer.
我还欠你一个有价值的答案。
(1)生命之线，古希腊神话中，在一次献祭中，雅典人忒修斯主动与受害人一起进入克里特国王弥诺斯建造的迷宫，他想杀死里面半人半牛的恶兽弥诺陶洛斯，停止雅典人要向他献上少男少女这样的供奉。弥诺斯的女儿阿里阿德涅爱上了忒修斯，送给他一个线团，忒修斯把线头系在宫门上，边往迷宫深处走，边放开线团，杀死弥诺陶洛斯后，他沿着线安全地走出了迷宫。
(2)梭罗的第一本书《在康科德河和梅里马克河上的一周》（A Weekon the Concord andMerrimcok Rivers）于1849 年5 月30 日正式出版，不过正如他提到的，他于5 月26日来到出版商詹姆斯. 芒罗出版公司位于波士顿的办事处，取走作者的样书并且寄了几本给朋友。
(3)布朗（1811—1879），是美国的一个裁缝，出生在马萨诸塞州的雷霍博特，1828 年搬到伍斯特，加入他兄弟的裁缝公司。他们在市中心的店铺成为市里知识分子集会的地方。letter six第六封信
November 20, 1849, Tuesday; Concord, Massachusetts
1849 年11 月20 日，星期二；马萨诸塞州康科德
This fall and winter was an incredibly busy and important time for Thoreau. As he mentions in this letter, he had established a productive routine of reading and writing during mornings and evenings with along walk in the afternoon. But that routine must have been regularly disrupted as a consequence of the commercial failure of A Week, which by November was a settled fact and which left Thoreau with a debt of almost three hundred dollars—about a year's wages for the average working male at the time. To begin paying off his debt (it was not fully paid until late 1853) he worked long hours in his family's pencil factory and peddled finished pencils as well. Although he seriously considered speculating in cranberries, he dropped that scheme when he found that it would not pay. Instead, he announced his services as a professional surveyor. He had purchased surveying equipment years before, when teaching with his older brother John (1814—1842), in order to give his students a practical application of mathematics, and he had used the equipment while at Walden to produce a highly detailed survey of the pond. He had even done a small surveying job for Emerson in May 1849. But now he purchased a surveyor's handbook and took on two large surveying jobs, one of which lasted throughout the winter. The previous month he and William Ellery Channing (1817—1901) had gone on a five-day excursion to Cape Cod, and he immediately began drafting a lecture based on the trip, completing a draft by December. In September he had requested and received borrowing privileges at the Harvard College Library. He used those privileges to begin researching early New England history, in part to supplement his Cape Cod lectures. In 1843 he had conducted research on graphite, the principal ingredient used to make pencils, and had dramatically improved the graphite-grinding machinery in the family's mill. As a result of his ingenuity, the family business by 1849 had effected a transition from the manufacture of pencils to supplying powdered graphite to electrotypers, a transition which resulted in sufficient prosperity for the family to purchase a commodious house on Main Street in Concord. Although they purchased the house in November 1849, repairs and improvements delayed the move for a year. Finally, during this difficult period Thoreau's relationship with Emerson degenerated badly. Emerson had encouraged Thoreau to publish A Week at his own expense but had criticized the book after it was published. Naturally, Thoreau felt betrayed by his erstwhile mentor, and although they continued to be on fairly good terms, their friendship never fully recovered.
这个秋天和冬天对梭罗来说异常繁忙和重要。正如他在这封信里提到的，他养成了一种习惯，每天上午和晚上阅读和写作，下午则进行长时间的散步，一整天过得颇有成效。但是这样的习惯经常被迫中断，因为《在康科德河和梅里马克河上的一周》在商业上失败了，截至11 月，亏本已经成为事实，梭罗因此欠债将近300 美元——这是当时普通男性工人约一年的工资。为了还债（直到1853年末才还清），梭罗长时间在自家的铅笔厂里工作，同时还要售卖生产出的铅笔。虽然梭罗认真地考虑过做蔓越橘生意，但是后来放弃了这个想法，因为他发现并不能盈利。于是，他决定做一个专业测量员，并且开始招徕业务。几年以前，梭罗就买了测量仪器，当时梭罗和哥哥约翰（1814—1842）一起教书，为了让学生们将数学应用于实践中，就买了测量仪器，在瓦尔登湖时，他使用这些仪器非常细致地测量过这个湖。他甚至在1849 年5 月为爱默生做过一次小型的测量工作。但是现在他买了测量员手册，并且接手了两个大型的测量项目，其中一个贯穿了整个冬天。上个月他和威廉.E. 钱宁（1817—1901）到科德角进行了一次为期5 天的短途旅行，返回后，他立即开始以这次旅行为基础草拟演讲稿，并于12 月完成了草稿。9月他申请了哈佛学院图书馆的借阅特权，并得到了批准。然后他利用这一特权开始研究新英格兰早期历史，这样做的部分原因是为他的科德角讲稿补充材料。1843 年，他对制作铅笔的主要材料石墨进行了研究，结果极大地改善了家庭工厂里石墨的磨粉工艺。由于梭罗的创新，家族生意到1849 年时已从铅笔制造转变为向电铸版提供石墨粉，这一转变使家里富裕起来，从而能在康科德主街上买下一座宽敞的房子。虽然他们1849 年11 月就买下了房子，但是因为要装修整顿，他们一年后才搬进去。最后，在这段艰难的时期，梭罗和爱默生的关系剧烈恶化。爱默生曾鼓励梭罗自费出版《在康科德河和梅里马克河上的一周》，但此书出版后，爱默生却对它提出了批评。自然，梭罗觉得被自己过去的良师益友背叛，虽然他们的关系仍然相当好，但是他们的友谊再也
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