To the sick the doctors wisely recommend a change of air and scenery. —
对于病人，医生明智地建议换换空气和环境。 —

Thank Heaven, here is not all the world. —
感谢天堂，这里不是全世界。 —

The buckeye does not grow in New England, and the mockingbird is rarely heard here. —
美洲红栌不生长在新英格兰，凤冠鸟也很少在这里听到。 —

The wild goose is more of a cosmopolite than we; —
野雁比我们更具全球化特性； —

he breaks his fast in Canada, takes a luncheon in the Ohio, and plumes himself for the night in a southern bayou. —
它在加拿大吃早餐，在俄亥俄州吃午餐，在南部的湾泽整理羽毛准备过夜。 —

Even the bison, to some extent, keeps pace with the seasons cropping the pastures of the Colorado only till a greener and sweeter grass awaits him by the Yellowstone. —
即使是野牛也在一定程度上与季节保持步调，只有当黄石公园等地有更绿更甜的草时，它才会离开科罗拉多州的牧场。 —

Yet we think that if rail fences are pulled down, and stone walls piled up on our farms, bounds are henceforth set to our lives and our fates decided. —
然而我们认为，如果铁栏被拆毁，石墙在我们农场上堆起来，我们的生活将受到限制，我们的命运被决定了。 —

If you are chosen town clerk, forsooth, you cannot go to Tierra del Fuego this summer: —
如果你被选为镇上的文书，那么今年夏天你无法去火地岛： —

but you may go to the land of infernal fire nevertheless. —
但你却可以去地狱之地。 —

The universe is wider than our views of it.
宇宙比我们的视野更宽广。

Yet we should oftener look over the tafferel of our craft, like curious passengers, and not make the voyage like stupid sailors picking oakum. —
然而我们应该更经常像好奇的乘客一样俯视船尾，而不要像愚蠢的水手一样选择捡拾木屑来进行航行。 —

The other side of the globe is but the home of our correspondent. —
球的另一面只是我们通讯员的家。 —

Our voyaging is only great-circle sailing, and the doctors prescribe for diseases of the skin merely. —
我们的航行仅仅是大圆航行，医生只对皮肤疾病开药。 —

One hastens to southern Africa to chase the giraffe; —
有人匆匆去南非追逐长颈鹿； —

but surely that is not the game he would be after. —
但毋宁说那不是他本想追求的猎物。 —

How long, pray, would a man hunt giraffes if he could? —
如果有可能，一个人会猎捕长颈鹿有多久呢？ —

Snipes and woodcocks also may afford rare sport; —
野鹬和木䳭也可能提供罕见的运动； —

but I trust it would be nobler game to shoot one’s self.–
但我相信自杀会是更高尚的游戏。–

“Direct your eye right inward, and you’ll find
“直视内心，你会发现

A thousand regions in your mind
在你的心灵里有千千万万个未知的领域

Yet undiscovered. Travel them, and be
探索它们，成为

Expert in home-cosmography.”
家庭宇宙学的专家。”

What does Africa – what does the West stand for? Is not our own interior white on the chart? —
非洲代表着什么 – 西方代表着什么？我们的内心是否没有被涂白？ —

black though it may prove, like the coast, when discovered. —
虽然像海岸一样黑暗，被发现时。 —

Is it the source of the Nile, or the Niger, or the Mississippi, or a Northwest Passage around this continent, that we would find? —
我们会发现的是尼罗河，尼日尔河，密西西比河，还是绕过这块大陆的西北通道？ —

Are these the problems which most concern mankind? —
这些问题才是最关注人类的吗？ —

Is Franklin the only man who is lost, that his wife should be so earnest to find him? —
Franklin是唯一失踪的人吗，以至于他的妻子如此急于寻找他？ —

Does Mr. Grinnell know where he himself is? —
Grinnell先生知道自己在哪里吗？ —

Be rather the Mungo Park, the Lewis and Clark and Frobisher, of your own streams and oceans; —
成为你自己河流和海洋的蒙哥·帕克、刘易斯与克拉克和弗罗比舍吧； —

explore your own higher latitudes – with shiploads of preserved meats to support you, if they be necessary; —
探索你自己更高的纬度 – 带着装满保存好的食物的船只来支持你，假如有必要； —

and pile the empty cans sky-high for a sign. Were preserved meats invented to preserve meat merely? —
叠起空罐子直插云霄作标志。被发明的罐头肉只是为了保存肉吗？ —

Nay, be a Columbus to whole new continents and worlds within you, opening new channels, not of trade, but of thought. —
不，要成为你内心全新大陆和世界的哥伦布，开辟新的管道，不是贸易的，而是思想的。 —

Every man is the lord of a realm beside which the earthly empire of the Czar is but a petty state, a hummock left by the ice. —
每个人都是一个王国的主人，其规模甚至比沙皇统治的世俗帝国还要渺小，只是冰留下的一个小丘。 —

Yet some can be patriotic who have no self-respect, and sacrifice the greater to the less. —
然而有些人可能爱国，却没有自尊，牺牲大者为小者。 —

They love the soil which makes their graves, but have no sympathy with the spirit which may still animate their clay. —
他们热爱那片土地，那是他们安息的地方，但却对那可能仍然在他们土壤中活跃的精神没有共鸣。 —

Patriotism is a maggot in their heads. What was the meaning of that South-Sea Exploring Expedition, with all its parade and expense, but an indirect recognition of the fact that there are continents and seas in the moral world to which every man is an isthmus or an inlet, yet unexplored by him, but that it is easier to sail many thousand miles through cold and storm and cannibals, in a government ship, with five hundred men and boys to assist one, than it is to explore the private sea, the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean of one’s being alone.
爱国主义在他们的头脑中是一种蛆虫。那次南海探险是什么意义？那一切张扬和花费，不就是间接承认了这样一个事实：在道德世界中有大陆和海洋，每个人都是自己的地峡或海湾，但他们尚未探索，而单独探索内心的大海，大西洋和太平洋比乘坐一艘政府船，有五百人和男孩来帮忙，穿越上千英里的冷风和暴雨和食人族更容易。

“Erret, et extremos alter scrutetur Iberos.
“如果错了，让另一个人调查最遥远的伊比利亚。

Plus habet hic vitae, plus habet ille viae.”
他在人生上更多，他在旅途上更多。”

Let them wander and scrutinize the outlandish Australians.
让他们流浪，调查奇异的澳大利亚人。

I have more of God, they more of the road.
我有更多的上帝，他们有更多的道路。

It is not worth the while to go round the world to count the cats in Zanzibar. —
绕过世界去数梵蒂尼的猫也不值得。 —

Yet do this even till you can do better, and you may perhaps find some “Symmes’ Hole” by which to get at the inside at last. —
但一直这样做，直到你能做得更好，你或许会发现类似“辛斯之洞”的东西，最终找到内心的归宿。 —

England and France, Spain and Portugal, Gold Coast and Slave Coast, all front on this private sea; —
英格兰和法国，西班牙和葡萄牙，黄金海岸和奴隶海岸，都面朝私人大海； —

but no bark from them has ventured out of sight of land, though it is without doubt the direct way to India. If you would learn to speak all tongues and conform to the customs of all nations, if you would travel farther than all travellers, be naturalized in all climes, and cause the Sphinx to dash her head against a stone, even obey the precept of the old philosopher, and Explore thyself. —
但从他们中没有一只船冒出地平线，尽管这无疑是通往印度的直接路径。如果你想学会说所有语言，遵循所有国家的风俗，如果你想比所有旅行者都走得更远，在所有气候中都入乡随俗，让斯芬克斯撞头石板，甚至遵从古代哲学家的箴言，探索你自己。 —

Herein are demanded the eye and the nerve. —
在此需要眼光和胆量。 —

Only the defeated and deserters go to the wars, cowards that run away and enlist. —
只有被打败和叛逃的人会参加战争，胆怯者逃跑后才入伍。 —

Start now on that farthest western way, which does not pause at the Mississippi or the Pacific, nor conduct toward a wornout China or Japan, but leads on direct, a tangent to this sphere, summer and winter, day and night, sun down, moon down, and at last earth down too.
从现在开始走向最西边的道路，它不停留在密西西比或太平洋，也不通向疲惫的中国或日本，而是直接通向一个切线，夏天和冬天，白天和黑夜，太阳落下，月亮落下，最终地球也落下。

It is said that Mirabeau took to highway robbery “to ascertain what degree of resolution was necessary in order to place one’s self in formal opposition to the most sacred laws of society.” —
据说米拉波开始从事抢劫活动是为了“确定自己需要多大决心才能将自己形式上置于社会最神圣法律的反对之中”。 —

He declared that “a soldier who fights in the ranks does not require half so much courage as a footpad” – “that honor and religion have never stood in the way of a well-considered and a firm resolve.” —
他宣称“在战斗中排在阵列中的士兵并不需要像小偷一样勇敢”——“荣誉和宗教从未阻碍过一个经过深思熟虑并坚定决心的人”。 —

This was manly, as the world goes; and yet it was idle, if not desperate. —
在这个世界上，这是男子汉气的行为；但却是徒劳的，甚至绝望的。 —

A saner man would have found himself often enough “in formal opposition” to what are deemed “the most sacred laws of society,” through obedience to yet more sacred laws, and so have tested his resolution without going out of his way. —
一个更明智的人会经常发现自己与被视为“社会最神圣法律”形式上对立，因为他服从更神圣的法律，通过这种服从来测试自己的决心而不是刻意找麻烦。 —

It is not for a man to put himself in such an attitude to society, but to maintain himself in whatever attitude he find himself through obedience to the laws of his being, which will never be one of opposition to a just government, if he should chance to meet with such.
人不应该如此摆出对社会的对立姿态，而应该通过遵守自己存在的法则维持自己于任何可能遇到的状态之中，这绝不会是与一个公正政府对抗的状态。

I left the woods for as good a reason as I went there. —
我离开树林是有充分理由的。 —

Perhaps it seemed to me that I had several more lives to live, and could not spare any more time for that one. —
或许在我看来，我还有几条生命要过，不能再把更多时间花在同一个上。 —

It is remarkable how easily and insensibly we fall into a particular route, and make a beaten track for ourselves. —
令人惊讶的是，我们如此容易、潜移默化地走入特定的路线，为自己开辟出一条已经踏过的道路。 —

I had not lived there a week before my feet wore a path from my door to the pond-side; —
我在那里生活不到一个星期，我的脚就从我的门到池塘边走出了一条路来； —

and though it is five or six years since I trod it, it is still quite distinct. —
虽然我已经有五六年没走过那条路了，它依然清晰可见。 —

It is true, I fear, that others may have fallen into it, and so helped to keep it open. —
可能其他人也走过这条路，这有助于保持它开阔。 —

The surface of the earth is soft and impressible by the feet of men; —
地球的表面对人的脚印软而易被压印； —

and so with the paths which the mind travels. —
心灵所走的路径也是如此。 —

How worn and dusty, then, must be the highways of the world, how deep the ruts of tradition and conformity! —
世界的大道必然被用得磨损灰尘飞扬，传统与墨守成规深深车辙。 —

I did not wish to take a cabin passage, but rather to go before the mast and on the deck of the world, for there I could best see the moonlight amid the mountains. —
我并不想选择船舱通行，而是想站在风帆前，站在世界的甲板上，因为在那里我可以最好地看到山间月色。 —

I do not wish to go below now.
我现在不想下去。

I learned this, at least, by my experiment: —
至少通过我的实验，我学到了这一点： —

that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. —
如果一个人充满信心地朝着梦想前进，并努力过着他所想象的生活，他将会在意想不到的时机取得成功。 —

He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary; —
他会将一些事物抛在身后，越过一道无形的界线； —

new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; —
新的、普遍的、更加宽容的法则将开始在他周围和内心建立起来； —

or the old laws be expanded, and interpreted in his favor in a more liberal sense, and he will live with the license of a higher order of beings. —
或者旧有的法律将会以更加宽容的方式，以更加宽松的态度来解释，他将生活在更高级别生物的自由中； —

In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness. —
随着他简化生活，宇宙的法则会显得不再那么复杂，孤独不再是孤独，贫困不再是贫困，无助不再是无助。 —

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; —
如果你在空中建起了城堡，那么你的工作并不会被浪费； —

that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.
那就是它们应该存在的地方。现在在它们之下奠定基础。

It is a ridiculous demand which England and America make, that you shall speak so that they can understand you. —
英国和美国提出了一个荒谬的要求，要求你说话让他们听得懂。 —

Neither men nor toadstools grow so. As if that were important, and there were not enough to understand you without them. —
人类和毒菌都不会这样成长。仿佛那是很重要的一样，仿佛如果没有它们，就没有人能理解你。 —

As if Nature could support but one order of understandings, could not sustain birds as well as quadrupeds, flying as well as creeping things, and hush and whoa, which Bright can understand, were the best English. —
仿佛大自然只能支持一种理解秩序，只支持鸟类和四足动物，支持飞行和匍匐动物，只支持“搁一边”和“谨慎”，而这就是布赖特能理解的最好的英语。 —

As if there were safety in stupidity alone. —
像只有愚蠢才能保证安全一样。 —

I fear chiefly lest my expression may not be extravagant enough, may not wander far enough beyond the narrow limits of my daily experience, so as to be adequate to the truth of which I have been convinced. —
我最担心的是，我的表达可能不够夸张，可能没有足够远离我日常经验的狭窄限制，以至于无法充分表达我所确信的真理。 —

Extra vagance! it depends on how you are yarded. —
夸张！这取决于你是如何被限制的。 —

The migrating buffalo, which seeks new pastures in another latitude, is not extravagant like the cow which kicks over the pail, leaps the cowyard fence, and runs after her calf, in milking time. —
迁徙的水牛寻找着其他纬度的新草场，并不像奶牛那样任性，那样会踢翻桶子，跳过牛栏围栏，在挤奶时间追赶小牛。 —

I desire to speak somewhere without bounds; —
我渴望在某处无拘无束地说话； —

like a man in a waking moment, to men in their waking moments; —
就像一个醒着的人，对醒着的人说话； —

for I am convinced that I cannot exaggerate enough even to lay the foundation of a true expression. —
因为我相信，即使夸大也不足以奠定真实表达的基础。 —

Who that has heard a strain of music feared then lest he should speak extravagantly any more forever? —
谁听过一曲音乐的声音后，又会害怕自己再说夸张的话吗？ —

In view of the future or possible, we should live quite laxly and undefined in front, our outlines dim and misty on that side; —
面对未来或可能，我们应该在前方生活得很宽松和不明确，我们的轮廓朦胧模糊； —

as our shadows reveal an insensible perspiration toward the sun. —
就像我们的影子透露了一种对太阳的不可察觉的出汗。 —

The volatile truth of our words should continually betray the inadequacy of the residual statement. —
我们言辞表达的易变真理应不断暴露出余留陈述的不足。 —

Their truth is instantly translated; its literal monument alone remains. —
它们的真理即刻被诠释；只有它的文字纪念物留存。 —

The words which express our faith and piety are not definite; —
表达我们信仰和虔诚的言辞并不明确； —

yet they are significant and fragrant like frankincense to superior natures.
然而它们是显著且芬芳的，就像乳香对高尚的本性。

Why level downward to our dullest perception always, and praise that as common sense? —
为什么总是将水平拉低到我们最感知的感觉，并将其称之为常识？ —

The commonest sense is the sense of men asleep, which they express by snoring. —
最普通的感觉是沉睡者的感觉，他们通过鼾声表达。 —

Sometimes we are inclined to class those who are once-and-a-half-witted with the half-witted, because we appreciate only a third part of their wit. —
有时候，我们倾向于把那些一又半痴呆的人归类为半痴呆，因为我们只欣赏到了他们智慧的三分之一。 —

Some would find fault with the morning red, if they ever got up early enough. —
有些人会对晨曦的红色挑刺，如果他们早起的话。 —

“They pretend,” as I hear, “that the verses of Kabir have four different senses; —
“他们假装”，我听说，“卡比尔的诗有四个不同的意义； —

illusion, spirit, intellect, and the exoteric doctrine of the Vedas”; —
幻觉，精神，智力，和《吠陀》的宗教义理”； —

but in this part of the world it is considered a ground for complaint if a man’s writings admit of more than one interpretation. —
但在这个世界的这一部分，如果一个人的作品能够有不止一种解释，那会被认为是一个抱怨的理由。 —

While England endeavors to cure the potato-rot, will not any endeavor to cure the brain-rot, which prevails so much more widely and fatally?
当英格兰努力治愈马铃薯病害的时候，我们难道不应该努力去治愈大脑的腐烂，这种情况更为广泛且致命吗？

I do not suppose that I have attained to obscurity, but I should be proud if no more fatal fault were found with my pages on this score than was found with the Walden ice. —
我不认为自己达到了晦涩，但如果我的篇章在这一点上被发现的致命缺陷不超过《瓦尔登湖冰》一样的话，那我会感到骄傲。 —

Southern customers objected to its blue color, which is the evidence of its purity, as if it were muddy, and preferred the Cambridge ice, which is white, but tastes of weeds. —
南方的顾客反对它的蓝色，这是它纯净的证据，好像它是浑浊的，而更喜欢剑桥的白色冰，但那味道却有点像杂草。 —

The purity men love is like the mists which envelop the earth, and not like the azure ether beyond.
人们喜欢的纯净就像裹住大地的薄雾，而不是像蓝天上的碧空一样。

Some are dinning in our ears that we Americans, and moderns generally, are intellectual dwarfs compared with the ancients, or even the Elizabethan men. —
一些人在喧嚷着我们美国人，以及现代人总体来说，与古人相比是智力侏儒，甚至是伊丽莎白时代的人。 —

But what is that to the purpose? A living dog is better than a dead lion. —
但这又与何干呢？活狗胜于死狮。 —

Shall a man go and hang himself because he belongs to the race of pygmies, and not be the biggest pygmy that he can? —
一个人难道因为属于侏儒的种族就去上吊吗，而不愿做自己能成为的最大的侏儒吗？ —

Let every one mind his own business, and endeavor to be what he was made.
让每个人管好自己的事务，并努力成为自己被造就成的人。

Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed and in such desperate enterprises? —
我们为什么要如此急于成功，如此慌乱地进行冒险呢？ —

If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away. —
如果一个人跟不上同伴的步伐，也许是因为他听到了不同的鼓点。让他随着自己听到的音乐前进，无论节奏如何，距离有多远。 —

It is not important that he should mature as soon as an apple tree or an oak. —
他尽快成熟如苹果树或橡树并非重要。 —

Shall he turn his spring into summer? If the condition of things which we were made for is not yet, what were any reality which we can substitute? —
他是否要把春天转变为夏天？如果我们为之而生的条件仍未达成，我们能替代的任何现实又是什么呢？ —

We will not be shipwrecked on a vain reality. —
我们不会在虚幻的现实上遇难。 —

Shall we with pains erect a heaven of blue glass over ourselves, though when it is done we shall be sure to gaze still at the true ethereal heaven far above, as if the former were not?
即使我们费力为自己建造一个蓝玻璃天堂，当完成后我们仍会凝视真正的天空，仿佛前者不存在一样。

There was an artist in the city of Kouroo who was disposed to strive after perfection. —
在库鲁城里有一位艺术家，他渴望追求完美。 —

One day it came into his mind to make a staff. —
有一天他心生制作一根手杖的念头。 —

Having considered that in an imperfect work time is an ingredient, but into a perfect work time does not enter, he said to himself, It shall be perfect in all respects, though I should do nothing else in my life. —
考虑到在不完美的作品里时间是一个成分，而在完美的作品中时间并不参与，他对自己说，无论我此生是否还做其他事，它都将完美无瑕。 —

He proceeded instantly to the forest for wood, being resolved that it should not be made of unsuitable material; —
他立即前往树林找木材，决心杖杖非上好之材; —

and as he searched for and rejected stick after stick, his friends gradually deserted him, for they grew old in their works and died, but he grew not older by a moment. —
他不断搜寻并拒绝一根又一根木棍，他的朋友们渐渐离开了他，因为他们在自己的工作中变老并死去，但他却没有老去一刻。 —

His singleness of purpose and resolution, and his elevated piety, endowed him, without his knowledge, with perennial youth. —
他的单纯目的和决心，以及他高尚的虔诚，无意中赋予了他永葆青春。 —

As he made no compromise with Time, Time kept out of his way, and only sighed at a distance because he could not overcome him. —
由于他与时间没有妥协，时间远远躲开他，因为无法战胜他，只能遥远叹息。 —

Before he had found a stock in all respects suitable the city of Kouroo was a hoary ruin, and he sat on one of its mounds to peel the stick. —
在找到合适的原料之前，库鲁城已是一个苍老的废墟，他坐在其中一座土堆上削木棍。 —

Before he had given it the proper shape the dynasty of the Candahars was at an end, and with the point of the stick he wrote the name of the last of that race in the sand, and then resumed his work. —
在赋予它适当形状之前，坎达哈尔王朝已不复存在，而他用木棍尖在沙子上写下那一族最后一人的名字，然后继续他的工作。 —

By the time he had smoothed and polished the staff Kalpa was no longer the pole-star; —
平整并打磨手杖之时，喀拉帕已不再是北极星; —

and ere he had put on the ferule and the head adorned with precious stones, Brahma had awoke and slumbered many times. —
在装上扣柄和镶有宝石的头饰之前，梵天已醒过来和入睡多次。 —

But why do I stay to mention these things? —
但我为什么要继续提及这些事情呢？ —

When the finishing stroke was put to his work, it suddenly expanded before the eyes of the astonished artist into the fairest of all the creations of Brahma. —
当这个作品完成时，它突然在惊讶的艺术家眼前扩展，成为了梵天最美的创造物中的一件。 —

He had made a new system in making a staff, a world with full and fair proportions; —
他在制作权杖时创建了一个新系统，一个拥有完美和公正比例的世界； —

in which, though the old cities and dynasties had passed away, fairer and more glorious ones had taken their places. —
在这个世界里，尽管旧城市和王朝已经消失，但更美丽更辉煌的新城市已经取代了它们。 —

And now he saw by the heap of shavings still fresh at his feet, that, for him and his work, the former lapse of time had been an illusion, and that no more time had elapsed than is required for a single scintillation from the brain of Brahma to fall on and inflame the tinder of a mortal brain. —
现在他看到了自己脚下仍然新鲜的木屑堆，对他和他的工作来说，过去流逝的时间不过是虚幻的，经过的时间并不比需要一个来自梵天大脑的火花落在凡人大脑的火种上所需的时间更长。 —

The material was pure, and his art was pure; —
材料纯净，他的艺术也纯净； —

how could the result be other than wonderful?
结果怎么会不令人惊叹呢？

No face which we can give to a matter will stead us so well at last as the truth. —
我们最后能给事情的一个面孔，唯有事实。 —

This alone wears well. For the most part, we are not where we are, but in a false position. —
只有这才能耐久。大多时候，我们不在自己所在的位置，而是在错误的位置。 —

Through an infinity of our natures, we suppose a case, and put ourselves into it, and hence are in two cases at the same time, and it is doubly difficult to get out. —
在我们无穷多的本性中，我们臆测一个情形，投射自己进去，因此同时处于两个情形之中，难以脱身。 —

In sane moments we regard only the facts, the case that is. —
在神智正常的时刻，我们只看事实，就是那个情形。 —

Say what you have to say, not what you ought. Any truth is better than make-believe. —
说你要说的，而不是你应该说的。任何真相都胜过虚假。 —

Tom Hyde, the tinker, standing on the gallows, was asked if he had anything to say. —
铁匠汤姆站在绞刑架上，被问是否有什么要说的。 —

“Tell the tailors,” said he, “to remember to make a knot in their thread before they take the first stitch.” —
“告诉裁缝们，”他说，”在开始第一针之前记得在线上打个结。” —

His companion’s prayer is forgotten.
他同伴的祈祷被遗忘了。

However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names. —
无论你的生活有多痛苦，面对它并活下去；不要躲避并称之为难以忍受的名字。 —

It is not so bad as you are. It looks poorest when you are richest. —
当你最富有时，它看起来最贫穷。 —

The fault-finder will find faults even in paradise. Love your life, poor as it is. —
找错的人即使在天堂也会找到缺点。热爱你的生活，尽管它贫穷。 —

You may perhaps have some pleasant, thrilling, glorious hours, even in a poorhouse. —
也许你在济贫院里也能拥有一些愉快、激动人心、辉煌的时光。 —

The setting sun is reflected from the windows of the almshouse as brightly as from the rich man’s abode; —
落日的余晖照在济贫院的窗户上，和富人的住所一样明亮； —

the snow melts before its door as early in the spring. —
春天早早地融化在它门前的雪。 —

I do not see but a quiet mind may live as contentedly there, and have as cheering thoughts, as in a palace. —
我看不出一个宁静的心灵不能在那里过得满足，拥有像在宫殿里一样的愉快思绪。 —

The town’s poor seem to me often to live the most independent lives of any. —
城镇的穷人在我看来经常过着最独立的生活。 —

Maybe they are simply great enough to receive without misgiving. —
也许他们只是变得足够伟大以接受而没有怀疑。 —

Most think that they are above being supported by the town; —
大多数人认为他们不需要城镇的支持； —

but it oftener happens that they are not above supporting themselves by dishonest means, which should be more disreputable. —
但更常见的情况是，他们并不超脱于用不光彩的手段来维持生计，这本应更加令人鄙视。 —

Cultivate poverty like a garden herb, like sage. —
像一种花园草药一样培养贫困，像圣人一样。 —

Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends. Turn the old; —
不要过多劳神追求新事物，无论是衣服或朋友。回头看； —

return to them. Things do not change; we change. Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts. —
回头看老的。事物不会改变；我们在改变。卖掉你的衣服，保留你的想法。 —

God will see that you do not want society. —
上帝会让你不需求社交。 —

If I were confined to a corner of a garret all my days, like a spider, the world would be just as large to me while I had my thoughts about me. —
如果我被囚禁在阁楼的一个角落里，就像一只蜘蛛，只要我有着自己的思想，世界对我来说仍然是那么广阔。 —

The philosopher said: “From an army of three divisions one can take away its general, and put it in disorder; —
哲学家说：“从一个有三个师的军队中，可以拿走它的将军，使其混乱； —

from the man the most abject and vulgar one cannot take away his thought.” —
但是，对于最卑微和庸俗的人，却不能够拿走他的思想。” —

Do not seek so anxiously to be developed, to subject yourself to many influences to be played on; —
不要着急寻求发展，纳入许多影响，让自己受影响； —

it is all dissipation. Humility like darkness reveals the heavenly lights. —
这都是耗散。谦卑如同黑暗一样，揭示出天上的光芒。 —

The shadows of poverty and meanness gather around us, “and lo! creation widens to our view.” —
贫困和卑鄙的阴影围绕着我们，“看哪！创造物不断扩大呈现在我们眼前。” —

We are often reminded that if there were bestowed on us the wealth of Croesus, our aims must still be the same, and our means essentially the same. —
我们经常被提醒，即使被赋予了克罗伊斯所拥有的财富，我们的目标仍然是相同的，我们的手段本质上也是相同的。 —

Moreover, if you are restricted in your range by poverty, if you cannot buy books and newspapers, for instance, you are but confined to the most significant and vital experiences; —
此外，如果你受到贫困限制，不能买书和报纸，你只能与最重要和最必要的经历打交道； —

you are compelled to deal with the material which yields the most sugar and the most starch. —
你被迫处理产生最多糖和淀粉的材料。 —

It is life near the bone where it is sweetest. You are defended from being a trifler. —
生活在极简约的境界中才是最甜美的。你会避免成为一个轻浮的人。 —

No man loses ever on a lower level by magnanimity on a higher. —
在更高的层次上表现出的宽宏大量，永远不会导致在较低层次上的损失。 —

Superfluous wealth can buy superfluities only. —
多余的财富只能购买多余的东西。 —

Money is not required to buy one necessary of the soul.
钱不能购买灵魂的必需品。

I live in the angle of a leaden wall, into whose composition was poured a little alloy of bell-metal. Often, in the repose of my mid-day, there reaches my ears a confused tintinnabulum from without. —
我住在一面铅墙的角落里，其中混入了少量的黄铜合金。常常，在我午间的休息时，我的耳朵传来外面混乱的叮当声。 —

It is the noise of my contemporaries. My neighbors tell me of their adventures with famous gentlemen and ladies, what notabilities they met at the dinner-table; —
这是我同时代的人们的噪音。我的邻居们告诉我他们和著名的绅士和女士们的冒险经历，在餐桌上遇到的名人； —

but I am no more interested in such things than in the contents of the Daily Times. The interest and the conversation are about costume and manners chiefly; —
但我对这些事情的兴趣与《每日时报》的内容一样没有。 —

but a goose is a goose still, dress it as you will. —
但鹅终归还是鹅，无论你如何打扮。 —

They tell me of California and Texas, of England and the Indies, of the Hon. Mr. — of Georgia or of Massachusetts, all transient and fleeting phenomena, till I am ready to leap from their court-yard like the Mameluke bey. —
他们告诉我加利福尼亚和德克萨斯，英格兰和印度群岛，乔治亚州或马萨诸塞州的尊贵先生的事情，都是短暂而飘忽不定的现象，让我准备好像马姆鲁克贝伊一样，立刻离开他们的庭院。 —

I delight to come to my bearings – not walk in procession with pomp and parade, in a conspicuous place, but to walk even with the Builder of the universe, if I may – not to live in this restless, nervous, bustling, trivial Nineteenth Century, but stand or sit thoughtfully while it goes by. —
我喜欢找到自己的位置 —— 并不是在显眼的地方与庞大的仪式和游行一起行走，而是如果可以的话，和宇宙的创造者走一起 —— 不要生活在这个不安的，神经紧张的，忙乱琐碎的十九世纪，而是站着或坐着，静静地看着它擦肩而过。 —

What are men celebrating? They are all on a committee of arrangements, and hourly expect a speech from somebody. —
人们在庆祝什么？他们都是一个安排委员会的成员，每时每刻都在期待着有人讲话。 —

God is only the president of the day, and Webster is his orator. —
上帝只是今天的主席，而韦伯斯特是他的演说家。 —

I love to weigh, to settle, to gravitate toward that which most strongly and rightfully attracts me – not hang by the beam of the scale and try to weigh less – not suppose a case, but take the case that is; —
我喜欢权衡，决定，朝着最强烈，最引人的方向倾斜 —— 不要悬挂在天平的横梁上，试图减轻重量 —— 不是假设情况，而是接受眼前的情况； —

to travel the only path I can, and that on which no power can resist me. —
走我唯一能走的道路，没有任何力量可以阻挡我。 —

It affords me no satisfaction to commerce to spring an arch before I have got a solid foundation. —
对于商业，未得到坚实的基础前，我不会妄自显出拱门成形的喜悦。 —

Let us not play at kittly-benders. There is a solid bottom everywhere. —
让我们不要玩虚有其表的游戏。到处都有坚固的基础。 —

We read that the traveller asked the boy if the swamp before him had a hard bottom. —
我们读到旅行者问男孩，他面前的沼泽有没有坚硬的底。 —

The boy replied that it had. But presently the traveller’s horse sank in up to the girths, and he observed to the boy, “I thought you said that this bog had a hard bottom.” —
男孩回答说有。但旅行者的马马上陷入到马鞍深处，他对男孩说，“我以为你说这个泥沼有坚硬的底。” —

“So it has,” answered the latter, “but you have not got half way to it yet.” —
“它是有的，”后者回答说，“但你还没到一半。” —

So it is with the bogs and quicksands of society; but he is an old boy that knows it. —
这就是社会的泥沼和流沙的状况；但知道这一切的人是老练的。 —

Only what is thought, said, or done at a certain rare coincidence is good. —
只有在某种罕见的巧合下思考，说话，或行动才是好的。 —

I would not be one of those who will foolishly drive a nail into mere lath and plastering; —
我不会像愚蠢地往纯粹的石膏墙上钉钉子那样； —

such a deed would keep me awake nights. Give me a hammer, and let me feel for the furring. —
这样的行为会让我晚上失眠。给我一把榔头，让我找找加固条； —

Do not depend on the putty. Drive a nail home and clinch it so faithfully that you can wake up in the night and think of your work with satisfaction – a work at which you would not be ashamed to invoke the Muse. So will help you God, and so only. —
不要只靠填料。把钉子钉牢，并把它固定得那么牢靠，让你晚上醒来时能满意地想起你的工作——一项让你不会为之感到羞耻而愿意请缪斯女神祝福的工作。神会帮助你，只有这样才行。 —

Every nail driven should be as another rivet in the machine of the universe, you carrying on the work.
每一颗钉子都应该视为宇宙机器上的另一颗铆钉，你在继续这项工作。

Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth. —
与其爱情、金钱、名誉，宁愿给我真相。 —

I sat at a table where were rich food and wine in abundance, and obsequious attendance, but sincerity and truth were not; —
我坐在一张摆满丰盛食物和酒的桌子旁，有殷勤的服务，但缺少真诚和真理； —

and I went away hungry from the inhospitable board. The hospitality was as cold as the ices. —
我忍饥离开那不怀欢迎的餐桌。对待我犹如冰冷的冰淇淋。 —

I thought that there was no need of ice to freeze them. —
我认为没有需要冰来冻结它们。 —

They talked to me of the age of the wine and the fame of the vintage; —
他们与我聊酒的岁月和葡萄酒的名声； —

but I thought of an older, a newer, and purer wine, of a more glorious vintage, which they had not got, and could not buy. —
但我却想起了更老、更新、更纯正的葡萄酒，一场更光辉的葡萄酒盛宴，他们没有，也无法购买。 —

The style, the house and grounds and “entertainment” pass for nothing with me. —
风格、房屋和庄园以及“款待”对我毫无意义。 —

I called on the king, but he made me wait in his hall, and conducted like a man incapacitated for hospitality. —
我拜访了国王，但他让我在大厅里等待，并表现得像一个无法款待客人的人。 —

There was a man in my neighborhood who lived in a hollow tree. —
我周围有一个住在树洞里的人。 —

His manners were truly regal. I should have done better had I called on him.
他的举止真的像国王。我去找他应该会更好。

How long shall we sit in our porticoes practising idle and musty virtues, which any work would make impertinent? —
我们要坐在门廊里练习无聊陈腐的美德多久，这些美德在任何工作面前都变得无关紧要？ —

As if one were to begin the day with long-suffering, and hire a man to hoe his potatoes; —
好像一个人开始一天的长时间忍耐，雇佣一个人来锄土豆； —

and in the afternoon go forth to practise Christian meekness and charity with goodness aforethought! Consider the China pride and stagnant self-complacency of mankind. —
并在下午出去练习基督教的温和和慈善，怀着先前的善意！考虑人类的中国骄傲和停滞的自满。 —

This generation inclines a little to congratulate itself on being the last of an illustrious line; —
这一代人有点趋向于为自己是辉煌血统的最后一代而自夸； —

and in Boston and London and Paris and Rome, thinking of its long descent, it speaks of its progress in art and science and literature with satisfaction. —
在波士顿、伦敦、巴黎和罗马，考虑到自己漫长的血统，它谈论着自己在艺术、科学和文学方面的进步而感到满意。 —

There are the Records of the Philosophical Societies, and the public Eulogies of Great Men! —
有着哲学学会的记录和伟大人物的公开颂扬！ —

It is the good Adam contemplating his own virtue. —
这是身为好亚当（伊甸园里亚当）的人在反省自己的美德。 —

“Yes, we have done great deeds, and sung divine songs, which shall never die” – that is, as long as we can remember them. —
“是的，我们已经做了伟大的事情，并唱了永不消失的神圣歌曲”——只要我们能记得它们。 —

The learned societies and great men of Assyria – where are they? —
亚述的学会和伟大人物们——都哪里去了？ —

What youthful philosophers and experimentalists we are! —
我们是多么年轻的哲学家和实验家！ —

There is not one of my readers who has yet lived a whole human life. —
我的读者中没有一个人已经活过一整个人生。 —

These may be but the spring months in the life of the race. —
这可能只是人类的一生中的春天月份。 —

If we have had the seven-years’ itch, we have not seen the seventeen-year locust yet in Concord. —
如果我们曾经有过七年瘙痒，那么在康科德，我们还没见过十七年的蝉。 —

We are acquainted with a mere pellicle of the globe on which we live. —
我们只了解我们生活的这个星球的薄层。 —

Most have not delved six feet beneath the surface, nor leaped as many above it. —
大多数人没有深挖地表以下六英尺，也没有跳过六英尺以上。 —

We know not where we are. Beside, we are sound asleep nearly half our time. —
我们不知道自己在哪里。此外，我们几乎有一半的时间在熟睡中。 —

Yet we esteem ourselves wise, and have an established order on the surface. —
然而，我们自认为聪明，表面上有着一套既定的秩序。 —

Truly, we are deep thinkers, we are ambitious spirits! —
实际上，我们是深刻思考者，是雄心勃勃的灵魂！ —

As I stand over the insect crawling amid the pine needles on the forest floor, and endeavoring to conceal itself from my sight, and ask myself why it will cherish those humble thoughts, and bide its head from me who might, perhaps, be its benefactor, and impart to its race some cheering information, I am reminded of the greater Benefactor and Intelligence that stands over me the human insect.
当我站在森林地面上的松针间，看着昆虫在爬行，竭力隐藏自己，避开我的视线，我问自己为何它会怀有那些谦卑的想法，为何避开可能是它的恩人，可能会向它的族类传授一些令人振奋的信息的我。我想起了那位站在我头上的更伟大的 恩人和智慧，人类昆虫。

There is an incessant influx of novelty into the world, and yet we tolerate incredible dulness. —
世界上不断涌现着新奇事物，而我们却容忍着难以置信的无聊。 —

I need only suggest what kind of sermons are still listened to in the most enlightened countries. —
我只需要暗示一下，最光明磊落的国家里还有人听什么样的布道。 —

There are such words as joy and sorrow, but they are only the burden of a psalm, sung with a nasal twang, while we believe in the ordinary and mean. —
有快乐和悲伤这样的词汇，但它们只是一首赞美诗的负担，带着鼻音吟唱，而我们却相信平凡和卑微。 —

We think that we can change our clothes only. —
我们认为我们只能改变我们的衣服。 —

It is said that the British Empire is very large and respectable, and that the United States are a first-rate power. —
据说大英帝国非常庞大和令人尊敬，而美利坚合众国是一流的强国。 —

We do not believe that a tide rises and falls behind every man which can float the British Empire like a chip, if he should ever harbor it in his mind. —
我们不相信每个人身后都会有一个潮汐，可以如同一块木片般漂浮大英帝国，如果他曾在心中怀抱它。 —

Who knows what sort of seventeen-year locust will next come out of the ground? —
谁知道下一个将从地下冒出来的十七年蝉是什么样的？ —

The government of the world I live in was not framed, like that of Britain, in after-dinner conversations over the wine.
我所生活的世界的政府，不像英国的政府那样是在酒后谈话中制定的。

The life in us is like the water in the river. —
我们体内的生命就像河中的水。 —

It may rise this year higher than man has ever known it, and flood the parched uplands; —
今年它可能会比人们曾经经历的水位更高，淹没干旱的高地； —

even this may be the eventful year, which will drown out all our muskrats. —
甚至这可能就是那个会淹没我们所有麝鼠的重要的一年。 —

It was not always dry land where we dwell. —
我们居住的地方并非始终是陆地。 —

I see far inland the banks which the stream anciently washed, before science began to record its freshets. —
在科学开始记录其洪水之前，我看到远处内陆岸边那条古老的河流曾冲刷过。 —

Every one has heard the story which has gone the rounds of New England, of a strong and beautiful bug which came out of the dry leaf of an old table of apple-tree wood, which had stood in a farmer’s kitchen for sixty years, first in Connecticut, and afterward in Massachusetts – from an egg deposited in the living tree many years earlier still, as appeared by counting the annual layers beyond it; —
每个人都听说过这个传遍新英格兰的故事，讲述了一只强壮而美丽的虫子，它从一个苹果树木桌的干叶中爬出来，这个木桌在一个农夫的厨房里放置了六十年，先是在康涅狄克，后来在马萨诸塞 ——根据年轮的计算，它首先从树活着时沉积的蛋产生。 —

which was heard gnawing out for several weeks, hatched perchance by the heat of an urn. —
它被听到在几周内一直啃食，也许是被一个缸的热量孵化出来的。 —

Who does not feel his faith in a resurrection and immortality strengthened by hearing of this? —
谁听了这个故事会不感到对复活和永生的信仰更加坚定呢？ —

Who knows what beautiful and winged life, whose egg has been buried for ages under many concentric layers of woodenness in the dead dry life of society, deposited at first in the alburnum of the green and living tree, which has been gradually converted into the semblance of its well-seasoned tomb – heard perchance gnawing out now for years by the astonished family of man, as they sat round the festive board – may unexpectedly come forth from amidst society’s most trivial and handselled furniture, to enjoy its perfect summer life at last!
谁知道是否有多少美丽而有翅膀的生命，它的蛋被埋藏在社会死寂极为微不足道的家具中多层次的木质之下，最初是沉积在翠绿且鲜活的树的新木层中，后来逐渐变成了一座经过精心熏制的坟墓的模样——也许如今已经被惊讶的人类家庭们听到了数年啃食的声音，在他们围坐在宴会桌旁的时候——这些生命可能会意外地从社会中最琐碎和招架带的家具之中出现，最终享受其完美的夏日生活！

I do not say that John or Jonathan will realize all this; —
我并不是说约翰或乔纳森会意识到这一切； —

but such is the character of that morrow which mere lapse of time can never make to dawn. —
但这是那个明天的特征，只有时间的流逝永远不能让它破晓. —

The light which puts out our eyes is darkness to us. —
熄灭我们双眼的光明对我们来说就是黑暗。 —

Only that day dawns to which we are awake. —
只有我们醒着的时候，那一天才会到来。 —

There is more day to dawn. The sun is but a morning star.
还有更多的黎明要到来。太阳只不过是一个晨星。