See how many traces from which we may learn the chopper’s history! From this stump we may guess the sharpness of his axe, and from the slope of the stroke, on which side he stood, and whether he cut down the tree without going round it or changing hands; and from the flexure of the splinters we may know which way it fell. This one chip contains inscribed on it the whole history of the wood-chopper and of the world. On this scrap of paper, which held his sugar or salt, perchance, or was the wadding of his gun, sitting on a log in the forest, with what interest we read the tattle of cities, of those larger huts, empty and to let, like this, in High-streets, and Broad-ways. The eaves are dripping on the south side of this simple roof, while the titmouse lisps in the pine, and the genial warmth of the sun around the door is somewhat kind and human.
看，樵夫在屋内留下多少东西，我们根据这些线索推测出他的生活情况。这里有木垛一块，我们可知道他的斧头有多锋利；我们看他劈斫（zhuo）的角度，可以猜想他伐木时站在哪一边，还有：他把树劈下来时，人有没有绕树而转，斧头有没有换手。一块小小的木片上，记下了那个樵子一生的历史，还记下了世界的历史。这一块小小的纸片，是樵夫用来包糖或包盐的，或者，樵夫坐在森林里的一段木头上，用它来塞他的枪膛的。从这张纸片上，我们多么津津有味地读着许多城市里喋喋不休的闲言碎语，读着那些座落在大街上和百老汇的比较宽敞的屋子，正空着供人租用——就像这座屋子。这座小屋朝南的一面，屋檐上的融雪正在滴落，松树上山雀吱吱咋咋的在叫，屋门周围，阳光普照，和熙温暖，好像特别富于人情味似的。
After two seasons, this rude dwelling does not deform the scene. Already the birds resort to it, to build their nests, and you may track to its door the feet of many quadrupeds. Thus, for a long time, nature overlooks the encroachment and profanity of man. The wood still cheerfully and unsuspiciously echoes the strokes of the axe that fells it, and while they are few and seldom, they enhance its wildness, and all the elements strive to naturalize the sound.
樵夫离家已经有两季，这座简陋的小屋却至今没有让这里的风景有所逊色。鸟飞已习以为常地纷纷前来筑巢。你若跟踪追索，林间许多四脚走兽的足迹，你可以发现它们全都光顾这里。人侵犯了自然，玷污了自然，但是自然一向对此并不挂怀。伐木丁丁的声音现在偶然还听得到，森林仍旧高高兴兴，毫无戒心地替斧头发出回声。可是这种声音不常有了。由于它的点缀，这里的景致显得更为荒野，天地之间一切元素，似乎正努力吧这种声音也化成自然界景色的一部分。
Now our path begins to ascend gradually to the top of this high hill, from whose precipitous south side, we can look over the broad country, of forest, and field, and river, to the distant snowy mountains. See yonder thin column of smoke curling up through the woods from some invisible farm-house; the standard raised over some rural homestead. There must be a warmer and more genial spot there below, as where we detect the vapor from a spring forming a cloud above the trees. What fine relations are established between the traveller who discovers this airy column from some eminence in the forest, and him who sits below! Up goes the smoke as silently and naturally as the vapor exhales from the leaves, and as busy disposing itself in wreaths as the housewife on the hearth below. It is a hieroglyphic of man's life, and suggests more intimate and important things than the boiling of a pot. Where its fine column rises above the forest, like an ensign, some human life has planted itself, and such is the beginning of Rome, the establishment of the arts, and the foundation of empires, whether on the prairies of America, or the steppes of Asia.
我们沿着樵径上山，渐渐的走到山顶。虽是丘陵，但山也相当高，南边的山坡尤为陡峻。我们站在那边，纵目南望，底下广阔的风景——森林、田野、河流、历历在目，一直望到远处积雪的山峦。那边有炊烟一缕，冉冉的地从林中升起。林里的农舍我们是看不见的，可是它顶上的烟，无异为它竖起了一面大旗。那边下面的气候一定较为温和，因为那边有温泉，冒出的蒸汽在树林顶上结成云彩。一个远道来的游客，假如在林中高地发现了这一股烟，他同那安坐在农舍里的主人自然而然就产生了一种默契。烟缓缓地舒徐地上升，就像树叶吐出来的蒸汽。烟在空中化成丝丝缕缕，其繁忙正不亚于炉边的主妇。烟中似乎也有字，我们仔细辩读，也可以悟出人生的道理。它所表示的实在远比火热水沸这个简单的事实更为重要，更为亲切。森林任何一处，只要像挂了旗似地升起一缕纤细的烟柱，那底下就有人家卜居——人类就是这样移民而繁殖的，罗马就是这样创始的，百业就是这样起源的，帝国——不论在美洲的或是亚洲的大草原上——就是这样建立起来的。
And now we descend again to the brink of this woodland lake, which lies in a hollow of the hills, as if it were their expressed juice, and that of the leaves, which are annually steeped in it. Without outlet or inlet to the eye, it has still its history, in the lapse of its waves, in the rounded pebbles on its shore, and in the pines which grow down to its brink. It has not been idle, though sedentary, but, like Abu Musa, teaches that sitting still at home is the heavenly way; the going out is the way of the world. Yet in its evaporation it travels as far as any. In summer it is the earth's liquid eye; a mirror in the breast of nature. The sins of the wood are washed out in it. See how the woods form an amphitheatre about it, and it is an arena for all the genialness of nature. All trees direct the traveler to its brink, all paths seek it out, birds fly to it, quadrupeds flee to it, and the very ground inclines toward it. It is nature's saloon, where she has sat down to her toilet. Consider her silent economy and tidiness; how the sun comes with his evaporation to sweep the dust from its surface each morning, and a fresh surface is constantly welling up; and annually, after whatever impurities have accumulated herein, its liquid transparency appears again in the spring. In summer a hushed music seems to sweep across its surface. But now a plain sheet of snow conceals it from our eyes, except where the wind has swept the ice bare, and the sere leaves are gliding from side to side, tacking and veering on their tiny voyages. Here is one just keeled up against a pebble on shore, a dry beech leaf, rocking still, as if it would start again. A skillful engineer, methinks, might project its course since it fell from the parent stem. Here are all the elements for such a calculation. Its present position, the direction of the wind, the level of the pond, and how much more is given. In its scarred edges and veins is its log rolled up.
我们现在又走下山去，去到林中湖畔。湖在群山中央的凹陷处，湖水好像就是从这些山石里压榨出来的，又好像是年年树上的落叶浸泡出来的液汁。一眼望去，湖水既无出口，又无入口，可是湖也有它的历史，就在它起伏的波浪里，它湖边的磨光了的石卵里，和它周围绵延不绝的松树里。它虽然安然不动，可是绝非无所事事，真像阿部. 穆萨所说的那样：“在家安居者天之道也，出外奔波者人之道也。”湖水虽不流通，它的蒸汽上升，却是无远勿届。夏天的时候，湖是大地水汪汪的眼睛！大自然胸膛上的一面镜子。森林间一切的罪恶都在这里洗净。万木拱抱，又好像罗马的圆剧场，然而这里表演的，都是大自然的温柔敦厚的一方面。每一棵树每一条小径都把旅人带到湖的边上来，这里是鸟兽趋集之处，整个地形也是向湖边倾斜的。这里是自然女神的闺房，她每天就坐在这里理妆。别看她一声不响，可是她多俭省，又多么爱整洁。日出之后，湖水蒸发，湖面上的灰尘也随之一扫而空，湖面也不断以焕然一新的姿态出现；不论每年积集了多少杂质，春天一到，湖水立刻又显得清澈透明。夏天的时候，微风过处，湖面上似乎奏起一种静静的音乐。可是现在只是一片皑皑白雪，湖水的模样，我们是看不见了；有时候风把浮雪吹开，露出光滑的冰层，干枯的叶子在上面滑来滑去，旅程有限，可是东转西弯，曲折很多。这里有一片山毛榉的枯叶，飘荡了好久，刚刚碰到岸上的一块石子——触礁了，可是它还在摇摆不定，似乎随时都可以再度出发的样子，这片树叶，从树上掉下来之后的旅程，我想一个熟练的工程师能够替它计算出来。因为计算用得着的一切因素，例如树叶目前的位置、风的方向、湖面的高度等等，都是很容易计算出来的。这片叶子边缘破碎不齐，筋络也断缺了很多，可是它的旅程，是都写在上面了。
We fancy ourselves in the interior of a larger house. The surface of the pond is our deal table or sanded floor, and the woods rise abruptly from its edge, like the walls of a cottage. The lines set to catch pickerel through the ice look like a larger culinary preparation, and the men stand about on the white ground like pieces of forest furniture. The actions of these men, at the distance of half a mile over the ice and snow, impress us as when we read the exploits of Alexander in history. They seem not unworthy of the scenery, and as momentous as the conquest of kingdoms.
我们身处山野，可是我们想象自己置身于一座巨宅之中。给冰雪覆盖的湖面，可以算做我们的松木桌子，也可以算做铺了沙子的地板。湖边上矗立的树木，又像是农舍的墙壁。冰块碎处，挂了很多钓鱼线，像是厨房里较大规模的烹饪准备；雪地上站立的那些人又像是森林里的家具。那些人和我们的距离约有半哩之遥，隔了冰雪望过去，他们的行动模糊不清，给我们的印象就同我们在历史书上所读到的亚历山大大帝的功业。他们的行动似乎和这里的风景正好配合，其意义之重大决不亚于开拓疆土。
Again we have wandered through the arches of the wood, until from its skirts we hear the distant booming of ice from yonder bay of the river, as if it were moved by some other and subtler tide than oceans know. To me it has a strange sound of home, thrilling as the voice of one's distant and noble kindred. A mild summer sun shines over forest and lake, and though there is but one green leaf for many rods, yet nature enjoys a serene health. Every sound is fraught with the same mysterious assurance of health, as well now the creaking of the boughs in January, as the soft sough of the wind in July.
我们现在又在树枝交织而成的拱门底下漫步走过；走到森林边缘的时候，我们听到远处河湾里冰块受到潮水冲击，轰然作响，可是这种潮水行动较难以捉摸，并非海洋所能掌握。据我听来，这种声音很奇怪的使我联想到家，它就是我们自己远房贵亲的声音，有震撼心灵的作用。林间湖畔，日光和熙得同夏天相仿；虽然走了几丈路，只看见一瓣绿叶，可是自然界的气象是清明而健壮。这里每一个声音都充满了一种神秘的健壮的气息，七月里微风飒飒（sasa）地低吹的声音固然如此，正月里树枝嘎吱作响的颤动声又何独不然?
Before night we will take a journey on skates along the course of this meandering river, as full of novelty to one who sits by the cottage fire all the winter's day, as if it were over the polar ice, with captain Parry or Franklin; following the winding of the stream, now flowing amid hills, now spreading out into fair meadows, and forming a myriad coves and bays where the pine and hemlock overarch. The river flows in the rear of the towns, and we see all things from a new and wilder side. The fields and gardens come down to it with a frankness, and freedom from pretension, which they do not wear on the highway. It is the outside and edge of the earth. Our eyes are not offended by violent contrasts. The last rail of the farmer's fence is some swaying willow bough, which still preserves its freshness, and here at length all fences stop, and we no longer cross any road. We may go far up within the country now by the most retired and level road, never climbing a hill, but by broad levels ascending to the upland meadows. It is a beautiful illustration of the law of obedience, the flow of a river; the path for a sick man, a highway down which an acorn cup may float secure with its freight. Its slight occasional falls, whose precipices would not diversify the landscape, are celebrated by mist and spray, and attract the traveler from far and near. From the remote interior, its current conducts him by broad and easy steps, or by one gentler inclined plane, to the sea. Thus by an early and constant yielding to the inequalities of the ground it secures itself the easiest passage.
黑夜未临以前，我们将穿上冰鞋，在曲折的河面上遨游一番，这样顺流滑冰而下，对于我们这种冬天整日靠着炉边而坐的人，是在富于新奇的刺激，不亚于跟随柏莱或费兰克林等大探险家到冰天雪地里去游历一次。河道曲曲弯弯，一下子在群山中流过，一下子在平整的草地上展开，在松树枝桠交错的地方，河面上又形成了无数的港汊。河在市镇的后面流过，因此我们所看见的景物，都是比较荒野，为平时所看不见的。平常从公路上看去，田野园圃都带一种矫揉造作的姿态，可是在靠河的一面，它们就都比较大方自在，拿真面目给人看了。这里是地球的外界，——地球的边缘。一切景物，都显得调和，没有强烈的对比，因此研究也就舒服多了。一路下去，农田上的篱笆倒有不少，最后一排篱笆的最后一节障碍，是一枝飘荡的柳条，至今还保持一点青色；从此以后，就再无樊篱之阻，也不再有道路同我们的冰路交叉了。现在我们所走的路是一条最隐僻最平坦的路，我们如往上游走，不需要爬什么山，只要一层一层的按着广阔的平路走，也可以深入腹地，走入高地草原。河流自高而下，最足以说明顺循自然之理；河流走路好像病人一般，丝毫不用力气。一枚橡果给杯子托着，可以悠悠的循着河道浮游而下，决无颠覆之虞。河里偶然也有小小的瀑布，但是水虽然突然滑泻而下，整个风景却无改变，只是水汽弥漫，水花四溅，把远近游客的注意都吸引过来了。河流发源之处还在内陆腹地，他跨过好几层广阔而平坦的台阶，或者说，它是沿着一块倾斜度很缓和的平面，浩浩荡荡，流入海洋。地面是不平的，但是河流从一开始其，就随着地形的起伏，自然而下，以后不断如此，所以能够畅流无阻。
No domain of nature is quite closed to man at all times, and now we draw near to the empire of the fishes. Our feet glide swiftly over unfathomed depths, where in summer our line tempted the pout and perch, and where the stately pickerel lurked in the long corridors, formed by the bulrushes. The deep, impenetrable marsh, where the heron waded, and bittern squatted, is made pervious to our swift shoes, as if a thousand railroads had been made into it. With one impulse we are carried to the cabin of the muskrat, that earliest settler, and see him dart away under the transparent ice, like a furred fish, to his hole in the bank; and we glide rapidly over meadows where lately the mower whet his scythe, through beds of frozen cranberries mixed with meadow grass. We skate near to where the blackbird, the pewee, and the kingbird hung their nests over the water, and the hornets builded from the maple in the swamp. How many gay warblers now following the sun, have radiated from thisnest of silver birch and thistle down! On the swamp's outer edge was hung the supermarine village, where no foot penetrated. In this hollow tree the wood-duck reared her brood, and slid away each day to forage in yonder fen.
天地之间，没有一处地方，是人迹永远所不能到的。现在我们走近鱼类的帝国了。我们的脚很快滑过未曾测过深度的一片水域。回忆夏天的时候，我们的钓竿曾经在此引诱过鳕鱼和鲈鱼。河里芦苇成行，宛如长廊，那是庄重的梭子鱼潜伏的地方。附近的沼泽地带范围广阔，难以通过，冰鞋虽行动快捷，到此也无能为力，上面好像筑了一千条铁路，到处是阻碍，但是苍鹭曾经在此地涉过水，鹭鷀也在这里栖息过。我们一口气就滑到了麝鼠的公馆——麝鼠是这里资格最老的移民——我们看见它在透明的冰层底下飞也似的钻回河岸上的洞穴里，形状就像一条长了毛的鱼。我们不断的向前滑行，很快的就滑过了草原，那地方不久以前“一刈（yi）草人曾经磨过镰刀”，我们穿过好几处夹杂着蓝草的冻结了的越橘丛。再向前滑去，就到了山鸟、京燕和翠鸟在河的上方筑巢的地方，泥沼中的树上也悬挂着大黄蜂的巢。许多快乐的小鸟纷纷从它们的桦枝和蓟（ji）花毛筑成的巢里飞出，现在正随着日光飞舞。泥沼外缘的树上，鸟巢很多，形成了人迹从来不到的一个水上悬空的村落，树的空心里面，是树鸭孵育儿女的地方，每天偷偷地溜出去，到远处的沼泽去觅食。
In winter, nature is a cabinet of curiosities, full of dried specimens, in their natural order and position. The meadows and forests are a hortus siccus. The leaves and grasses stand perfectly pressed by the air without screw or gum, and the bird span's nests are not hung on an artificial twig, but where they builded them. We go about dry shod to inspect the summer's work in the rank swamp, and see what a growth have got the alders, the willows, and the maples; testifying to how many warm suns, and fertilizing dews and showers. See what strides their boughs took in the luxuriant summer, and anon these dormant buds will carry them onward and upward another span into the heavens.
大自然在冬天成了一架古董柜子，充满了各种干结了的标本，完全按照它们生长的次序，排列得井井有条。草原和树林成了一座“植物标本院”。树叶和野草受了空气的压力，无需螺丝钉或者胶水之力，形状保持得很完整。这里的鸟巢不像博物馆那样挂在假树上；这里的树虽干枯，仍是真树，鸟在哪里筑的巢，现在还在哪里。我们现在到草木芜生蔓长的泥沼去查看一下，看赤杨、柳树、枫树吸收了多少和熙的阳光，多少滋润的雨露，现在长得有多高。我们要看看它们的枝桠经过发旺的夏天以后，长得多长多粗——不久以后，尚在熟眠中的蓓蕾就要觉醒，“百尺竿头，更进一步”，这些树枝快要和天相齐了。
Occasionally we wade through fields of snow, under whose depths the river is lost for many rods, to appear again to the right or left, where we least expected; still holding on its way underneath, with a faint, stertorous, rumbling sound, as if, like the bear and marmot, it too had hibernated, and we had followed its faint summer trail to where it earthed itself in snow and ice. At first we should have thought that rivers would be empty and dry in mid winter, or else frozen solid till the spring thawed them; but their volume is not diminished even, for only a superficial cold bridges their surfaces. The thousand springs which feed the lakes and streams are flowing still. The issues of a few surface springs only are closed, and they go to swell the deep reservoirs. Nature's wells are below the frost. The summer brooks are not filled with snow-water, nor does the mower quench his thirst with that alone. The streams are swollen when the snow melts in the spring, because nature's work has been delayed, the water being turned into ice and snow, whose particles are less smooth and round, and do not find their level so soon.
我们有时候在雪中践踏而过。雪太深，我们常常因此找不到河的踪迹。走了几十码之遥，河流重新出现，可是似乎改了道，忽焉在左，忽焉在右，大出我们意料之外。河水在冰雪地底下，仍然流淌着，轰轰然可又模糊不清地发出响声，像在打鼾。难道河像熊和土拨鼠一样，也会冬眠不成？夏天浩浩荡荡的大川，现在所剩踪迹无多，我们隐隐约约地找寻过去，总是看不见河，只见一片硬结了的冰雪。我们起先总以为一到深东，河流就会干涸（he），或者至少在春天解冻以前，它是连底冻结的。事实上，河水并未减少，只是表面上结了一层冰雪而已。灌注湖泊溪流的千万个泉源，冬天里依然滚滚而流。只有少数离地较近的泉源，它们的出口处也许已被冻住，但是它们流入地下，地底深处的水库因此益形充实。自然界的井泉是在冰霜的下面。夏天百溪水涨，并不单靠融雪来灌注，刈草的人要解渴，也并不只有融化了的雪水可喝。春天山泉解冻，溪水暴涨，这是因为自然界的工作被耽搁了一会，水变成了质地并不那么光滑圆润的冰和雪，不能那么快就到达各自的水平状态。
Far over the ice, between the hemlock woods and snow-clad hills, stands the pickerel fisher, his lines set in some retired cove, like a Finlander, with his arms thrust into the pouches of his dreadnaught; with dull, snowy, fishy thoughts, himself a finless fish, separated a few inches from his race; dumb, erect, and made to be enveloped in clouds and snows, like the pines on shore. In these wild scenes, men stand about in the scenery, or move deliberately and heavily, having sacrificed the sprightliness and vivacity of towns to the dumb sobriety of nature. He does not make the scenery less wild, more than the jays and muskrats, but stands there as a part of it, as the natives are represented in the voyages of early navigators, at Nootka sound, and on the North-west coast, with their furs about them, before they were tempted to loquacity by a scrap of iron. He belongs to the natural family of man, and is planted deeper in nature and has more root than the inhabitants of towns. Go to him, ask what luck, and you will learn that he too is a worshiper of the unseen. Hear with what sincere deference and waving gesture in his tone, he speaks of the lake pickerel, which he has never seen, his primitive and ideal race of pickerel. He is connected with the shore still, as by a fish-line, and yet remembers the season when he took fish through the ice on the pond, while the peas were up in his garden at home.
冰的那一天，在松林和雪掩盖下的丘陵之间，站着一个钓梭子鱼的渔夫。他在一个幽静的河港里放下他的钓丝。他的双臂插在厚大衣的口袋里面，活像一个芬兰人；他的思想也闷闷地充满了冰雪和鱼腥味，他自己就是一条无的鱼，跟他的同类之间的不同，只是一在冰上，一在冰下，相隔的距离可以用英寸来计算。其人挺身直立，默不作声，四周围绕着的是云和雪，简直同河岸上的松树没有区别。在这荒野地方，人在四处呆然木立，即使有动作，也是迟缓而轻易不肯动弹的，因为自然界本身就是沉默而稳重的，人到了这里，也把城市里那种轻燥盲动的脾气革除了。别以为这种地方有了人迹，看上去就不想大荒原；人在这里，就像蓝鲣鸟和麝鼠一样，成了自然界的一部分。据早期航海家的报道，努特卡海湾和美洲西北海岸一带的土人，周身穿着厚厚的皮衣，见了生人绝不愿意多开口，除非你用一块铁去哄他，才会打开他的话匣子。这里的人，其沉默也同那些土人相仿。这里的人是和自然界打成一片的，他的根深入自然，而且比之城里的人，他的根底更为稳固。走到他那里，问他垂钓的运气如何，你就会发现他也是一个看不见事物的崇拜者。你听听，他以包含多么真诚的敬意的手势和挥动的手势，说到河里的梭子鱼。他和岸还是连着的，如同被一根系有钓钩的钓线连在一起。可他会想起，当他去湖面上的冰窟窿里取鱼，他家菜园子里的豌豆却在长高起来的那个季节。
But now, while we have loitered, the clouds have gathered again, and a few straggling snow-flakes are beginning to descend. Faster and faster they fall, shutting out the distant objects from sight. The snow falls on every wood and field, and no crevice is forgotten; by the river and the pond, on the hill and in the valley. Quadrupeds are confined to their coverts, and the birds sit upon their perches this peaceful hour. There is not so much sound as in fair weather, but silently and gradually every slope, and the gray walls and fences, and the polished ice, and the sere leaves, which were not buried before, are concealed, and the tracks of men and beasts are lost. With so little effort does nature reassert her rule, and blot out the traces of men. Hear how Homer has described the same. The snow flakes fall thick and fast on a winter's day. The winds are lulled, and the snow falls incessant, covering the tops of the mountains, and the hills, and the plains where the lotus tree grows, and the cultivated fields, and they are falling by the inlets and shores of the foaming sea, but are silently dissolved by the waves. The snow levels all things, and infolds them deeper in the bosom of nature, as, in the slow summer, vegetation creeps up to the entablature of the temple, and the turrets of the castle, and helps her to prevail over art.
可是，在我们四处闲晃的时候，暮云四合，雪花断断续续地飘下。雪愈下愈大，远处的东西都迷迷糊糊地逐渐消失不见。雪四处落下，树上、田里、湖边、山上、谷底——没有一个小小的隙缝雪不飘进去。现在的空气变得特别宁静，四足走兽都找地方隐蔽起来了，鸟也栖息不动。声音几乎一点都听不见，比好天气的时候更为静寂。可是，悄悄地，渐渐地，山坡、灰色的墙和篱笆、光滑的冰、干枯的树枝，这一切以前没有被雪盖住的，现在都被埋起来了，人兽的足迹也全都消失。大自然毫不费力地恢复了她的统治，把人为的痕迹一概抹煞。有荷马的咏雪诗为证：“冬天的雪花落得快而密。风不吹了，雪不断地下，盖住了高山和丘陵的顶，也盖住了长酸枣树的平原，以及耕种过的田地；在浪花四起的海湾海岸边上，雪花也落着，可是雪落到海里，就一声不响，被海水融化掉了。”雪填满一切凹陷，使万物齐平，把它们更深地包裹在大自然的怀里；雪的作用同攀藤差不多。在漫长的夏天里，藤爬上了庙宇的柱顶和堡垒的雏堞。它协助自然的力量，遮盖了人工的建筑。
The surly night-wind rustles through the wood, and warns us to retrace our steps, while the sun goes down behind the thickening storm, and birds seek their roosts, and cattle their stalls.
凶暴的吹过树林，簌簌作响。它警告我们，应该回头走了。太阳在渐趋猛烈的风雪后面渐渐西沉，鸟儿纷纷觅路回巢，牛羊也回到它们的圈栏里去了。
Drooping the lab'rer ox
Stands covered o'er with snow, and now demands
The fruit of all his toil.
“ 替农夫工作的老牛，垂着头
站着，身上盖满了雪，现在要求
它一天工作的报酬。”
Though winter is represented in the almanac as an old man, facing the wind and sleet, and drawing his cloak about him, we rather think of him as a merry wood-chopper, and warm-blooded youth, as blithe as summer. The unexplored grandeur of the storm keeps up the spirits of the traveller. It does not trifle with us, but has a sweet earnestness. In winter we lead a more inward life. Our hearts are warm and cheery, like cottages under drifts, whose windows and doors are half concealed, but from whose chimneys the smoke cheerfully ascends. The imprisoning drifts increase the sense of comfort which the house affords, and in the coldest days we are content to sit over the hearth and see the sky through the chimney top, enjoying the quiet and serene life that may be had in a warm corner by the chimney side, or feeling our pulse by listening to the low of cattle in the street, or the sound of the flail in distant barns all the long afternoon. No doubt a skillful physician could determine our health by observing how these simple and natural sounds affected us. We enjoy now, not an oriental, but a boreal leisure, around warm stoves and fire-places, and watch the shadow of motes in the sunbeams.
普通的日历书里总是把冬天画作一个老人的样子，大衣把周身裹得紧紧的，面对着风雪，可是在我们想象之中，他是一个愉快的樵夫，或者是一个热血的青年，同夏天一样的活泼。风雪之中自有其庄严，其奥秘是以前从来没有发现过的，这种精神把游客的精神也给支撑了起来。冬天决不跟人开玩笑，它有一只和蔼诚恳的态度。我们在冬天所过的是更为内向的生活。我们的心仍旧是缓和而快乐的，就像大学之下的农舍一样：门窗半被隐蔽，可是烟囱里面，烟还是很快乐的往上升。房屋里面本来给人以舒服之感，外面风雪大作，把人关在屋里，人因此觉得更为舒服。天气顶冷的日子，我们在壁炉边烤火，从烟囱里面望望外面的天空，心里觉得很满足。我们那时候领略炉边的温暖的静趣，静听街上牛羊的低鸣，远处谷仓在打谷，声音整个下午不停，听见这声音，我们好像听到自己的脉搏在跳动。这种简单而自然的声音，对于我们的精神究竟有什么影响，一个高明的医生，无疑可以根据这一点来断定我们健康的好坏。我们现在围在炉边所享受的，不是东方式的，而是北方式的闲暇，太阳光中飞舞的尘埃，这正是一个有闲人所该仔细观察的。
Sometimes our fate grows too homely and familiarly serious ever to be cured. Consider how for three months the human destiny is wrapped in furs. The good Hebrew revelation takes no cognizance of all this cheerful snow. Is there no religion for the temperate and frigid zones? We know of no scripture which records the pure benignity of the gods on a New England winter night. Their praises have never been sung, only their wrath deprecated. The best scripture, after all, records but a meagre faith. Its saints live reserved and austere. Let a brave devout man spend the year in the woods of Maine or Labrador, and see if the Hebrew scriptures speak adequately of his condition and experience, from the setting in of winter to the breaking up of the ice.
有时候我们的生活庄严得太平凡，太惯适，因此我们的命运不可能是残酷的。且想象：足足欧三个月之久，人类的命运总是裹在皮裘里面。何况雪又是那么使人神清气爽，可是希伯来人的那本圣经并不认识这点事实。难道宗教都是为热带人士而立？没有一种宗教是供温带寒带人士崇拜的吗？在新英格兰的寒夜，天神对于人类纯粹是一片厚恩，可怪的是没有一种宗教是记载这一种的慈悲的。我们从来没有替天神唱赞美诗，我们只是觉得天神在发怒，因此厌恨他们。天下最好的圣经，所记载的只是一种软弱无力的信仰。那些圣人所过的也是一种蔽塞而严酷的生活。假如真正有虔诚之士，不妨让他到气候严寒的美国的缅因州或者加拿大的拉布拉多半岛的森林里去住上一年。他在那里体会过从初冬起到解冻为止这一段生活与经验后，不妨再翻开《圣经》，看看里面讲的话够不够深刻。
Now commences the long winter evening around the farmer’s hearth, when the thoughts of the indwellers travel far abroad, and men are by nature and necessity charitable and liberal to all creatures. Now is the happy resistance to cold, when the farmer reaps his reward, and thinks of his preparedness for winter, and through the glittering panes, sees with equanimity the mansion of the northern bear, for now the storm is over,
现在，在农夫的火炉边上，漫长的冬夜开始了。人虽局处斗室，然而思想无远弗届。人性本是慈善的，到了这时对于天下的一切有情的众生之物，更非慈悲为怀不可。庄稼早已收割，对于严冬已经有备无患，农夫想到这一点，不禁心喜。他现在心平气和地从闪闪烁烁的玻璃窗往外探望“北极熊的家”，现在风暴已过。
the full ethereal round,
Infinite worlds disclosing to the view,
Shines out intensely keen; and all one cope
Of starry glitter glows from pole to pole.
“圆满的天宇，
无数的世界都展现在我们的面前，
天明亮刺眼，从北极到南极
披着一件光闪闪的法衣。”
（完）
