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 1848Henry 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publication until May 1849, and had written a complete draft of his second and most famous book, Walden, which remained unpublished until August 1854.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……