letter two

第二封信

nbMarch 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44一点什么，到底为什么还要那样做？他们知道面包44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44什么，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