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P.03

       众人熙攘，寂寞而绝望地活着。所谓听天由命，正是对绝望的肯定。从绝望的城市走入绝望的乡村，你不得不用鼠辈的勇毅自嘲。有一种绝望，典型却不由自主，甚至隐藏在人类那所谓的游戏与娱乐之后。其间实则并无游戏，因为游戏紧随着工作。然而，不做绝望之事是智慧的一个特点。

The mass of men lead lives of desperation.What is called resignationis confirmed desperation. From the desperate city you go into the desperate country, and have to console yourself with the bravery of minks and muskrats. A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind. There is no play in them, for this comes after work. But it is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.

P.04

       他们也诚恳地认为再无其他选择了。而清醒健康的人都会记得太阳每天都会光亮的升起。抛弃我们的偏见吧，任何时候都还来得及。无论多么古老的思想与行为，如果未经验证，都不可轻信。今天人人都附和或默认的真理或许明天就会变成谬误，曾让人们相信，能在他们的田地撒下甘霖的一团祥云，只不过是一场云烟。

       事实上，老人并不能给年轻人什么金玉良言，他们自己的经验偏狭，他们的一生曾充满惨痛的失败，他们不得不承认这些失败都是由自己一手造成的；也许他们依然保留着某种信仰，掩饰着他们的经历，而他们也不过比曾经的自己少年轻了一点。

       被我的邻居称作是好的，一大部分在我的灵魂深处却认为是坏的，如果我有什么可悔恨的话，那极有可能是我的良好言行。我是中了什么邪，这么循规蹈矩？老人啊，你尽可能地去说那些最具智慧的言语吧——你已经活了七十岁，不能不算一种光荣了——而我却听到一个不可抗拒的声音，要我背弃你的一切。新的一代抛弃了前一代的业绩，如同抛弃一条被搁浅的船。

Yet they honestly think there is no choice left. But alert and healthy natures remember that the sun rose clear. It is never too late to give up our prejudices. No way of thinking or doing, however ancient, can be trusted without proof. What everybody echoes or in silence passes by as true to-day may turn out to be falsehood tomorrow, mere smoke of opinion, which some had trusted for a cloud that would sprinkle fertilizing rain on their fields.

Practically, the old have no very important advice to give the young, their own experience has been so partial, and their lives have been such miserable failures, for private reasons, as they must believe; and it may be that they have some faith left which belives that experience, and they are only less young than they were.

The greater part of what my neighbors call good I believe in my soul to be bad, and if I repent of anything, it is very likely to be my good behavior. What demon possessed me that I behaved so well? You may say the wisest thing you can, old man,--you who have lived seventy years, not without honor of a kind,--I hear an irresistible voice which invites me away from all that, One generation abandons the enterprises of another like stranded vessels.

P.46

       从我房顶吹过的风，像扫过山脊，携着隐隐约约，断断续续只有天堂才会有的人间仙乐。

       除了一只小船，我曾经拥有的房产就是一定帐篷了。夏季旅游时，我偶尔会带上它。现在它仍卷放在我的阁楼上。而那小船呢，几经转手后，已经消失在时光的溪流里了。

       这更为牢靠的栖身之处，让我在这世上的生活条件有了很大的改善。屋架如此单薄，但它毕竟为我提供了一道水晶般的保护层，与筑造者相互感应。

       我不仅与那些时常飞进花园或果园的鸟雀极为亲近，而且与森林中那些更小巧的，更易受到惊吓的鸟雀亲近，它们从不，或极少为村民唱小夜曲——它们是画眉，韦氏鸫，猩红唐纳雀，野山雀，三声夜莺，和其他许多鸟雀。

       我突然发现，自己与群鸟为邻，不是因为我囚禁了一只鸟雀，而是因为我把自己关在了他们的附近。

The winds which passed over my dwelling were such as sweep over  the ridges of mountains, bearing the broken strains, or celestial parts only, of terrestrial music.

The only house I had been the owner of before, if I except a boat, was a tent, which I used occasionally when making excursions in the summer, and this is still rolled up in my garret; but the boat, after passing from hand to hand, has gone down the stream of time.

With this more substantial shelter about me, I had made some progress toward sttling in the world. This frame, so slightly clad, was a sort of crystallization around me, and reacted on the builder.

I was not only nearer to some of those which commonly frequent the garden and the orchard, but to those wilder and more thrilling songters of the forest which never, or rarely, serenade a villager,--the wood--thrush, the veery, the scarlet tanager, he field-sparrow, the whippoorwill, and many others.

I found myself suddenly neighbor to the birds; not by having imprisoned one, but having caged myself near them.