0103 I think that we may safely

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I think that we may safely trust a good deal more than we do. Nature is as well adapted to our weakness as to our strength. The incessant anxiety and strain of some is a well-nigh incurable form of disease. 
我想，我们可以笃笃定定地相信，比我们实际上相信还要多得多 的事物。大自然既能适应我们的长处，也能适应我们的弱点。有些人 无穷无尽地紧张焦虑，成了一种几近不治的痼疾。
We are made to exaggerate the importance of what work we do; and yet how much is not done by us! How vigilant we are! determined not to live by faith if we can avoid it...
我们生来就爱夸大我 们所做工作的重要性，可是又有多少工作我们还没有去做？我们该有多么谨小慎微！我们决心 不靠信教过活，只要能不信教的话…
 This is the only way, we say; but there are as many ways as there can be drawn radii from one centre. All change is a miracle to contemplate; but it is a miracle which is taking place every instant. Confucius said, "To know that we know what we know, and that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge." When  one  man  has  reduced  a  fact  of the  imagination  to be  a  fact  to his understanding, I foresee that all men at length establish their lives on that basis.
我们说：这就是唯 一的生活方式；既然从一个中心可以画出好多好多半径来，生活方式一 样也有好多好多的。一切变革都是奇迹，值得思考。但是这个奇迹又又是瞬息万变的。孔子说过：“知之 为知之，不知为不知，是知也。”有一个人将想象的事实归纳为自己 所理解的事实时，我敢预言说，所有的人最终都会在那个基础上打造他 们的生活。
Let us consider for a moment what most of the trouble and anxiety which I have referred to is about… The necessaries of life for man in this climate may, accurately  enough,  be distributed under  the several  heads  of Food,  Shelter, Clothing, and Fuel… At the present day, and in this country, as I find by my own experience, a few implements, a knife, an axe, a spade, a wheelbarrow, etc., and for the studious, lamplight, stationery, and access to a few books, rank next to necessaries, and can all be obtained at a trifling cost… Most of the luxuries, and many of the so-called comforts of life, are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances  to the elevation  of mankind. 
让我们略费片刻，思考一下，我在前文提及的麻烦和焦虑，在这个气候区，人们的生活必需品可以极其精 确地分为几大类：食物、住所、衣服和燃料；时下在这个国家，根据我的亲身经历，我觉得只可有几件工具：一 把刀、一柄斧头、一把铁锹、一辆手推车等，就可以过日子了。对于饱 学之士，另添一盏灯、一些文具，再加上几本书，这些均属次要的必需 品，稍微花上几个铜子儿就能获得。绝大多数奢侈品，以及许多所谓使生活舒适的物品，不仅不是必 不可缺的，而且还极大地有碍于人类进步。
 The ancient  philosophers,  Chinese, Hindoo, Persian, and Greek, were a class than which none has been poorer in outward riches,  none so rich  in inward.  
古代哲学家，不论在中 国、印度、波斯还是希腊，都是同一种类型的人，从外表看，他们比谁 都穷；从内心看，他们却比谁都富。
None can be an impartial  or  wise observer of human life but from the vantage ground of what we should call voluntary poverty. Of a life of luxury the fruit is luxury, whether in agriculture, or commerce, or literature, or art. 
一个人唯有站在我们称之为甘于清贫的有 利地位上，方能成为人类生活的公正、睿智的观察家。不论在农业、商 业、文学或艺术中，奢侈生活结出的果实也都是奢侈。
There are nowadays professors of philosophy,  but not philosophers. To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor even to found a school, but so to love wisdom as to live according to its dictates, a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity, and trust. It is to solve some of the problems of life, not only theoretically, but practically…
时下哲学教授比 比皆是，但哲学家一个也没有。做一个哲学家，不仅要有奥博的思想，乃至 于建立一个学派，而且还要热爱智慧，按照智慧的要求，过一种简朴、 独立、豁达大度与富有信心的生活。不仅要从理论上，而且还要在实践 中，解决生活中的一些问题。
When a man…has obtained those things which are necessary to life, there is another alternative than to obtain the superfluities; and that is, to adventure on life now, his vacation from humbler toil having commenced. 
他获得了这些生活必需品之后， 就不会再要那些剩余品，而要选择另外的东西了；那就是说，要摆脱卑微 的劳动，开始度假，亲历生活中的奇遇，
The soil, it appears, is suited to the seed, for it has sent its radicle downward, and it may now send its shoot upward also with confidence. 
这里的泥土看来对种子是很相宜 的，因为泥土已使胚根向下延伸，随后又信心十足地使嫩茎不断朝上茁 长°
Why has man rooted himself thus firmly in the  earth,  but  that  he  may  rise  in  the  same  proportion  into  the  heavens above?
人既然那么牢牢地在大地上扎了根，为什么就不能同样恰如其分地升 高到天空中去呢？
—for the nobler plants are valued for the fruit they bear at last in the air and light, far from the ground, and are not treated like the humbler esculents, which, though they may be biennials, are cultivated only till they have perfected their root, and often cut down at top for this purpose, so that most would not know them in their flowering season.
——因为这是名贵植物的价值，是由远离地面、最终在 空气和阳光下结出的果实来评定的，跟比较低等的菜蔬不可相提并论。那 些菜蔬，哪怕是两年生的品种，也仅仅被栽培到根须长好为止，而上头枝 叶通常都给剪去，因此，到了开花的季节，人们多半认不得它们了。
I do not mean to prescribe rules to strong and valiant natures, who will mind their own affairs whether in heaven or hell, and perchance build more magnificently   and   spend   more   lavishly   than   the   richest,   without   ever impoverishing  themselves,  nor  to  those  who  find  their  encouragement  and inspiration in precisely the present condition of things, and cherish it with the fondness and enthusiasm of lovers—and, to some extent, I reckon myself in this number;  
我可不打算给那些坚强勇敢的人厘定什么规章，不论在天堂还是 在地狱，他们都会专心于自己的事情；或许他们的住宅造得比富豪们 的更豪华，挥霍得也更惊人，却并没有因此而一贫如洗，他们是从各种事 物现状中得到鼓励和灵感，他们以恋人般的狂热珍爱现状——从某种程 度上说，我想，我自己就是归属于这类人；
I  do  not  speak  to  those  who  are  well   employed,   in  whatever
 
circumstances,  and they  know whether they  are well  employed or  not;—but mainly to the mass of men who are discontented, and idly complaining of the hardness of their lot or of the times, when they might improve them. 
还有一些人，我也不想对那 些不管在什么情况下都能安居乐业的人说些什么，反正他们都知道自己 是不是安居乐业——我主要是向那些心怀不满的人说话，他们原本可以 改善自己的生活，但他们老是徒然地诉苦说自己命运不济，时世艰难。
There are some who complain most energetically and inconsolably of any, because they are, as they say, doing their duty. I also have in my mind that seemingly wealthy, but most terribly impoverished class of all, who have accumulated dross, but know not how to use it, or get rid of it, and thus have forged their own golden or silver fetters.
有些人对任何事情都叫苦不迭，使人没法给予安慰，因为据他们自己所 说，他们这是在尽他们的职责。在我心目中还有一种人，他们看上去很 富，实际上却是各类人当中最穷的人，他们尽管攒下了一点破铜烂铁什 么的，却不知道如何使用它，也不知道如何摆脱它，就这么着拿金银给 他们自己打造了一副镣铐。
If I should attempt to tell how I have desired to spend my life in years past, it would probably surprise those of my readers who are somewhat acquainted with its actual history; it would certainly astonish those who know nothing about it. I will only hint at some of the enterprises which I have cherished.
我要是试图说一说，我希望在过去几年里如何将自己的生活给打发 过去，也许会让多少有所了解实际情况的读者感到惊喜，当然也会让全 然不了解的人吃惊，我只是稍微谈一谈我心爱的事儿就得了。
In any weather, at any hour of the day or night, I have been anxious to improve the nick of time, and notch it on my stick too; to stand on the meeting of two eternities, the past and future, which is precisely the present moment; to toe that line.
 You will pardon some obscurities, for there are more secrets in my trade than in most men's, and yet not voluntarily kept, but inseparable from its very nature…
不管天色阴晴，也不管白昼黑夜，我任何时候都渴望及时改善自己 眼下的境况，并在自己的手杖上刻下记号；站在过去与未来这两个永恒的真理的交会点上，恰好就是现在这个时刻；亦即脚尖抵着起跑线。
请 原谅我说话有些晦涩，因为我的行当秘密要比大多数人的行当多得多， 不是我存心要保密，而是我这个行当离不开这个特点。
To anticipate, not the sunrise and the dawn merely, but, if possible, Nature herself! How many mornings, summer and winter, before yet any neighbor was stirring about his business, have I been about  mine! No doubt,  many  of my townsmen have met  me returning  from this  enterprise,  farmers  starting  for
 
Boston in the twilight, or woodchoppers going to their work.
殷切期望着，不仅观看日出和黎明，如有可能，还可一睹大自然 本色！无论寒冬酷暑多少个清晨，左邻右舍还没有起来张罗这张罗那之前，我早就开始忙自己的事儿了。我有很多的乡友，里头有天蒙蒙亮往 波士顿赶的农夫，也有出门干活去的樵夫，毫无疑问，他们都碰到过我 一大早干完活儿回来。
So many autumn, ay, and winter days, spent outside the town, trying to hear what was in the wind…or waiting at evening on the hill-tops for the sky to fall,  that  I  might  catch  something,  though  I  never  caught  much,  and  that, manna-wise, would dissolve again in the sun.…
有多少个秋天，是的，还有多少个冬天，我是在镇外度过的，试图 谛听风中有什么好听的，听后将它精准地播发岀去！或者傍晚时分在山巅上等待暮色徐徐降临，也许我 会捕捉到一点儿什么的——尽管我捕捉到的从来就不多——何况这不多 的东西如同“天粮”似的会在阳光下消融殆尽。
In short, I went on thus, faithfully minding my business, till it became more and more evident that my townsmen would not after all admit me into the list of town officers, nor make my place a sinecure with a moderate allowance. However, I have not set my heart on that.
总而言之，我就这么着干过，我忠 心耿耿地一门心思扑在我的工作上，直到后来事态越来越明显，我的乡 友们压根儿不把我归入本镇公职人员之列，也不让我挂个闲职，拿一点 儿菲薄的津贴。好在我也 没有把这件事放在心上。