《瓦尔登湖·第一章·经济篇·Economy》第38节
I took down this dwelling the same morning, drawing the nails, and removed it to the pond side by small cartloads, spreading the boards on the grass there to bleach and warp back again in the sun. One early thrush gave me a note or two as I drove along the woodland path. I was informed treacherously by a young Patrick that neighbor Seeley, an Irishman, in the intervals of the carting, transferred the still tolerable, straight, and drivable nails, staples, and spikes to his pocket, and then stood when I came back to pass the time of day, and look freshly up, unconcerned, with spring thoughts, at the devastation; there being a dearth of work, as he said. He was there to represent spectatordom, and help make this seemingly insignificant event one with the removal of the gods of Troy. I dug my cellar in the side of a hill sloping to the south, where a woodchuck had formerly dug his burrow, down through sumach and blackberry roots, and the lowest stain of vegetation, six feet square by seven deep, to a fine sand where potatoes would not freeze in any winter. The sides were left shelving, and not stoned; but the sun having never shone on them, the sand still keeps its place. It was but two hours’ work. I took particular pleasure in this breaking of ground, for in almost all latitudes men dig into the earth for an equable temperature. Under the most splendid house in the city is still to be found the cellar where they store their roots as of old, and long after the superstructure has disappeared posterity remark its dent in the earth. The house is still but a sort of porch at the entrance of a burrow.
注释摘要
梭罗买下詹姆斯·科林斯那座棚屋的当天早晨，自己动手把它拆了。拔钉子、小推车运到湖边、把木板摊在草上让太阳晒——这一连串动作写得很从容，好像拆的不是一所房子，而是把一段旧生活拆解成可供重新组织的材料。让木板“漂白并恢复原状”里有一种耐心：他不急着盖，倒像是在等这些受过委屈的木料自己把在铁路上沾染的扭曲吐出来。画眉鸟的叫声被安排在他赶车经过林地小径的那一瞬，仿…