《瓦尔登湖·第二章·我居住的地方，我为何而活·Where I Lived, and What I Lived For》第13节
What news! how much more important to know what that is which was never old! “Kieou-he-yu (great dignitary of the state of Wei) sent a man to Khoung-tseu to know his news. Khoung-tseu caused the messenger to be seated near him, and questioned him in these terms: What is your master doing? The messenger answered with respect: My master desires to diminish the number of his faults, but he cannot come to the end of them. The messenger being gone, the philosopher remarked: What a worthy messenger! What a worthy messenger!” The preacher, instead of vexing the ears of drowsy farmers on their day of rest at the end of the week,—for Sunday is the fit conclusion of an ill-spent week, and not the fresh and brave beginning of a new one,—with this one other draggle-tail of a sermon, should shout with thundering voice, “Pause! Avast! Why so seeming fast, but deadly slow?”
注释摘要
这一小段的核心，是梭罗对“新闻”这个概念所做的一个层次转换。他先用一个中国古典故事把“新闻”一词从报纸新闻里偷换出来，再借机对它最厌恶的现代公共话语方式——牧师的讲道和都市的流言——发动攻击。 故事出自十七世纪法国来华耶稣会士翻译的《中国哲学家孔子》所辑录的《论语》或《孔子集语》的片段，被爱默生在《日晷》杂志上转载过，梭罗接着读到了它。蘧伯玉派使者去问候孔…