《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16节
Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in. I drink at it; but while I drink I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. Its thin current slides away, but eternity remains. I would drink deeper; fish in the sky, whose bottom is pebbly with stars. I cannot count one. I know not the first letter of the alphabet. I have always been regretting that I was not as wise as the day I was born. The intellect is a cleaver; it discerns and rifts its way into the secret of things. I do not wish to be any more busy with my hands than is necessary. My head is hands and feet. I feel all my best faculties concentrated in it. My instinct tells me that my head is an organ for burrowing, as some creatures use their snout and fore-paws, and with it I would mine and burrow my way through these hills. I think that the richest vein is somewhere hereabouts; so by the divining-rod and thin rising vapors I judge; and here I will begin to mine.
注释摘要
梭罗用一种双重的比喻收束整章。时间只是他去垂钓的一条溪流——这不是在否认时间，而是确立了一个姿态：他不被时间带走，而是涉足其中，想停下便停下，想观察便观察。他俯身饮水，同时看见沙质的河床，察觉溪流如何之浅。这“浅”是他在两年独居后对日常奔忙的观感：大多数人沉溺其中的事务与焦虑，并不比一条浅可见底的溪水更深。薄薄的水终日滑动流逝，但永恒留存。至此，一个典型的…