《瓦尔登湖·第四章·声音·Sounds》第7节
I watch the passage of the morning cars with the same feeling that I do the rising of the sun, which is hardly more regular. Their train of clouds stretching far behind and rising higher and higher, going to heaven while the cars are going to Boston, conceals the sun for a minute and casts my distant field into the shade, a celestial train beside which the petty train of cars which hugs the earth is but the barb of the spear. The stabler of the iron horse was up early this winter morning by the light of the stars amid the mountains, to fodder and harness his steed. Fire, too, was awakened thus early to put the vital heat in him and get him off. If the enterprise were as innocent as it is early! If the snow lies deep, they strap on his snow-shoes, and with the giant plow, plow a furrow from the mountains to the seaboard, in which the cars, like a following drill-barrow, sprinkle all the restless men and floating merchandise in the country for seed. All day the fire-steed flies over the country, stopping only that his master may rest, and I am awakened by his tramp and defiant snort at midnight, when in some remote glen in the woods he fronts the elements incased in ice and snow; and he will reach his stall only with the morning star, to start once more on his travels without rest or slumber. Or perchance, at evening, I hear him in his stable blowing off the superfluous energy of the day, that he may calm his nerves and cool his liver and brain for a few hours of iron slumber. If the enterprise were as heroic and commanding as it is protracted and unwearied!
注释摘要
梭罗在这段文字里把火车当作一种准天象来写。他说自己观看早班列车就像观看日出，两者几乎一样准时。列车拉出的蒸汽长云不断升起，仿佛要升上天国，但列车本身却贴着地面前往波士顿；云遮住太阳片刻，把远方的田野投进阴影——梭罗称这列蒸汽云为“天国的列车”，而底下那列贴地的客车不过是“矛尖上的倒钩”。这个倒钩的比喻来自猎鲸或战矛的形制，主刃两侧有附属的小倒钩，梭罗借它表…