《瓦尔登湖·第四章·声音·Sounds》第14节
I was also serenaded by a hooting owl. Near at hand you could fancy it the most melancholy sound in Nature, as if she meant by this to stereotype and make permanent in her choir the dying moans of a human being,—some poor weak relic of mortality who has left hope behind, and howls like an animal, yet with human sobs, on entering the dark valley, made more awful by a certain gurgling melodiousness,—I find myself beginning with the letters gl when I try to imitate it,—expressive of a mind which has reached the gelatinous mildewy stage in the mortification of all healthy and courageous thought. It reminded me of ghouls and idiots and insane howlings. But now one answers from far woods in a strain made really melodious by distance,—Hoo hoo hoo, hoorer hoo; and indeed for the most part it suggested only pleasing associations, whether heard by day or night, summer or winter. I rejoice that there are owls. Let them do the idiotic and maniacal hooting for men. It is a sound admirably suited to swamps and twilight woods which no day illustrates, suggesting a vast and undeveloped nature which men have not recognized. They represent the stark twilight and unsatisfied thoughts which all have. All day the sun has shone on the surface of some savage swamp, where the single spruce stands hung with usnea lichens, and small hawks circulate above, and the chickadee lisps amid the evergreens, and the partridge and rabbit skulk beneath; but now a more dismal and fitting day dawns, and a different race of creatures awakes to express the meaning of Nature there.
注释摘要
梭罗在这一段里展开了全书最奇诡的声音描写之一——他把猫头鹰的叫声变成了对人类心理地层的一次钻探。近听时，那声音被他比喻为造物主有意留在自然合唱队里的“人类垂死的呻吟”，像是某个已经放弃了希望的可怜残存者，在踏入黑暗山谷时既像野兽般嚎叫、又带着人的呜咽。梭罗特别留意到一种“含混的、带水泡声的旋律性”，他甚至试着用 gl 起头的音节去模仿，说这声音透露的是一种…