《瓦尔登湖·第十二章·禽兽为邻·Brute Neighbors》第3节
Poet. How now, Hermit, is it too soon? I have got just thirteen whole ones, beside several which are imperfect or undersized; but they will do for the smaller fry; they do not cover up the hook so much. Those village worms are quite too large; a shiner may make a meal off one without finding the skewer. Hermit. Well, then, let’s be off. Shall we to the Concord? There’s good sport there if the water be not too high. Why do precisely these objects which we behold make a world? Why has man just these species of animals for his neighbors; as if nothing but a mouse could have filled this crevice? I suspect that Pilpay & Co. have put animals to their best use, for they are all beasts of burden, in a sense, made to carry some portion of our thoughts. The mice which haunted my house were not the common ones, which are said to have been introduced into the country, but a wild native kind not found in the village. I sent one to a distinguished naturalist, and it interested him much. When I was building, one of these had its nest underneath the house, and before I had laid the second floor, and swept out the shavings, would come out regularly at lunch time and pick up the crumbs at my feet. It probably had never seen a man before; and it soon became quite familiar, and would run over my shoes and up my clothes. It could readily ascend the sides of the room by short impulses, like a squirrel, which it resembled in its motions. At length, as I leaned with my elbow on the bench one day, it ran up my clothes, and along my sleeve, and round and round the paper which held my dinner, while I kept the latter close, and dodged and played at bopeep with it; and when at last I held still a piece of cheese between my thumb and finger, it came and nibbled it, sitting in my hand, and afterward cleaned its face and paws, like a fly, and walked away.
注释摘要
诗人拿着挖好的十三条整虫外加几条残次品回来，打断了隐士的冥想。他的口吻很实际：村子里挖到的虫子太大，遮住了鱼钩，小鱼啃得走却咬不到钩尖，不如这些小号货色合用。隐士从思绪中回过神来，提议去康科德河——只要水不太高，那边渔获不错。 但梭罗笔锋一转，让隐士在答应出发的同时抛出一连串问题：为什么偏偏是眼前这些事物构成一个世界？人为什么以这些物种为邻，仿佛除了老鼠就…