《瓦尔登湖·第十四章·旧居民、冬天的访客·Former Inhabitants and Winter Visitors》第7节
I am not aware that any man has ever built on the spot which I occupy. Deliver me from a city built on the site of a more ancient city, whose materials are ruins, whose gardens cemeteries. The soil is blanched and accursed there, and before that becomes necessary the earth itself will be destroyed. With such reminiscences I repeopled the woods and lulled myself asleep. At this season I seldom had a visitor. When the snow lay deepest no wanderer ventured near my house for a week or fortnight at a time, but there I lived as snug as a meadow mouse, or as cattle and poultry which are said to have survived for a long time buried in drifts, even without food; or like that early settler’s family in the town of Sutton, in this state, whose cottage was completely covered by the great snow of 1717 when he was absent, and an Indian found it only by the hole which the chimney’s breath made in the drift, and so relieved the family. But no friendly Indian concerned himself about me; nor needed he, for the master of the house was at home. The Great Snow! How cheerful it is to hear of! When the farmers could not get to the woods and swamps with their teams, and were obliged to cut down the shade trees before their houses, and when the crust was harder, cut off the trees in the swamps, ten feet from the ground, as it appeared the next spring.
注释摘要
梭罗在这一段里做了一个很微妙的手势：他刚刚花了不少篇幅，把他湖边的邻居们——那些已经死去、迁走、烧掉房子的旧居民——一个一个地唤回来，讲他们的名字、来历、劳作和结局，仿佛在雪夜的炉火边重新把人间的声息塞回林间空地。然后他忽然转身，说他并未意识到有谁在他正占据的这块地上盖过房子。这一退一进，其实在重画一幅地图：他把别人安置在记忆里，而把自己的立足点变成一片没…