John H.Bradley
“…I was rich,if not in money,in sunny hours and summer days.”
—Henry David Thoreau
When Thoreau wrote that line,he was thinking of the Walden.Pond he knew as a boy.
Woodchoppers and the Iron Horse had not yet greatly damaged the beauty of its setting.A boy could go to the pond and lie on his back against the seat of a boat,lazily drfiting from shore to shore while the loons dived and the swallows dipped around him.Thoreau loved to recall such sunny hours and summer days”when idleness was the most attractive and productive business.”
I too was a boy in love with a pond,rich in sunny hours and summer days.Sun and summer are still what the always were,but the boy and the pond changed.The boy,who is now a man,no longer finds much time for idle drifting.The pond has been annexed by a great city.The swamps where herons once hunted are now drained and filled with hourses .The bay where water lilies quietly floated is now a harbor for motor boats.In short,everything that the boy loved no longer exists—- except in the man’s memory of it.
参考译文:
"我是富足的,即使没有万贯家资,却也拥有无数个艳阳天与夏日."---——梭罗
当梭罗写下这句话时,他在怀念儿时的瓦尔登湖.
那时,伐木者与火车还未严重破坏湖畔美丽的景色.小男孩可以走向湖边,仰卧小舟,悠闲地飘荡在两岸之间.在他周围,潜水鸟在戏水,还有燕子轻盈地掠过湖面.梭罗喜欢回忆这样的艳阳天与夏日,"此时,悠闲也便成为最具有魅力且颇有裨益的事情."
我也曾经是个热爱湖泊的小男孩,也拥有无数个艳阳天与夏日.阳光与夏日依旧,而小男孩与湖泊却已改变. 小男孩已长大成人,再也没有时间去湖上漂游.而湖泊已被大城市所吞并.苍鹭曾经觅食的沼泽,也已干涸,上面盖满了房舍.莲花漂浮的湖湾,也成了汽艇停泊的港口.
总之,小男孩所喜爱的都已不复存在-----一切只停留在他的记忆里.
