介绍:
瓦尔登湖三人行（110）现场直播 私人订制
时间：2021年10月19日 晚8:30——9:40
汉英文本
Walden [ˈwɔldən] (Issue 110)
9. The Ponds (4)
[6] The water is so transparent that the bottom can easily be discerned at the depth of twenty-five or thirty feet. Paddling over it, you may see, many feet beneath the surface, the schools of perch and shiners, perhaps only an inch long, yet the former easily distinguished by their transverse[trænzˈvɜːs] bars, and you think that they must be ascetic[əˈsetɪk] fish that find a subsistence[səbˈsɪstəns] there. Once, in the winter, many years ago, when I had been cutting holes through the ice in order to catch pickerel, as I stepped ashore I tossed my axe back on to the ice, but, as if some evil genius had directed it, it slid[slɪd] four or five rods directly into one of the holes, where the water was twenty-five feet deep. Out of curiosity, I lay down on the ice and looked through the hole, until I saw the axe a little on one side, standing on its head, with its helve柄erect and gently swaying to and fro with the pulse of the pond; and there it might have stood erect and swaying till in the course of time the handle rotted off, if I had not disturbed it. Making another hole directly over it with an ice chisel[ˈtʃɪzl] which I had, and cutting down the longest birch which I could find in the neighborhood with my knife, I made a slip-noose[nuːs], which I attached to its end, and, letting it down carefully, passed it over the knob of the handle, and drew it by a line along the birch, and so pulled the axe out again.
[7] The shore is composed of a belt of smooth rounded white stones like paving-stones, excepting one or two short sand beaches, and is so steep that in many places a single leap will carry you into water over your head; and were it not for its remarkable transparency, that would be the last to be seen of its bottom till it rose on the opposite side. Some think it is bottomless. It is nowhere muddy, and a casual observer would say that there were no weeds at all in it; and of noticeable plants, except in the little meadows recently overflowed, which do not properly belong to it, a closer scrutiny does not detect a flag nor a bulrush[ˈbʊlˌrʌʃ], nor even a lily, yellow or white, but only a few small heart-leaves and potamogetons[ˌpɒtəməʊˈgiːtɒns], and perhaps a water-target or two; all which however a bather[ˈbeɪðə] might not perceive; and these plants are clean and bright like the element they grow in. The stones extend a rod or two into the water, and then the bottom is pure sand, except in the deepest parts, where there is usually a little sediment沉积物, probably from the decay of the leaves which have been wafted[wɒft] on to it so many successive falls, and a bright green weed is brought up on anchors[ˈæŋkəs] even in midwinter.
水是如此的透明以至于可以轻易分辨出二十五到三十英尺深的湖底。在水面荡舟，你或许能看到好多英尺深的水下，成群的鲈鱼和银条鱼，也许仅有一英寸长，前者是很好区分的，它们身上有横向的道子，你一定认为它们都是些苦行僧鱼，竟然能在那里存活。好多年前一个冬天，我在冰上凿洞逮梭子鱼，在我上岸时斧子不慎撇回了冰上，但是，就好像是受了某些邪恶精灵的引导，它滑了四五杆远正正掉在其中一个凿出的洞里，那下面的水有二十五英尺深。出于好奇，我爬在冰上从洞子里望去，直到看见那斧子微微偏向一边，头冲下站着，斧柄直直地随着湖浪温柔地摇摆；在那里，如果我不去打扰，它可能直立和摆到时间的尽头。在它的正上方，我用一把冰凿又凿了个洞，用我的刀子砍下一根我周围最长的白桦树干，在它的尾端绑了一个滑扣，然后从洞子里小心翼翼放下去，把滑扣套到斧子的把手上，就这样用系在树干的一根绳子，把那斧子又一次拉出来。
湖岸是由一条带子似的圆圆光滑的白石组成类似于铺路石，除了一两处短短的沙滩，而且是如此地陡峭，很多地方简单一跃就能让你进入没顶的水里；如果不是因为那出奇的透明，这便是它的底部最后一次被看到，直到它从对岸上升。有些人认为瓦尔登湖是无底的。没有一处是泥泞的，于是一个随意的观察者会说湖里一点水草都没有，或其他引人注意的植物，除了新近小草地飘来一些，可那不属于它。一次就近查看也探测不到一棵菖蒲或莎草，甚至也没有百合，不管是黄的还是白的，仅有几片小小的心形叶子和龙须眼子菜，再加一两颗水茴香；而所有这些沐浴其中的人或许观察不到；而这些植物干净而光亮就像他们生长其中的物质。那些石子延伸一两杆远没入水中，湖底是纯沙，除了最深的部分通常有一些沉积物，也许是经过好多个秋天持续不断累积的腐叶。即便是隆冬，从那里提上来的锚链都带着闪闪发绿的水草。
【注】题图来自网络：鲈鱼（perch）
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