瓦尔登湖三人行（155）第13章（2）《瓦尔登湖》

Walden [ˈwɔldən] (Issue 155) 13. House-Warming (2) Digging one day for fishworms, I discovered the ground-nut(Apios tuberosa) on its string, the potato of the aborigines[ˌæbəˈrɪdʒɪnɪs], a sort of fabulous[ˈfæbjʊləs] fruit, which I had begun to doubt if I had ever dug and eaten in childhood, as I had told, and had not dreamed it. I had often since seen its crumpled red velvety blossom supported by the stems of other plants without knowing it to be the same. Cultivation has well-nigh exterminated it. It has a sweetish taste, much like that of a frost-bitten[ˈbɪtn] potato, and I found it better boiled than roasted. This tuber seemed like a faint promise of Nature to rear her own children and feed them simply here at some future period. In these days of fatted cattle and waving grain-fields this humble root, which was once the totem[ˈtəʊtəm] of an Indian tribe, is quite forgotten, or known only by its flowering vine; but let wild Nature reign here once more, and the tender and luxurious English grains will probably disappear before a myriad of foes, and without the care of man the crow may carry back even the last seed of corn to the great cornfield of the Indian's God in the southwest, whence he is said to have brought it; but the now almost exterminated ground-nut will perhaps revive and flourish in spite of frosts and wildness, prove itself indigenous本地的, and resume its ancient importance and dignity as the diet of the hunter tribe. Some Indian Ceres or Minerva[mɪˈnɜːvə] must have been the inventor and bestower of it; and when the reign of poetry commences here, its leaves and string of nuts may be represented on our works of art. 一天挖蚯蚓，我发现了成串的落花生（学名Apios tuberosa),土著居民的土豆，一种极好的果实，我怀疑在童年的时候是否挖过和吃过，只是听说过，没有梦见过。常常看到它那红色的天鹅绒的花，被另一些植物的根茎支持着，却不知道它就是这玩意儿。耕作已经几乎灭了它。它有种甜甜的味道，很像是冻土豆。我发现它煮了比烤了吃更好。这块茎[jīng]仿佛是大自然养育自己儿女的一个模糊的承诺，在这里的将来的某个时期要简朴地喂养他们。在这些牛膘肥毛壮、田野粮食招摇的日子里，这谦卑的根，曾经是一支印第安人的图腾，已经完全被遗忘了，或仅仅靠它们开花的藤蔓[wàn]识[shí]得；但是如果让野性的大自然再次统治这里，那纤弱繁茂的英国粮食也许就会在满地仇寇前没了踪影，而且没有人的打理，那乌鸦也许回来，从西南衔回最后一颗玉米种子，到印第安大神伟大的玉米田，一旦有传闻他买下它；可是现在，这几乎灭绝了的落花生不怕荒凉和寒霜也许将复苏和繁荣，证明它的合法性，恢复它作为猎人部落食谱的重要和尊严。某个印第安的生殖女神或密涅瓦想必是它的发明人或赠予[yǔ]人；当这里诗歌的王朝到来，落花生的叶子和串珠也许会将我们的艺术品装点。