介绍:
Walden [ˈwɔldən] (Issue 180)
14. Former Inhabitants; & Winter Visitors(11)
[17] In the deepest snows, the path which I used from the highway to my house, about half a mile long, might have been represented by a meandering[mɪˈændərɪŋ] dotted line, with wide intervals between the dots. For a week of even weather I took exactly the same number of steps, and of the same length, coming and going, stepping deliberately and with the precision of a pair of dividers in my own deep tracks - to such routine the winter reduces us - yet often they were filled with heaven's own blue. But no weather interfered fatally with my walks, or rather my going abroad, for I frequently tramped eight or ten miles through the deepest snow to keep an appointment with a beech tree, or a yellow birch, or an old acquaintance among the pines; when the ice and snow causing their limbs to droop, and so sharpening their tops, had changed the pines into fir trees; wading to the tops of the highest hills when the show was nearly two feet deep on a level, and shaking down another snow-storm on my head at every step; or sometimes creeping and floundering thither on my hands and knees, when the hunters had gone into winter quarters. One afternoon I amused myself by watching a barred owl (Strix nebulosa) sitting on one of the lower dead limbs of a white pine, close to the trunk, in broad daylight, I standing within a rod of him. He could hear me when I moved and cronched the snow with my feet, but could not plainly see me. When I made most noise he would stretch out his neck, and erect his neck feathers, and open his eyes wide; but their lids soon fell again, and he began to nod. I too felt a slumberous influence after watching him half an hour, as he sat thus with his eyes half open, like a cat, winged brother of the cat. There was only a narrow slit[slɪt] left between their lids, by which be preserved a pennisular relation to me; thus, with half-shut eyes, looking out from the land of dreams, and endeavoring to realize me, vague object or mote that interrupted his visions. At length, on some louder noise or my nearer approach, he would grow uneasy and sluggishly turn about on his perch, as if impatient at having his dreams disturbed; and when he launched himself off and flapped through the pines, spreading his wings to unexpected breadth, I could not hear the slightest sound from them. Thus, guided amid the pine boughs rather by a delicate sense of their neighborhood than by sight, feeling his twilight[ˈtwaɪˌlaɪt] way, as it were, with his sensitive pinions, he found a new perch, where he might in peace await the dawning of his day.
在雪最深的时候，我经常从大路下来去我的房子的那条小径，约半英里长，已经成了蜿蜒[wān yán]的点状线，而在点于点之间还有宽宽的间隔。有一周当天气平稳下来，我走起精准同样多的步数，同样的步长，在这小径上来去，准确地像一幅直角规，就审慎地踏在我自己在雪地留下的步眼上——面对冬天缩减了我们的这种程序——可经常地那些步履印痕也灌注了天堂自身的蔚蓝。但是没有天气对我的散步造成致命的干扰，甚或我的外出，因为我经常沉重地踩踏八到十英里最厚的雪去和一株山毛榉树，或一颗黄桦木约会；当冰雪让它们的枝条下垂，于是更俊俏了它们的尖顶，已经把那些松树变成了冷杉；涉雪去那最高小山的尖顶当雪的水平深度几乎有两英尺，每走一步都在头顶不时地摇落另一场雪暴；或时而在我手和膝那里爬行和挣扎，当猎人们都已回了冬天的住所。一天下午，我通过观察一只横斑猫头鹰(Strix nebulosa)消遣。他大白天坐在一棵白松低矮一些的一根死枝上，紧贴着树身，我站在离他一杆之内。他能听到我移动当我用脚咯吱咯吱踩雪，可是看不清我。当我的响动最大的时候，他就抻直了脖子，竖起了脖颈[gěng]上的毛；把两眼睛瞪圆了，可是它们的眼睑[jiǎn]很快又落下了，而且开始打盹儿。在看了他半小时那样子后我也感到像是被催了眠睡意蒙眬。他就这样坐着眼半张，像只猫，猫的带翅膀的兄弟。在眼睑[jiǎn]之间就留下窄窄一条缝儿，从那缝隙里和我保持着一种半岛间关系；就这样，眼半闭，往外打量，从一片梦幻的土地，是决心要认识我——这打扰他视觉的模糊的物体或微粒。最终，受到更大一些声响或我更加接近的惊扰，他变得越来越不安，在栖息的枝头迟缓地转着身，仿佛是对他的梦被袭扰不耐烦；而当他弹射出自己和在松林间拍翅，双翼扩展到预想不到的宽度，而且我听不到它们最细微的声响。就这样，在松枝间导航，凭了他那邻居兄弟细腻的感觉而不是视力，去踏上自己黎明的道路。就像以往，凭借自己敏感的鸟翼，他找到新的栖息枝，在那里他也许可以平和地等待自己破晓的日子。
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