介绍:
Walden [ˈwɔldən] (Issue 146)
12. Brute Neighbors (5)
[11] It is remarkable how many creatures live wild and free though secret in the woods, and still sustain themselves in the neighborhood of towns, suspected by hunters only. How retired the otter[ˈɒtə] manages to live here! He grows to be four feet long, as big as a small boy, perhaps without any human being getting a glimpse[glɪmps] of him. I formerly saw the raccoon[rəˈkuːn] in the woods behind where my house is built, and probably still heard their whinnering at night. Commonly I rested an hour or two in the shade[ʃeɪd] at noon, after planting, and ate my lunch, and read a little by a spring which was the source of a swamp[swɒmp] and of a brook, oozing from under Brister's Hill, half a mile from my field. The approach to this was through a succession of descending grassy hollows, full of young pitch pines, into a larger wood about the swamp. There, in a very secluded and shaded spot, under a spreading white pine, there was yet a clean, firm sward[swɔːd] to sit on. I had dug out the spring and made a well of clear gray water, where I could dip up a pailful without roiling it, and thither I went for this purpose almost every day in midsummer, when the pond was warmest. Thither, too, the woodcock[ˈwʊdˌkɒk]丘鹬led her brood[bruːd], to probe the mud for worms, flying but a foot above them down the bank, while they ran in a troop beneath; but at last, spying me, she would leave her young and circle round and round me, nearer and nearer till within four or five feet, pretending broken wings and legs, to attract my attention, and get off her young, who would already have taken up their march, with faint, wiry[ˈwaɪərɪ] peep, single file through the swamp, as she directed. Or I heard the peep of the young when I could not see the parent bird. There too the turtle doves斑鸠 sat over the spring, or fluttered from bough to bough of the soft white pines over my head; or the red squirrel['skwɪrəl], coursing down the nearest bough, was particularly familiar and inquisitive. You only need sit still long enough in some attractive spot in the woods that all its inhabitants may exhibit[ɪɡˈzɪbɪt] themselves to you by turns.
值得注意的是有多少动物野性和自由自在地在林中生活，虽然是隐秘地，仍然在靠近镇子的地方维持着自身，只是被猎人们怀疑。那想办法在那里生存的水獭多么幽闭啊！他长到四英尺长了，个头像个小男孩，也许还没得到任何人类一瞥[piē]。我以前看到过浣熊，就在我建的房子后面的林子，也许仍能听到他们在夜晚哼哼唧唧。通常在种地以后，我正午在树荫里休息一两个小时吃我的午餐，靠着泉边读点东西，那泉水是一片沼泽和一条小溪的源头，是从布里斯特山渗出来的，离我的田地半英里。接近它，是向下穿过一系列的草穴，那里布满小油松，进入沼泽周围一个更大的林子。在那里，一个非常封闭和树荫茂盛的地方，在一片白松里，还有一片干净、结实的草地可以坐。我挖了那泉眼，造了一个盛着清澈深褐色水的井，那里，我可以舀起一满桶不用煮沸，而且仲夏当湖到了最热的时候，我几乎每天为此目的/去那儿。也就是在那里，那山鹬[yù]领着她的雏儿在找寻泥里的虫儿，在那岸边离雏儿一英尺的头顶上下翻飞，雏儿就在下面列队奔跑。终于那母山鹬发现了我，她就离开孩子们绕着我打转儿，越转越近直到四、五英尺的距离内，装着折了翅和跛了腿吸引我的注意，诱我离开她的崽子们，它们已经准备好行军了，微弱地吱吱叫着，要在母亲的指引下成单列穿过沼泽。或者我听到小家伙们的叽叽可看不到它们母亲。在那里，还有斑鸠站在泉眼的上方，在我头顶柔软的白松枝头，扑扇着翅膀从一根树枝到另一根树枝；或红松鼠跑下最近的树枝，它们对我相当的熟悉和好奇。你只需要在林子里某个有吸引力的地方静坐足够长时间，它所有的居民就可能依次让你把他们展览。
大家还在听
