介绍:
Walden [ˈwɔldən] (Issue 169) （结束篇）
13. House-Warming (16)
[19] The next winter I used a small cooking-stove for economy, since I did not own the forest; but it did not keep fire so well as the open fireplace. Cooking was then, for the most part, no longer a poetic, but merely a chemic process. It will soon be forgotten, in these days of stoves, that we used to roast potatoes in the ashes, after the Indian fashion. The stove not only took up room and scented the house, but it concealed the fire, and I felt as if I had lost a companion[kəmˈpænjən]. You can always see a face in the fire. The laborer, looking into it at evening, purifies his thoughts of the dross and earthiness which they have accumulated during the day. But I could no longer sit and look into the fire, and the pertinent words of a poet recurred to me with new force. -
'Never, bright flame, may be denied to me
Thy dear, life imaging, close sympathy.
What but my hopes shot[ʃɒt] upward e'er so bright?
What but my fortunes sunk so low in night?
Why art thou banished from our hearth and hall,
Thou who art welcomed and beloved by all?
Was thy existence then too fanciful
For our life's common light, who are so dull?
Did thy bright gleam mysterious converse hold
With our congenial souls? secrets too bold[bəʊld]?
'Well, we are safe and strong, for now we sit
Beside a hearth[haːθ] where no dim shadows flit,
Where nothing cheers nor saddens, but a fire
Warms feet and hands - nor does to more aspire;
By whose compact utilitarian[juːˌtɪlɪˈteərɪən] heap
The present may sit down and go to sleep,
Nor fear the ghosts who from the dim past walked,
And with us by the unequal light of the old wood fire talked.'
Mrs. Hooper
下一个冬天为了节省我用了一个小烧饭炉子取暖，既然我没拥有这森林；可是它不像敞开的壁炉火烧得那么好。而烧饭，大多时候也就变得不那么有诗意，只不过成了化学过程。在这些生炉子的岁月，我们曾经以印第安人的方式，用灰烬来烧熟我们的土豆将很快被忘记。炉子不仅占地方而且让房间有味道，不好的是炉子还隐藏了火，让我感到仿佛失去了一个伴侣。在火中你总能看到一张脸孔。劳动的人，在夜晚冲它凝视，精华掉/自己思想的浮渣和粗卑，那已经积累了一整天了。但是我再也不能坐着看入那火，一个诗人合适的字眼以一种新的力量对我重现。——
“灿烂的火苗，也许从不对我否决
你那可爱、生的浮想、密切的同情。
这除了射出我的希望如此灿烂还能是什么？
除了我的运气在夜晚如此低迷还能是什么？
为什么你要从我们的壁炉和客厅被放逐，
你这样受人人的敬爱和欢迎？
是你的存在过于虚幻
由于我们生命的光如此乏味？
是你那白灼的神秘闪闪
和我们灵魂的捕捉相反？秘密过于大胆？
“哦，我们强壮又安全，因为现在我们坐在
没有朦胧阴影飞掠的火旁，
在那里不喜不忧，可是一团火
在温暖着手脚——也没有更多渴望；
通过那浓缩的能量堆
现在可以安坐和入睡，
不用怕那来自过去朦胧走动的幽灵，
有来自老林子的火不寻常的光娓娓而谈着相随。”
【原注：此章的两段诗歌均来自爱伦.斯特吉斯.胡珀（1812—1848）的“老林火”。美国的超验主义者对他崇尚有加。】
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