介绍:
Walden [ˈwɔldən] (Issue 172)
14. Former Inhabitants; & Winter Visitors(3)
[4] Down the road, on the right hand, on Brister's Hill, lived Brister Freeman, "a handy Negro," slave of Squire Cummings once - there where grow still the apple trees which Brister planted and tended; large old trees now, but their fruit still wild and ciderish to my taste. Not long since I read his epitaph in the old Lincoln burying-ground, a little on one side, near the unmarked graves of some British grenadiers who fell in the retreat from Concord - where he is styled "Sippio Brister" - Scipio Africanus he had some title to be called - "a man of color," as if he were discolored. It also told me, with staring emphasis, when he died; which was but an indirect way of informing me that he ever lived. With him dwelt Fenda, his hospitable wife, who told fortunes, yet pleasantly - large, round, and black, blacker than any of the children of night, such a dusky orb[ɔːb] as never rose on Concord['kɒŋkɔːd] before or since.
[5] Farther down the hill, on the left, on the old road in the woods, are marks of some homestead[ˈhəʊmˌsted] of the Stratton family; whose orchard once covered all the slope of Brister's Hill, but was long since killed out by pitch pines, excepting a few stumps, whose old roots furnish still the wild stocks of many a thrifty village tree.
[6] Nearer yet to town, you come to Breed's location, on the other side of the way, just on the edge of the wood; ground famous for the pranks of a demon not distinctly named in old mythology, who has acted a prominent and astounding part in our New England life, and deserves, as much as any mythological character, to have his biography written one day; who first comes in the guise of a friend or hired man, and then robs and murders the whole family - New-England Rum. But history must not yet tell the tragedies enacted here; let time intervene in some measure to assuage[əˈsweɪdʒ] and lend an azure tint to them. Here the most indistinct and dubious[ˈdjuːbɪəs] tradition says that once a tavern stood; the well the same, which tempered the traveller's beverage and refreshed his steed. Here then men saluted one another, and heard and told the news, and went their ways again.
沿着大路在右首，布里斯特山上，住过布里斯特•弗里曼，“一个手脚麻利的黑人，”一度是乡绅卡明斯的奴隶——那里，弗里曼种下和照顾过的苹果树仍在长着；现在都成很大的老树了，但是它们的果实我尝起来仍有点野生和怪味。直到我在老林肯镇的墓地读了他的墓铭，离一些不知名的英国掷弹兵的坟墓不远，他们是在从康科德撤退时倒下的——在那里他被标明是“塞皮欧•布里斯特”——西庇阿•阿非利加努斯，还有个称呼“一个有色男人”，好像他曾经被漂[piǎo]白过。它还告诉我，而且是着重强调，什么时候死的；这不过是一种间接的方法告诉我，他什么时候活着。和他住在一起的是芬达，他热情好客的妻子，给人算命，可总让人高兴——高大、肥硕、漆黑，比任何黑夜的孩子们更黑，这一暗淡的球体在康科德从没升起过或以后也不会再有。
更远通向山那边，左首，在林子里的一条老路上，是斯特拉顿家宅地的一些痕迹；他的果园曾覆盖了整个布里斯特山坡，但早已经被油松杀光了，就留下几根残桩，老根还在为许多节俭的村里树提供野生种群。
更靠近镇子，你就来到布雷德的地盘，正在林子的边上；那地面有神话里某个没有明确命名的恶魔作祟，它在新英格兰的生活中行使着突出的令人吃惊的作用，赶得上任何神话传说人物，值得有一天用传记的形式写下来；它起先是假扮一个朋友或佣工而来，然后就抢劫和谋杀全家——就是这种新英格兰产朗姆酒。可是历史没有说出这一代上演的惨剧；让时间采取措施干预和减缓了血腥，并给他们蒙上一层天蓝的色彩。最模糊和值得怀疑的传统说这里曾屹立过一个客栈，同样传得邪乎的是，那客栈能稀释旅人的饮料和弄精神他的马。这里人们互相敬礼，传递消息，和再次上路。
【注】序号标注有误。本为第172期，标注成了173期。
大家还在听
