瓦尔登湖

瓦尔登湖Walden

Henry David Thoreau •(July 12, 1817 –May 6, 1862) was an American author, poet, philosopher, naturalist, development critic, surveyor, historian, and leading transcendentalist. He is best known for his book Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay Resistance to Civil Government (also known as Civil Disobedience), an argument for disobedience to an unjust state.

•Thoreau's books, articles, essays, journals, and poetry total over 20 volumes. Among his lasting contributions are his writings on natural history and philosophy, where he anticipated the methods and findings of ecology and environmental history, two sources of modern-day environmentalism. His literary style interweaves close natural observation, personal experience, pointed rhetoric, symbolic meanings, and historical lore, while displaying a poetic sensibility, philosophical austerity, and "Yankee" love of practical detail.He was also deeply interested in the idea of survival in the face of hostile elements, historical change, and natural decay; at the same time he advocated abandoning waste and illusion in order to discover life's true essential needs.

瓦尔登湖

河岸何以铺设得如此整齐，有人觉得迷惑不解。镇民们都听说过这样一个传说：古时候，印第安人在这里的一座山上举行庆典，山峰突然高耸入云，犹如瓦尔登湖深深地沉入泥土。根据传说，他们做了许多渎神之——其实印第安人从未这么做过——结果庆典进行时，突然天崩地裂。只有一个叫瓦尔登的老妇人逃过此劫。因此这个湖就用她的名字命名。

•有人猜测，天崩地裂时，石子四处滚落，

形成了如今的湖岸。有位老人清楚地记得，他初到此地时，拿着探水杖看到草地上腾

起的雾气，便决定在此处掘井。至于石头，很多人认为地面的震动并不能证明石块的

来源。但我发现，山的四周到处都是这样

的石头。所以在紧挨穿过湖岸的铁轨两旁，不得不筑起一座座防护围墙。而且湖畔越

陡的地方，石头越多。因此，不幸的是，

这传说对我已没有什么神秘可言。我找到

了铺设石子的人。如果这湖不是以某个英

国的地名来命名的，那么也可以推测说，

它是由最初的“围堵湖（walled-in pond）”转化而来。

introduction for Walden

•Walden (first published as Walden; or, Life in the Woods) is an American book written by noted transcendentalist Henry David

Thoreau, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings.[2] The work is part personal declaration of independence, social experiment, voyage of spiritual discovery, satire, and manual for self-reliance.[3] First published in 1854, it details Thoreau's experiences over the

course of two years, two months, and two days in a cabin he built near Walden Pond, amidst woodland owned by his friend and mentor Ralph Waldo Emerson, near Concord, Massachusetts. The book

compresses the time into a single calendar year and uses passages of four seasons to symbolize human development.

•By immersing himself in nature, Thoreau hoped to gain a more objective understanding of society through personal introspection.

Simple living and self-sufficiency were Thoreau's other goals, and the whole project was inspired by transcendentalist philosophy, a central theme of the American Romantic Period. As Thoreau made clear in his book, his cabin was not in wilderness but at the edge of town, about two miles (3 km) from his family home.