On Solitude

                                     Henry David Thoreau

   孤独，忧愁的伴侣，也是精神活动的密友。

A solitude, a sorrowful companion, is also a close friend of spiritual activity. 
    

I found it wholesome to be alone the greater part of the time. To be in company, even with the best, is soon wearisome and dissipating. I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude. We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers. A man thinking or working is always alone. Let him be where he will. Solitude is not measured by the miles of space that intervene between a man and his fellows. The really diligent student in one of the crowded hives of Campbridge College is as solitary as a dervish in the desert. The farmer can work alone in the field or the woods all day, hoeing or chopping, and not feel lonesome, because he is employed; but when he comes at night he cannot sit down in a room alone, at the mercy of his thoughts, but must be where he can “see the folks,” and recreate ,and,as he thinks, remunerate himself for his day’s solitude; and hence he wonders how the student can sit alone in the house all night and most of the day without ennui and “the blues:” but he does not realize that the student, though in the house, is still at work in his field, and chopping in his woods, as the farmer in his, and in turn seeks the same recreation and society that the latter does, though it may be a more condensed form of it.

Society is commonly too cheap. We meet at very short intervals, not having hard time to acquire any new value for each other. We meet at meals three times a day, and give each other a new taste of the oldmusty cheese that we are. We have had to agree on a certain set of rules, called etiquette and politeness, to make this frequent meeting tolerable and that we need not come to open war. We meet at the post-office, and at the sociable, and about the fireside every night; we live thick and are in each other’s way, and stumble over one another, and I think that we thus lose some respect for one another. Certainly less frequency would suffice for all important and hearty communications. Consider the girls in a factory—never alone, hardly in their dreams. It would be better if there were but one inhabitant to a square mile, as where I live. The value of a man is not in his skin, that we should touch him.

I have a great deal of company in my house; especially in the morning, when nobody calls. Let me suggest a few companions, that some one may convey an idea of my situation. I am no more lonely than the loon in the pond that laughs to so loud, or than Walden Pond itself. What company has that lonely lake, I pray?

     And yet it has not the blue devils, but the blue angels in it, in the azure tint of its waters. The sun is alone, except in thick weather, when there sometimes appear to be two, but one is a mock sun, god is alone—but the devil, he far from being alone; he sees a great deal of company; he is legion. I am no more lonely than a single mullein or dadelion in a pasture, or a bean leaf, or sorrel, or a horse-fly, or a bumblebee. I am no more lonely than the Millbrook, or a weathercock, or the north star, or the south wind ,or an April shower ,or a January thaw, or the first spider in a new house.

                         论独处

             亨利·戴维·梭罗（编译：王科军）

我发现人若大部分时间独处是有益身心健康的。与人为伴，即使是挚友，也很快会厌烦或分手。我喜欢独处，我发现独处是孤独的最好伴侣。出国，我们追求的就是在熙攘的人群中度过的更为孤寂，否则就蜗居在单人套房。心有所想，力有所行，身有所往，总是孤身一人。独处与否，不是由人与人的距离来确定的。在剑桥蜂巢般拥挤教室用功的学生，实际上跟沙漠里苦行僧一样，都是在独处。农场主整日在田间和森林耕伐，虽孤单并不寂寞，因为他专注其中；但到日落而息回到家中，他就不能独自坐在房间，他就任由思维摆布了，他必须能“看见大家”的地方去娱乐，如他所想的那样，一偿白天的孤独；因此他就不明白学子能整夜坐在屋里不觉无聊和忧郁；然而，他没有意识到的是学生在房间思考，也是在自己的领域内工作，如同他作为农民一样在林间砍伐，学子追求的无非是和他一要样的娱乐与社团，只不过更为简缩而已。

社交通常毫无价值，在频繁的接触中，我们无暇从对方获取新价值。每日三餐总是相聚，给对方新的感觉却是陈腐发霉的奶酪味。为此，我们不得不达成某种一致的规则，所谓的礼节和礼貌，好在平凡的接触中相互容忍而无须论战。我们相遇在邮局，邂逅在联谊会，围坐在傍晚的壁炉旁，交情甚笃，彼此羁绊着；实际上我认为这样或多或少失去了相互的尊重，而对于重要的倾心交流相见不必过频。想想厂里的女友，从不落单，也少有梦想，但像这样更好，一英里仅一人居住。人的价值非在肌肤相亲，而在心有灵犀。

在我家我有很多伙伴，尤其是在无人造访的清晨，请让我给你提议几个，一些能传达我处境信息的那些人。我并不比池塘长叫水鸟和瓦尔登湖寂寞，你看这孤单的湖水又何心为伴呢？

然而这天蓝色的湖水纯洁，而非恶棍。太阳是独处的，除非在阴郁的天气中会出现二个，但其中一个幻日，上苍是孤独的，但恶魔是聚众的；他们从众者居多，此类就是多。我和牧场的毛蕊花、蒲公英、豆叶、酢浆草、牛虻或大蜂峰相比，并不孤单多少；比起密尔溪、风标、北极星、南风、四月春雨、一月的冻解，或新房里的第一只蜘蛛，我也并不更加孤单。