如何安身立命？

前言：本篇是《瓦尔登湖》第二章 《 身居何处，为何而活？》的结尾部分，梭罗讨论了 - 如何找到现实 - 并安身立命。

像大自然那样 - 从容地度过每一天，不要让自己的生命 - 因落在铁轨上的 - 坚果外壳和蚊子翅膀 - 而脱轨。Let us spend one day as deliberately as Nature, and not be thrown off the track by every nutshell and mosquito's wing that falls on the rails.

让我们黎明即起，无论是否吃早餐，都要心平气和，泰然自若；Let us rise early and fast, or break fast, gently and without perturbation;

任凭人来人往、钟声响起、孩子啼哭，决心过好这一天。let company come and let company go, let the bells ring and the children cry—determined to make a day of it.

为什么躺平，随波逐流呢？Why should we knock under and go with the stream?

不要被社交餐会 - 像赤道险滩、充满可怕的激流和漩涡 - 搞得烦躁不安、无所适从，闯过了这一关，你和你的生活将变得通透、自由。Let us not be upset and overwhelmed in that terrible rapid and whirlpool called a dinner, situated in the meridian shallows. Weather this danger and you are safe, for the rest of the way is down hill.

随着 - 早晨充满活力的时光 - 起舞，就像荷马史诗中的尤利西斯 - 把自己绑在了桅杆上，免受外界的诱惑，顺利通过危险区。With unrelaxed nerves, with morning vigor, sail by it, looking another way, tied to the mast like Ulysses.

如果发动机响起了汽笛，就让它响吧 - 直到变得沙哑。If the engine whistles, let it whistle till it is hoarse for its pains.

如果镇上聚会的钟声响起，为何要拔腿就跑？我们应该慢慢琢磨 - 这钟声是什么乐曲。If the bell rings, why should we run? We will consider what kind of music they are like.

让我们安下心来工作，涉足于全球泛滥的污泥浊水般的舆论、偏见、传统、谬见和表象之间，穿越巴黎、伦敦、纽约、波士顿、康科德、教堂、国家、诗歌、哲学与宗教之间，一直来到坚硬的底层和牢固的基石，我们把它叫作现实，Let us settle ourselves, and work and wedge our feet downward through the mud and slush of opinion, and prejudice, and tradition, and delusion, and appearance, that alluvion which covers the globe, through Paris and London, through New York and Boston and Concord, through Church and State, through poetry and philosophy and religion, till we come to a hard bottom and rocks in place, which we can call reality,

没错儿，现实就在这儿；你可以在这个支点上，在山洪、冰霜与火焰之下，开始建造一道墙，或者建立一个国家，或者竖起一根灯柱，或者一台测量仪器，不是水位测量仪器，而是里程表 ，让未来时代清楚地知道 - 虚伪和表象如山洪般积聚下来，该有多么深啊！and say, This is, and no mistake; and then begin, having a point d'appui, below freshet（山洪） and frost and fire, a place where you might found a wall or a state, or set a lamp-post safely, or perhaps a gauge, not a Nilometer（水位计）, but a Realometer（里程表）, that future ages might know how deep a freshet of shams and appearances had gathered from time to time.

如果你挺直腰板、直面事实，就会看到 - 现实的两个面 - 都闪烁着阳光，像一把阿拉伯双刃短刀，感觉到它正在剖开你的心脏和骨髓，于是你可以欣然告别烟火人间了。If you stand right fronting and face to face to a fact, you will see the sun glimmer on both its surfaces, as if it were a cimeter, and feel its sweet edge dividing you through the heart and marrow, and so you will happily conclude your mortal career.

生也好，死也吧，我们渴求的仅仅是现实。如果确实要离开尘世了，就随着自己最后的呼吸，感觉四肢渐渐变得冰冷吧；如果还活着，就让我们全力以赴、忙自己的事去吧。Be it life or death, we crave only reality. If we are really dying, let us hear the rattle in our throats and feel cold in the extremities; if we are alive, let us go about our business.

后记：岁月如流 - 半醒半醉日复日，花落花开年复年 - 安心面对现实，旧游无处不堪寻 - 无寻处，惟有少年心。