Our horizon is never quite at our elbows. The thick wood is not just at our door, nor the pond,
地平线从未触手可及，茂密的树林和瓦尔登湖也并不是近在天涯。
but somewhat is always clearing, familiar and worn by us, appropriated and fenced in some way, and reclaimed from Nature.
然而，我们总从大天然中把那些美景侵吞、用栏杆围着 - 据为己有， 然后不竭地洗刷、把玩、曲到变旧。
For what reason have I this vast range and circuit, some square miles of unfrequented forest, for my privacy, abandoned to me by men?
居所四周数平方公里的丛林 - 被人丢弃、人迹罕至。我不由自问：凭什么？- 我独占那么大的领地？
My nearest neighbor is a mile distant, and no house is visible from any place but the hill-tops within half a mile of my own.
我比来的邻人两公里开外、除非登顶一公里处小山，环顾四周，看不见任何房子。
I have my horizon bounded by woods all to myself; a distant view of the railroad where it touches the pond on the one hand, and of the fence which skirts the woodland road on the other.
四周的树林让地平线归我独有 - 仅仅看见与湖接界的铁路，和沿着林地公路的围栏。
But for the most part it is as solitary where I live as on the prairies.
我独居于此 - 似乎置身荒无人烟的大草原。
It is as much Asia or Africa as New England. I have, as it were, my own sun and moon and stars, and a little world all to myself.
虽说我住在美国新英格兰，但与住在亚洲、非洲有什么区别呢？那方六合仿佛完全属于我 - 拥有本身的太阳、月亮与星星。
At night there was never a traveller passed my house, or knocked at my door, more than if I were the first or last man;
夜晚从未有路人颠末、或者叩门 - 恰似太古之初，我是世上独一之人。
unless it were in the spring, when at long intervals some came from the village to fish for pouts—they plainly fished much more in the Walden Pond of their own natures, and baited their hooks with darkness
除非是春天，在漫漫严冬之后，有些人会从村子来到- 付与他们本身本性的瓦尔登湖 - 用险恶做鱼饵，闷闷不乐地垂钓。
—but they soon retreated, usually with light baskets, and left "the world to darkness and to me," and the black kernel of the night was never profaned by any human neighborhood.
但是，天黑之前他们早早就会开溜，虽然一无所得。把整个世界留给夜晚和我，因而，瓦尔登湖的夜晚从未被任何人类邻人所烦扰。
I believe that men are generally still a little afraid of the dark, thoug…，h the witches are all hung, and Christianity and candles have been introduced.
我相信，人凡是仍惧怕黑夜，虽然巫婆已经消逝，基督福音和蜡光已经十分普及。