有同時讀過梭羅《瓦爾登湖》中英版本的人么？我咬著牙讀完了，沒有理想中那樣快樂。這本書是被高估了嗎？

01-06

抱著功利去讀書，往往一無所得，而懷有太多的期翼，得來只有失望。真正的美往往在不經意間，你已經被劇透完了，又如何具有發現的能力呢？

不知題主讀的中譯本是哪一本？

關於這本書是不是高估的問題，個人總有個人的見解，這個題主有這種感受也不為怪。你不信後世大眾的評價，不妨橫向看一下其他文學大伽的評價。美國有一個評選（具體忘記了，不過要找可以找到出處），《瓦》是塑造讀者的二十本書之一。

其他詳見本人在另一個問題中的回答。

《瓦爾登湖》的作者梭羅只能算是小隱隱於野嗎？ - 知乎用戶的回答

不過，若非對梭羅其人有很大的興趣，已然對《瓦》有很深的體會，我不建議年齡尚小的人讀這本書。

高中時就很愛這本書，當時讀得是中文。後來斷斷續續把英文版也看完了。說說我的感受吧：

1. 中文譯本當時看的是曹仁雪的，據說和徐遲的版本一次不差。這本書的翻譯當時還被眾多英語系的老師推薦過。總體而言，譯者翻譯水平比我這種路人高了幾個等級，特別是一些雙關、修辭用語，很是漂亮。不過很多地方我都讀不懂，很拗口。

後來看網上也有很多人在吐槽翻譯。所以這種感覺其實也並非我一個人有。

比如網上就有人說到「我也曾守護過城區的野獸，使忠於職守的牧人要跳過籬笆,遇到過很多困難」這句話。

英文原文是「I have looked after the wild stock of the town, which give a faithful herdsman a
good deal of trouble by leaping fences. 」

對比下，就知道這個翻譯很牽強了，完全是曲解意思。

後來那個網友有自己翻譯過，我覺得很好：「我曾經照顧過市鎮里的那些不聽話的羊群，它們啊，老往柵欄外面跳，可會給老實的牧人惹麻煩咧。」

後來的中文譯本我沒有看過。實話講，當時的閱讀樂趣被晦澀的翻譯打了蠻多折扣。

2. 就語言美感來說，如果能夠體會到英語的美感，那麼閱讀瓦爾登湖的英文版的幸福，肯定不難體會到。我個人覺得是看英文版的時候，更快樂些。

我感覺常常隨便翻到一頁，就是很美的一段話。

比如「If the day and the night are such that you greet them with joy, and life emits a fragrance like flowers and sweet-scented herbs, is more elastic, more starry, more immortal- that is your success. All nature is your congratulation, and you have cause momentarily to bless yourself. The greatest gains and values are farthest from being appreciated. We easily come to doubt if they exist. We soon forget them. They are the highest reality. Perhaps the facts most astounding and most real are never communicated by man to man. The true harvest of my daily life is somewhat as intangible and indescribable as the tints of morning or evening. It is a little star-dust caught, a segment of the rainbow which I have clutched.」

再比如很簡單的「Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth「

這種英文用詞本身，我覺得極美，其蘊含的意思，也很美。

3.這是一本需要很慢慢讀的書。我個人特別有感悟的時刻，都是獨處且安靜的時刻。或者有時候想親近自然了，也會讀得興緻盎然。

或許就像作者在書里所說的， 「I have never found a companion that was so companionable as solitude.」」我從未找到比孤獨更合得來的同伴「。文中不止一次地描寫作者獨處時那種恬淡悠然的心態，如果讀者與作者有共鳴，自然也能感受到那種遠離世俗、淡薄名利的快樂。或者有的時候對物質世界看得太重的時候，看這本書，還是挺會讓人內心沉靜下來。

還有就是書中對於人與自然關係的闡釋，我個人非常贊同。喜歡讀王維或陶淵明的人，大概也會覺得這本書樂趣頗多。像梭羅那樣完全親近自然的人畢竟寥寥無幾，他把那種樂趣寫出來，讀者還是能感受一二的。

常常也會讀到些精妙的句子，這個就太多了。比如我以前摘下來的

」我們天性中最優美的品格,好比果實上的粉霜一樣,是只能輕手輕腳,才得保全的「。

很多年後再讀這句話，還是很愛。

4. 一些其它的小樂趣。比如可以看到梭羅對於中國一些思想的理解。比如孔子的」知之為知之，不知為不知，是知也「梭羅寫的是 Confucius said, "To know that we know what we know, and that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge.」當時看到這種西方人談中國古代思想的話，覺得很有趣。

時機不對，丟下，先看別的，過一陣子想看再撿起來看看。

建議晚上十點後閱讀，開始時會很困，想睡覺，到堅持到讀懂一部分後，下半夜你會高興地睡不著。

關鍵你是咬著牙讀的，累啊

想到了亞里士多德關於倫理學的一個概念。

倫理學的聽眾必須是在優良習慣中成長的，要有相當的品格基礎。一個道德教養好的人進入倫理學的課堂，只需老師告訴他為什麼他的價值是對的。

放到這兒，我也覺得適用。瓦爾登湖適合那些不那麼入世的人讀。如果你是個重於物質多餘精神的人，這本書就會變得很難讀。

但是我絕不是在批評無法享受瓦爾登湖的人。因為你可以看看梭羅空有才華，卻默默無聞的一生，他的身後名於他毫無作用。

不要因為這本書口耳相傳就去讀，如果他不適合你，完全可以去讀一些對自己有用的。

我中文是母語但是中文版的對我而言比英文版還要晦澀句句都很有啟發一定要靜下心來細細琢磨高中時候讀的從前幾章選喜歡的兩段在這裡 [14] The greater part of what my neighbors call good I believe in my soul to be bad, and if I repent of anything, it is very likely to be my good behavior. What demon possessed me that I behaved so well? You may say the wisest thing you can, old man — you who have lived seventy years, not without honor of a kind — I hear an irresistible voice which invites me away from all that. One generation abandons the enterprises of another like stranded vessels.

What old people say you cannot do, you try and find that you can. Old deeds for old people, and new deeds for new. Old people did not know enough once, perchance, to fetch fresh fuel to keep the fire a-going; new people put a little dry wood under a pot,(20) and are whirled round the globe with the speed of birds, in a way to kill old people, as the phrase is. Age is no better, hardly so well, qualified for an instructor as youth, for it has not profited so much as it has lost. One may almost doubt if the wisest man has learned anything of absolute value by living. Practically, the old have no very important advice to give the young, their own experience has been so partial, and their lives have been such miserable failures, for private reasons, as they must believe; and it may be that they have some faith left which belies that experience, and they are only less young than they were. I have lived some thirty years on this planet, and I have yet to hear the first syllable of valuable or even earnest advice from my seniors. They have told me nothing, and probably cannot tell me anything to the purpose. Here is life, an experiment to a great extent untried by me; but it does not avail me that they have tried it. If I have any experience which I think valuable, I am sure to reflect that this my Mentors (21) said nothing about.

Thoreau 在我心中的地位就像是一個學術派arthur Rimbaud -- visionary and rebellious

walden 絕對值得英文閱讀還有他的 civil disobedience

1不建議咬著牙讀下去，《瓦尓登湖》又不是什麼數理化法律條文之類的東西，私以為只有那些書咬著牙讀下去才有意義

2我建議睡前讀，或者空閑時間閱讀，每次讀一兩章。現在手機上不是有那種聽書軟體嗎，我坐車時喜歡聽一兩章，每次不要看多，進入狀態，細細去品味，希望你能有所收穫！