前言：我已经保存了《瓦尔登湖》徐迟版的全套译文。但我在重译的过程中，尽量提醒自己不要去看，去参照。否则很难不受影响。
　　
　　我计划在一两天内将“经济篇”A全部译出，至于是否续译后面的篇章，则视心情和时间而定。
　　
　　此文也不是最后定稿，会随着翻译的进程逐步添加并予以修改。
　　
　　恳请闻中等感兴趣的林友对不足之处予以指正。
　　
　　《瓦尔登湖》之“经济篇”A：
　　WHEN I WROTE the following pages, or rather the bulk of them, I lived alone, in the woods, a mile from any neighbor, in a house which I had built myself, on the shore of Walden Pond, in Concord, Massachusetts, and earned my living by the labor of my hands only. I lived there two years and two months. At present I am a sojourner in civilized life again.
　　
　　当我写下以下的篇章，或它们中的绝大多部分内容时，我正一人独居于丛林中，方圆一英里范围内不见人烟。那是在马萨诸塞州，康科县的瓦尔登湖畔，一间我自己建造的屋子里。我靠自己的双手维生，在那里居住了两年零两个月。而眼前，我再次成为了文明生活中的驻客。
　　
　　I should not obtrude my affairs so much on the notice of my readers if very particular inquiries had not been made by my townsmen concerning my mode of life, which some would call impertinent, though they do not appear to me at all impertinent, but, considering the circumstances, very natural and pertinent. Some have asked what I got to eat; if I did not feel lonesome; if I was not afraid; and the like. Others have been curious to learn what portion of my income I devoted to charitable purposes; and some, who have large families, how many poor children I maintained. I will therefore ask those of my readers who feel no particular interest in me to pardon me if I undertake to answer some of these questions in this book. In most books, the I, or first person, is omitted; in this it will be retained; that, in respect to egotism, is the main difference. We commonly do not remember that it is, after all, always the first person that is speaking. I should not talk so much about myself if there were anybody else whom I knew as well. Unfortunately, I am confined to this theme by the narrowness of my experience. Moreover, I, on my side, require of every writer, first or last, a simple and sincere account of his own life, and not merely what he has heard of other men's lives; some such account as he would send to his kindred from a distant land; for if he has lived sincerely, it must have been in a distant land to me. Perhaps these pages are more particularly addressed to poor students. As for the rest of my readers, they will accept such portions as apply to them. I trust that none will stretch the seams in putting on the coat, for it may do good service to him whom it fits.
　　
　　如果不是我的乡民们非常详细地问起我的生活方式——其中有些方式被认作是古怪的，虽然对我来说它们并不古怪，而且根据当时的情形来看，显得非常的自然和合情合理——我也不会试图讲述我的私事以期引起读者的注意。有些人询问我例如吃些什么、是否觉得寂寞、是否害怕之类的问题。而其它一些人则关心我收入中用于慈善捐赠的金额比例。还有一些人，家庭人口众多，则想知道我收养了多少个贫苦的孩子。所以我要请求那些对我本人毫无特殊兴趣的读者的原谅，因为我将在此书中对以上问题做一些解答。在大多数书本中，“我”，或者说“第一人称”，往往是被省略掉的；但在此书中它将被保留；过多地谈论自己成为本书的主要特征。我们经常忘记，事实上任何文本都是第一人称在说话。我本不愿意过多地谈论自己——如果能有第二个人，我熟悉他象熟悉自己一样。不幸的是，我受自己有限的阅历拘囿，不得不谈论这么狭隘的话题。而且就我个人来说，一直希望每一位写作者，或多或少，都能就他本人的生活提供一个简单且真切的说明，而非仅仅谈论他所听来的其他人的故事。这些说明就好象是要传送给他来自远方的族人一样。因为无论他生活得多么真实，离我总会有一段距离。我设想这一类的章节，是特别写给穷学生们看的。至于其它的读者，他们将会关注为他们所写的部分。我相信没有人会在穿衣时会有意将衣服的接缝处撑开，因为对于合身者来说，它无疑会提供很好的服务。
　　
　　I would fain say something, not so much concerning the Chinese and Sandwich Islanders (1) as you who read these pages, who are said to live in New England; something about your condition, especially your outward condition or circumstances in this world, in this town, what it is, whether it is necessary that it be as bad as it is, whether it cannot be improved as well as not. I have travelled a good deal in Concord; and everywhere, in shops, and offices, and fields, the inhabitants have appeared to me to be doing penance in a thousand remarkable ways. What I have heard of Bramins (2) sitting exposed to four fires and looking in the face of the sun; or hanging suspended, with their heads downward, over flames; or looking at the heavens over their shoulders "until it becomes impossible for them to resume their natural position, while from the twist of the neck nothing but liquids can pass into the stomach";(3) or dwelling, chained for life, at the foot of a tree; or measuring with their bodies, like caterpillars, the breadth of vast empires; or standing on one leg on the tops of pillars—even these forms of conscious penance are hardly more incredible and astonishing than the scenes which I daily witness. The twelve labors of Hercules (4) were trifling in comparison with those which my neighbors have undertaken; for they were only twelve, and had an end; but I could never see that these men slew or captured any monster or finished any labor. They have no friend Iolaus (5) to burn with a hot iron the root of the hydra's head, but as soon as one head is crushed, two spring up.
　　
　　我很乐意述说一些事情，但不是关于中国人或夏威夷人的，因为这本书的读者，大多居住在新英格兰。这是一些关于新英格兰人生活状况的文字，尤其讲到了有关他们的世态人情，讲到了这座城中的真实境况，不管它是否真的像我所描写的那样糟糕，也不管是否真的无法得到改善。我曾在康科县里四处周游，几乎去过所有的地方，商店，办公室，田地里……那里的居民，在我看来，似乎在用一千种非凡的方式在进行他们的忏悔。我听说过婆罗门教徒们坐在四个火堆的中间，直视着太阳；或者将自己倒挂着，脑袋悬在火焰的上方；或看着他们肩膀上方的天空，“直到他们再也无法恢复自然活力，当脖颈扭动时只有汁液能流进胃中”；或者受生活所迫，只能居住在树底；或者象毛虫一样，用自己的身段，仗量宏大帝国的疆域；或单腿站在柱子的顶端——即使是如此多种虔诚的忏悔，都比不上我日常所见到的场景更加的难以置信和令人惊异。比起我的邻居们的所作所为，连HERCULES（古代大力士）的十二项任务都显得黯然失色。因为它们只有十二项，而且已经终结；当然我还不曾见到邻居们杀死或捕获过任何一头怪物或完成过任何一项任务。他们没有象IOLAUS（HERCULES的仆人）那样的朋友，可以拿滚荡的铁棍去烧灼九头怪蛇的三寸——只不过当它的一个头被敲碎，又会有两个新头长出来。
　　
　　I see young men, my townsmen, whose misfortune it is to have inherited farms, houses, barns, cattle, and farming tools; for these are more easily acquired than got rid of. Better if they had been born in the open pasture and suckled by a wolf, that they might have seen with clearer eyes what field they were called to labor in. Who made them serfs of the soil? Why should they eat their sixty acres, when man is condemned to eat only his peck of dirt?(6) Why should they begin digging their graves as soon as they are born? They have got to live a man's life, pushing all these things before them, and get on as well as they can. How many a poor immortal soul have I met well-nigh crushed and smothered under its load, creeping down the road of life, pushing before it a barn seventy-five feet by forty, its Augean stables (7) never cleansed, and one hundred acres of land, tillage, mowing, pasture, and woodlot! The portionless, who struggle with no such unnecessary inherited encumbrances, find it labor enough to subdue and cultivate a few cubic feet of flesh.
　　
　　我看到不少年轻人，我的乡民们，他们的不幸往往来自于他们所承继的农场，房屋，谷仓，牛群和农耕工具；因为获得这些东西，要比摆脱它们更为困难。如果他们出生在开阔的牧场，被一只母狼所哺养长大，有可能会用更为清澈的目光来环顾他们不得不终生劳作的田地。是谁将他们变成了土地的奴隶？为什么他们要靠六十英亩土地吃饭，当其它人注定只能靠蛋丸之地维生？为什么他们一出生就开始为自己掘坟？他们为了过象样的生活，不得不推动面前所有这些物件，并且行进得尽可能的顺利。我曾目睹多少可怜的、不朽的灵魂在它的负累之下几近崩溃和窒息，沿着生活之路踟躇爬行，前头是七十五英尺长、四十英尺宽的大谷仓——它那些脏肮的角落从来就不曾被打扫干净，还有一千英亩的土地，永无休止的耕耘，收割，放牧和种植！而那些没有承继过任何财产的人，不依赖任何不必要遗产赘物而奋斗的人，发现只要靠劳动，就足以滋养自己的血肉之躯。
　　
　　But men labor under a mistake. The better part of the man is soon plowed into the soil for compost. By a seeming fate, commonly called necessity, they are employed, as it says in an old book,(8) laying up treasures which moth and rust will corrupt and thieves break through and steal. It is a fool's life, as they will find when they get to the end of it, if not before. It is said that Deucalion and Pyrrha (9) created men by throwing stones over their heads behind them:—
　　
　　但是人们总是在错误之中劳作。人身上最好的部分，很快被耕进泥土中作了堆肥。被所谓的命运——通常我们称它为“必然性”——所驱使，人们成为被雇佣者，正如一本古书中所说的，将珠宝束之高阁，直到它们被蛀虫和灰尘所侵蚀，或被小偷破门偷走。当这些人走到生命的尽头，才会最终领悟，这是傻瓜才会过的生活。难怪说，DEUCALION和PYRRHA是靠从背后往人的头顶扔石头来创造人类的呢：——