Chapter 3 Translation Preface - 3

In July 1839, a seventeen-year-old girl named Allen Silver came to Cannes and visited the Thoreau family.On the day of her arrival, Henry wrote a poem.Five days later, there was another sentence in the diary: "There is no cure for love, only a fraction of love." This was probably written for Alan's sake.It turns out that John also falls in love with her, which complicates matters.The three often go for walks together and row boats on the river.Climbing mountains to view the scenery, entering the forest to explore, and they also carved their initials on the trees.The conversation was almost endless, but this blissful time was not long.

In the spring of this year, the two brothers built a boat.At the end of August they made a voyage up the Concord and Merrimack rivers.During the trip, everything was fine, but there were some subtle cracks between the two, which were not disclosed to each other. In fact, they had become rivals in love.Later John proposed to her but she refused.Later, Henry also sent her a warm letter, and she replied him with a cold letter.Not long after, Allen married a priest.The episode left a scar in Henry's mind.But then something absolutely unexpected happened. On New Year's Day 1842, while sharpening his razor blade on a piece of leather, John accidentally cut his left middle finger—he wrapped it with a cloth strip and didn't expect Two or three days later, it became festered, and my whole body was in unbearable pain.It was too late to seek medical attention. He suffered from lockjaw, a type of sepsis.He soon passed into a dying state.Ten days later, John died suddenly and forever.

Sudden events dealt Henry the heaviest blow.Although he tried to remain calm, he returned home without saying a word.A week later, he too fell ill, apparently suffering from lockjaw as well.Fortunately, what he suffered from was not this kind of disease, but a psychosomatic state caused by psychological pain.For three whole months, he was sick with this disease, and he gradually recovered when he appeared in the garden again in mid-April. Henry wrote many poems in memory of John that year.In the poem "Brother, Where Are You?" he asks, "Where should I go/to find your figure?/Along the neighboring brook,/can I still hear your voice?" Reply It was his brother and friend, John, who had become one with nature.They formed a plan, he has taken the face of nature as his own face, and expressed his own thoughts with the face of nature... Nature has taken his brother, John has become a part of nature .

From here, Henry regained his confidence and joy.He wrote in his diary: "The heaviness of the pain in front of me also shows the sweetness of the past experience. When you are sad, how easy it is to think of happiness! In winter, the bee cannot make honey, and it consumes the honey that has been brewed." This paragraph During the time, he is recuperating from illness and injury; in seclusion, preparing for the future, accumulating momentum, storing water until the gate is opened to release the water, so that the earth can be irrigated. In another diary entry, he said: "I must admit that I am very shabby when asked what I have done to society and what good news I have sent to mankind. No doubt my shabbiness is not without reason , my inaction is not without reason. I am thinking of giving the wealth of my life to people, really giving them the most precious gift. I will cultivate pearls in shells and brew for them Honey of life, I want the sun to shine on the public welfare. No wealth to hide. I have nothing private. My special function is to serve the public. The only function is my private property. Anyone can Naive, and therefore rich.

I contain and nurture the pearl until it is perfect. After recovering his health, Thoreau lived in Emerson's house again.Later he went to New York and lived in the city on Staten Island, with Emerson's brother.He hopes to start building his literary career.Precisely because of his unique style, he was not liked by people and the secular society, and it was not easy to make a living by writing. Soon after, he returned to his hometown.For a while he helped his father make pencils, but he soon gave up this profitable trade. So in the autumn of 1844, Emerson bought a piece of land on Walden Pond.When the year passed, Thoreau obtained permission from the owner of the land to let him "dwell by the lake."At last he took a brave step, in his own words:

"At the end of March, 1845, I borrowed an ax, went to the forest by Walden Pond, arrived at the place where I planned to build a house, and began to cut down some young white pines that towered into the sky like arrows, To be my building materials... It was the happy spring day, the winter that men felt sad was melting away like frozen ground, and the dormant life began to stretch.