Lake Shore Notes (English-Chinese Contrast)

Author: (American) Henry David Thoreau, translated by Zeng Guanghui
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-07-01
Features: At some point in one's life, there is always that normal anxiety, passion, and rebellious spirit of youth. After living by the beautiful and tranquil Walden Pond for two years, the American transcendentalist writer Henry David Thoreau compiled his observations, reflections, and analyses into a renowned and unique collection of essays, Walden, which is widely regarded as the best guide ever written for young people by an American. Walden is an anomaly in American literature and perhaps the most anomalous of our outstanding anomalies. It delivers a serious warning about losing precious things, argues for traveling light and embarking on new adventures, repeatedly emphasizes the power of positive worship, contains religious consciousness but no religious imagery, and insists on excluding negative news. Even its pantheistic tone is so pure that it is not corrupting—just like the flute music that echoed over the lake on a summer night long ago.
More than a century has passed since the writing of Walden, and its author, Thoreau, has long been far from Walden Pond, leaving its beauty and the clear moonlight behind for us forever. Under the pressure of modern civilization, people are increasingly distant from the simple and tranquil nature, and some primitive, yearning lifestyles have faded into oblivion, replaced by noise, restlessness, superficiality, and anxiety. Yet, after all, humans are children of nature, and the desire to admire and yearn for nature is inextinguishable. Therefore, Thoreau's work, Walden, has been read and cherished by the entire world.