前言：万籁俱寂，梭罗却听到来自大自然的声音。
如今，列车远去了，躁动的世界也随着去了，Now that the cars are gone by and all the restless world with them,
湖中的鱼儿再也感觉不到火车的隆隆声，可我感到了分外孤寂。and the fishes in the pond no longer feel their rumbling, I am more alone than ever.
漫长的午后，偶尔从远处公路上隐隐约约传来车马响声，也许我的沉思不再受到干扰了吧。For the rest of the long afternoon, perhaps, my meditations are interrupted only by the faint rattle of a carriage or team along the distant highway.
有时，赶上星期天，我听到钟声，顺风的时候，来自林肯、阿克顿、贝德福或者康科德的钟声，Sometimes, on Sundays, I heard the bells, the Lincoln, Acton, Bedford, or Concord bell, when the wind was favorable,
听起来柔和悦耳，俨然是自然的旋律，回荡在旷野上。a faint, sweet, and, as it were, natural melody, worth importing into the wilderness.
穿过遥远树林上空，这些音响收获了旋律，At a sufficient distance over the woods this sound acquires a certain vibratory hum,
好像松叶变成竖琴的弦，正在轻轻地被风拨弄着似的。as if the pine needles in the horizon were the strings of a harp which it swept.
凡此种种音响，哪怕在最远处，只要听得见，都有同样的效果，赛过七弦琴上的颤音，All sound heard at the greatest possible distance produces one and the same effect, a vibration of the universal lyre,
就像迢迢远方的山脊，由于大气介于其中，被抹上了淡蓝色，望过去格外令人悦目。just as the intervening atmosphere makes a distant ridge of earth interesting to our eyes by the azure tint it imparts to it.
我觉得这次传来的是一种在微风中越传越悠扬的旋律，There came to me in this case a melody which the air had strained,
与树林里每一片松针喁喁私语后，风儿又吸收部分声音，经过变调在一座山谷回响之后又传到了另一座山谷。and which had conversed with every leaf and needle of the wood, that portion of the sound which the elements had taken up and modulated and echoed from vale to vale.
这种回响从某种程度来说，就是初始的声音，具有神奇的魅力。The echo is, to some extent, an original sound, and therein is the magic and charm of it.
它不仅仅重复了钟声里值得重复的部分，It is not merely a repetition of what was worth repeating in the bell,
而且还有着树林里的声音，以及林中仙子低吟的昵语和乐音。but partly the voice of the wood; the same trivial words and notes sung by a wood-nymph.
傍晚，树林尽头、远处的地平线上，传来了牛的哞哞声，很甜美动听，At evening, the distant lowing of some cow in the horizon beyond the woods sounded sweet and melodious,
开头我误认为是某些滑稽说唱团在演唱，因为有时我听到他们唱的小夜曲，也许此刻他们正吟游在山谷之间；and at first I would mistake it for the voices of certain minstrels by whom I was sometimes serenaded, who might be straying over hill and dale;
可是听着听着，我很快失望了——失望之余，我还是略感欣慰——因为那声音渐渐地拖长，变成了酷肖牛叫的原始音乐。but soon I was not unpleasantly disappointed when it was prolonged into the cheap and natural music of the cow.
我这样说绝不是在挖苦那些年轻人，I do not mean to be satirical,
而是表示我对他们的歌唱很欣赏，but to express my appreciation of those youths' singing,
我说，我分明听得出他们的歌声与哞哞声相差无几，when I state that I perceived clearly that it was akin to the music of the cow,
不过，说到底，两者都是自然的重音，你说是不是？and they were at length one articulation of Nature.
后语：清晨入古寺，初日照高林。曲径通幽处，禅房花木深。山光悦鸟性，潭影空人心。万籁此都寂，但余钟磬音。
