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Hour in the Sun 阳光下的时光
◎ John H. Bradley
“I was rich, if not in money, in sunny hours and summer days.” —Henry David Thoreau
When Thoreau wrote that line, he was thinking of the Walden Pond he knew as a boy.
Woodchoppers and the iron horse had not yet greatly damaged the beauty of its setting. A boy
could go to the pond and lie on his back against the seat of a boat, lazily drifting from shore to shore
while the loons dived and the swallows dipped around him. Thoreau loved to recall such sunny hours
and summer days, “when idleness was the most attractive and productive business.”
I too was a boy in love with a pond, rich in sunny hours and summer days. Sun and summer are
still what they always were, but the boy and the pond changed. The boy, who is now a man, no
The swamps where herons once hunted are now drained and filled with houses. The bay where
water lilies quietly floated is now a harbor for motor boats. In short, everything that the boy loved no
longer exists—except in the man’s memory of it.
Some people insist that only today and tomorrow matter. But how much poorer we would be if
we really lived by that rule! So much of what we do today is frivolous2 and futile3 and soon forgotten.
So much of what we hope to do tomorrow never happens.
The past is the bank in which we store our most valuable possession: the memories that give
meaning and depth to our lives.
days enshrined in memory are never lost.
boy who is now a man, there is a pond which neither time nor tide can change, where he can still
spend a quite hour in the sun.
“我虽然不富甲天下，却拥有无数和煦阳光和晴朗夏日。” ——亨利·戴维·梭罗
写这句话时，梭罗想起孩提时代的瓦尔登湖。
当时伐木者和火车尚未严重损坏湖畔的优美景致，小男孩可以走进湖中，仰卧在一叶扁
舟上，自一岸缓慢而慵懒地漂向另一岸，美妙的歌声欢呼相伴，鸟儿在四周戏水翻飞。梭罗
喜欢回忆这些和煦阳光和晴朗夏日，“慵懒是最迷人也是最富有动力的事情！”
我也曾是热爱湖塘的小男孩，拥有无数和煦阳光与晴朗夏日。如今，阳光和夏日依旧如
故，男孩和湖塘却早已改变。那个男孩，现在已长大成人，不再有那么多的时间泛舟湖上，
随意漂流。湖塘也被一个美丽的大城市兼并。
曾有苍鹭觅食的泥泞之地，如今已枯竭殆尽，上面盖满了房舍。睡莲静静漂浮的湖湾，
现在成了汽艇的避风港。简而言之，男孩所爱的一切已不复存在——只留在了他的记忆中。
有人坚持认为，只有今日和明日才是重要的。但如果真的依据这条规则来生活，我们将
何其可怜！那么多我们今日所做的事，都是徒劳轻薄的事，也容易被忘记。那么多我们期待
明天做的事，却从来没有发生过。
过去是一所银行，我们将最宝贵的财富——记忆珍藏其中。记忆赐予我们生命的意义和
深度。
那些真正珍惜过去的人，不会悲叹过去的美好时光。因为藏于记忆中的时光从来不曾流
逝。
死亡本身也无力止住记忆中的一个声音，或抹去记忆中的一次微笑。对现已长大成人的
那个男孩来说，那儿将有一个湖塘，不会因时间和潮流而改变，在那儿，他可以继续在阳光
下享受静谧的时光。
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