有时我会感到讶异，论及黑奴制度那种令人作呕却有点儿陌生的劳役形式1时，我们简直可以说是漫不经心，任凭众多暴虐精明的奴隶主纵行南北。南方的监工让人吃尽苦头；北方的监工有过之而无不及；然而最可怕的却是自己做了自己的奴隶主。这就谈到了人内心里的神性！看看高速路上日夜兼程赶往市集的马车夫吧，他的心中可有任何神性的悸动？他的最高使命不过是饮饲他的马儿！他的个人命运与航运贸易的利益相比可有重轻之分？他不就是给做大事的老爷驾车而已吗？谈何神圣？谈何不朽？你看他畏缩怯懦，整日没有由头地担惊受怕，不朽和神圣与他都不沾边，他反倒成了自我认知的奴隶和囚徒，亲手给自己打造这一身低贱华服。公众舆论在我们自己的观念面前不过是个羸弱的暴君。一个人对自我的认知才是决定或说是预示着他命运的关键所在。人心深处主掌幻想与想象的西印度群岛2上，可有像威尔伯福斯3这样的人，为我们带来自我解放的旗帜？4我又联想到陆地上那些女士们每日安然编织着梳妆台垫布5，像孩童一般对自己的命运漠不关心！好像觉得时间永恒，整日消磨也无伤大雅。
I sometimes wonder that we can be so frivolous, I may almost say, as to attend to the gross but somewhat foreign form of servitude called Negro Slavery, there are so many keen and subtle masters that enslave both north and south. It is hard to have a southern overseer; it is worse to have a northern one; but worst of all when you are the slave-driver of yourself. Talk of a divinity in man! Look at the teamster on the highway, wending to market by day or night; does any divinity stir within him? His highest duty to fodder and water his horses! What is his destiny to him compared with the shipping interests? Does not he drive for Squire Make-a-stir? How godlike, how immortal, is he? See how he cowers and sneaks, how vaguely all the day he fears, not being immortal nor divine, but the slave and prisoner of his own opinion of himself, a fame won by his own deeds. Public opinion is a weak tyrant compared with our own private opinion. What a man thinks of himself, that it is which determines, or rather indicates, his fate. Selfemancipation even in the West Indian provinces of the fancy and imagination,—what Wilberforce is there to bring that about? Think, also, of the ladies of the land weaving toilet cushions against the last day, not to betray too green an interest in their fates! As if you could kill time without injuring eternity.
Footnotes
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在我们看来作为19世纪美国人的梭罗绝不应该用“陌生”来形容黑奴制度。实际上，原文foreign直译为外国的、异域的。我记得有的译本译为“异域风情”未免太过柔和。梭罗说foreign是因为黑奴制度主要存在于南方诸州，而他本人以及他的（当时的）“目标读者”都是北方人。此外，foreign还有一层意思，那就是它甚悖人性。 ↩
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西印度群岛是北美洲的岛群，经常被用来指代偏远的地区。 ↩
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威廉·威尔伯福斯是英国下议院议员，英格兰废除奴隶运动的领袖之一，于1807年亲自见证《废除奴隶贸易法案》的通过。 ↩
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这一句是说，人的内心深处，本应是幻想和想象的源泉，好似深处汪洋之中的西印度群岛，但在这样深邃偏远的角落，竟然也被我们内心的成见自我奴役，作者呼唤像威尔伯福斯这样的废奴领袖的人物出现，给我们的心灵也来上一次解放的运动。 ↩
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在梭罗生活的年代，女士们自己编织梳妆台的花边垫布是一种时髦的消遣。 ↩