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Ralph Waldo Emerson
拉爾夫·沃爾多·愛默生
The United States had won its independence from Britain just twenty-two years before Ralph Waldo Emerson was born. But it had yet to win its cultural independence. It still took its traditions from other countries, mostly from western Europe. What the American Revolution did for the nation’s politics, Emerson did for its culture.
當美國從英國手里贏得獨立的22年后，愛默生出生了。但是當時的美國還需要贏得文化上的獨立。它的傳統仍然來自其他國家，主要是來自西歐。美國革命在政治上為美國贏得獨立，而愛默生在文化上為美國獨立做出了貢獻。
When he began writing and speaking in the eighteen thirties, conservatives saw him as radical — wild and dangerous. But to the young, he spoke words of self-dependence 一 a new language of freedom. He was the first to bring them a truly American spirit. He told America to demand its own laws and churches and works. It is through his own works that we shall look at Ralph Waldo Emerson.
19世紀30年代，當愛默生開始寫作和演講時，保守派認為他太激進，野蠻而且危險。但是對于年輕人來說，愛默生宣揚自立——自由的新形式。他是為他們帶來真正美國精神的第一人。他號召美國人民要有自己的法律、教堂和著作。正是通過他自己的作品，我們才了解了愛默生。
Ralph Waldo Emerson’s life was not as exciting as the lives of some other American writers — Herman Melville, Mark Twain or Ernest Hemingway. Emerson traveled to Europe several times. And he made speeches at a number of places in the United States. But, except for those trips, he lived all his life in the small town of Concord, Massachusetts. Emerson’s father, like many of the men in his family, was a minister of a Christian church. When Emerson was eight years old, his father died. His mother was left with very little money to raise her five sons.
愛默生的一生波瀾不驚，并不像赫爾曼·梅爾維爾、馬克·吐溫和海明威等其他作家。愛默生曾幾次到歐洲旅行，他還在美國數個地方演講。但是除了以上這些旅行外，他一生都住在馬薩諸塞州的小鎮康科德。他的父親，像家族中的許多男人一樣，是基督教的牧師。愛默生8歲時，父親去世了，給母親留下了少得可憐的錢養育五個兒子。
After several more years in Boston, the family moved to the nearby town of Concord. There they joined Emerson’s aunt, Mary Moody Emerson. Emerson seemed to accept the life his mother and aunt wanted for him. As a boy, he attended Boston Latin School. Then he studied at Harvard University.
在波士頓住了幾年之后，愛默生一家搬到了附近的康科德鎮，和愛默生的姑姑瑪麗·穆迪·愛默生住在一起。愛默生似乎接受了他母親和姑姑為他安排的生活。他在波士頓拉丁語學校就讀，然后進入哈佛大學。
For a few years, he taught in a girls’ school started by one of his brothers. But he did not enjoy this kind of teaching. For a time, he wondered what he should do with his life. Finally, like his father, he became a religious minister. But he had questions about his beliefs and the purpose of his life.
有幾年，他在他兄弟開辦的一家女子學校任職，但是他并不喜歡那樣教書。他曾一度思考一生應該做什么。最后，他像父親一樣成了一名牧師。但是他仍對其信仰以及生活的目的抱有疑問。
Later, his speech, “The American Scholar,” created great excitement among the students in Harvard. They heard his words as a new declaration of independence — a declaration of the independence of the mind. Young people agreed with Emerson that a person had the power within himself to succeed at whatever he tried. The important truth seemed to be not what had been done, but what might be done.
后來，他的演講“論美國學者”在哈佛大學中引起了轟動。學子們把他的演講看作是一種新的獨立宣言——思想的獨立宣言。年輕人擁護愛默生，因為愛默生認為一個人只要努力就可以實現夢想。事實不在于已經做了多少，而在于還能夠做多少。
