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On winter mornings he wiped the frost from the ax-handle, sniffed sparkles of air into his lungs,
在冬天早上，他會擦去斧頭棒上的霜，將閃爍的空氣吸入肺里，
and beat a steady cleaving of blows into a big tree till it fell.
穩穩地將斧頭砍進一棵大樹，直到它倒下。
He sat on the main log and ate his noon dinner of corn bread and fried salt pork
他坐在大原木上食用午餐，玉米面包和炸咸豬肉
and joked with the gray squirrels that frisked and peeped at him from high forks of nearby walnut trees.
和灰色松鼠開著玩笑，這些松鼠活蹦亂跳，在附近核桃樹的高樹丫上窺視他。
He learned how to make his ax flash and bite into a sugar maple or a sycamore.
他學著如何讓斧頭快速地插入一棵糖楓或無花果樹。
He could guess close to the time of the year, to the week of the month, by the way the leaves and branches of trees looked.
通過觀察葉子和樹枝他可以猜出這是什么時節，這個月的哪一周，而且八九不離十。
Often he worked alone in the timber all day long with only the sound of his own ax, or his own voice speaking to himself,
他經常一整天都圍繞著林木工作，只能聽到自己斧子的聲音，還有他自言自語的聲音，
or the crackling and swaying of branches in the wind and the cries and whirs of animals, of brown and silver gray squirrels,
或者風帶著樹枝吱吱喳喳，左右搖曳的聲音，以及動物叫嚷和嗡嗡聲，還有棕色和銀灰色的松樹，
of partridges, hawks, crows, turkeys, sparrows, and the occasional wildcats.
還有山鶉、隼、烏鴉、火雞、麻雀以及偶爾能聽到的野貓聲。
The tricks of the sky, how to read clear skies and cloudy weather, the creeping vines of ivy and wild grape,
天的奧秘，如何理解晴朗天空，烏云天氣，攀爬的常青樹和野葡萄藤蔓，
the recurrence of dogwood blossoms in spring, the ways of snow, rain, drizzle, sleet,
春天梾木會再次開花，還有下雪、下雨、毛毛雨以及雨夾雪，
the visitors of sky and weather coming and going hour by hour, he tried to read their secrets;
天氣和氣候每一小時都會不一樣，他試圖解讀這里的奧秘；
he tried to be friendly with their mystery. So he grew, to become hard, tough, wiry.
他試圖和這一神秘好好相處，所以他成長得又結實又健壯。
He found with other men he could lift his own end of a log and more too.
他和另外四個男子發現他可以一人扛起原木的一端，而且不止這一端。
One of his neighbors said he was strong as three men. Another said, He can sink an ax deeper into wood than any man I ever saw.
他的一位鄰居說他和三個男人加起來一樣強壯，另一名說他從沒有見過將斧頭插入木頭如此深的人。
And another, If you heard him fellin trees in a clearin, you would say there were three men at work by the way the trees fell.
還有一名說，如果你聽到他在林中空地砍伐樹木，根據樹木被砍伐的方式看，你一定會說三個人在砍伐樹木。
