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Chancing to take a 2)memorable walk by moonlight some years ago, I resolved to take more such walks, and 3)make acquaintance with another side of nature: I have done so.
According to 4)Pliny, there is a stone in Arabia called 5)Selenites, “wherein is a white, which increases and decreases with the moon.” My journal for the last year or two, has been selenitic in this sense.
Is not the midnight like Central Africa to most of us? Are we not tempted to explore it, —to 6)penetrate to the shores of its lake 7)Tchad, and discover the source of its Nile, 8)perchance the 9)Mountains of the Moon? Who knows what fertility and beauty, moral and natural, are there to be found? In the Mountains of the Moon, in the Central Africa of the night, there is where all Niles have their hidden
10)heads. The expeditions up the Nile as yet extend but to the 11)cataracts, or perchance to the mouth of the White Nile; but it is the Black Nile that concerns us.
I shall be a 12)benefactor if I conquer some realms from the night, if I report to the 13)gazettes anything 14)transpiring about us at that season worthy of their attention, —if I can show men that there is some beauty awake while they are asleep, —
if I add to the 15)domains of poetry.
Night is certainly more novel and less 16)profane than day. I soon discovered that I was acquainted only with its 17)complexion, and as for the moon, I had seen her only as it were through a 18)crevice in a shutter, occasionally. Why not walk a little way in her light?
It must be allowed that the light of the moon, sufficient though it is for the 19)pensive walker, and not 20)disproportionate to the inner light we have, is very inferior in quality and intensity to that of the sun. But the moon is not to be judged alone by the quantity of light she sends to us, but also by her influence on the earth and its inhabitants. “The moon 21)gravitates toward the earth, and the earth
22)reciprocally toward the moon.”
Many men walk by day; few walk by night. It is a very different season. Take a July night, for instance. About ten o’clock, —when man is asleep, and day fairly forgotten, —the beauty of moonlight is seen over lonely pastures where cattle are silently feeding. Instead of the sun there are the moon and stars, —instead of butterflies in the meadows, fire-flies, winged sparks of fire!
Small trees and shrubs are seen in the midst,
23)overwhelmed as by an 24)inundation. The shadows of rocks and trees, and shrubs and hills, are more
25)conspicuous than the objects themselves. For the same reason the whole landscape is more 26)variegated and 27)picturesque than by day. All white objects are more remarkable than by day. A distant cliff looks like a 28)phosphorescent space on a hillside. The woods are heavy and dark. Nature 29)slumbers. You see the moonlight reflected from particular 30)stumps in the
31)recesses of the forest, as if she selected what to shine on.
In the night the eyes are partly closed or retire into the head. Other senses take the lead. The walker is guided as well by the sense of smell. Every plant and field and forest emits its odor now, 32)swamp pink in the meadow and 33)tansy in the road. The senses both of hearing and smelling are more alert. We hear the 34)tinkling of 35)rills which we never detected before. From time to time, high up on the sides of hills, you pass through a 36)stratum of warm air. The stars are the jewels of the night, and perchance surpass anything which day has to show.
How insupportable would be the days, if the night with its dews and darkness did not come to restore the 37)drooping world. As 38)the shades begin to gather around us, our 39)primeval instincts are aroused, and we steal forth from our 40)lairs, like the inhabitants of the jungle, in search of those silent and 41)brooding thoughts which are the natural 42)prey of the intellect.
43)Richter says that “The earth is every day overspread with the veil of night for the same reason as the cages of birds are darkened, 44)viz: that we may the more readily 45)apprehend the higher harmonies of thought in the hush and quiet of darkness. Thoughts which day turns into smoke and mist, stand about us in the night as light and flames; even as the column which 46)fluctuates above the 47)crater of
48)Vesuvius, in the daytime appears a pillar of cloud, but by night a pillar of fire.”
Great restorer of 49)antiquity, great 50)enchanter. New and old things are 51)confounded. Nature is an
52)instructed and 53)impartial teacher, spreading no crude opinions, and 54)flattering none; she will be neither radical nor conservative. Consider the moonlight, so civil, yet so 55)savage!
The light is more 56)proportionate to our knowledge than that of day. It is no more dusky in ordinary nights, than our mind’s habitual atmosphere, and the moonlight is as bright as our most
57)illuminated moments are.
若干年前一次偶然在月光下散步的经历，给我留下了难忘的回忆。我于是决定要经常散步，去了解大自然的另一面——我也确实这么做了。
据普林尼说，在阿拉伯有一种石头叫月光石，“其中映现一抹白色，会随着月的盈亏而改变大小。” 从这个意义上讲，我过去一两年的出行日记也如这月光石，随着月的盈亏而变化。
对大多数人来说，“午夜”不就如“非洲中部”那般引人入胜吗？我们不曾迫不及待想去中非——深入到乍得湖岸边，去探索尼罗河或者明月山脉的源头吗？谁知道在那儿能发现怎样的富饶和美丽、怎样的精神享受和天然奇景？在非洲中部的夜晚，明月山脉隐藏着尼罗河及其支流的神秘源头。沿着尼罗河的探险之旅，可以延伸至大瀑布，或到白尼罗河的河口处；但是，更加引人瞩目的是夜晚的尼罗河。
如果我能征服夜晚的一些未知领域，如果我向报刊投稿，描绘在那值得惦念的季节里我们身边发生的一切；如果我可以告知人们当他们睡着时，有一些美好的事物在悄悄绽放，如果我为诗歌的园地添砖加瓦，我将会被人们称赞。
比起白天，夜晚无疑更加新奇、脱俗。我很快意识到自己只了解夜晚的表面；至于月亮，我只是透过百叶窗的缝隙偶尔瞥见其身影。何不沐浴在月光中，走上一小段路呢？
必须承认，虽然月光足以供沉思的散步者照亮心田，但其质量和强度与阳光相比，的确稍逊一筹。然而，不能仅从月光的强弱来论断月亮的价值，还应视其给地球及其居住者带来的影响而定。“月球受地球引力制约着，同时地球也受月球引力影响。”
许多人会在白天散步，却很少有人在夜间散步。这是很不一样的季节了。就说七月的夜晚吧。十点钟左右，当人们睡着了，白天已被抛在脑后，在静寂的牧场上，牛群在静静地吃草，这时美丽的月光在你面前显露无遗。挂在天上的不是太阳而是月亮和星星，在草地上翩翩起舞的不是蝴蝶，而是萤火虫，像极了长着双翼的火花！
月光下，小乔木和灌木丛仿佛被淹没在洪流中一般。岩石、乔木、灌木和山丘的影子，比起它们本身更为显眼。同样的，整个夜景比白天显得更斑驳和独特。所有白色物体比在白天更惹人注目，远处一片悬崖看起来像是一处闪着磷光的山坡。树林阴沉而黑暗，大自然睡得正酣。月光从树林深幽处的树桩上反射出来，仿佛只照耀自己钟爱的事物。
深夜时分，视觉处于模糊或隐退的状态，其他的感官变为主导。散步者被嗅觉所引导，每棵植物、每片原野以及森林此刻散发出自己的香气，草地上弥漫着美髯兰的芳香，道路上满溢艾菊的芬芳。听觉和嗅觉都更加灵敏起来。我们从未像现在这般清晰地听到溪水流淌的清脆声音。当你沿山边小路走上山丘时，你会不时地感受到一团温暖空气的拥抱。星星是黑夜的珠宝，或许它们比白天里的任何事物都更胜一筹。
如果夜晚没有用它的露珠与黑暗来重振这颓丧的世界，那么日子将会是多么让人难以忍受啊！随着夜色开始萦绕身旁，我们原始的本能被唤醒，我们像丛林里的居住者一样从巢穴中悄悄溜出来，去探索那些鲜为人知的、深沉的思想，这些思想恰是智者的天然猎物。
里克特说：“地球每天都会披上黑夜的面纱，原因与鸟笼盖上帘布如出一辙，即：在黑暗的静谧中我们可能更容易理解更高层次的思想。思想在白天时变成烟和雾，在夜晚时却以光和火焰的形式出现在我们面前。思想甚至像维苏威火山口上方喷涌的柱状物，在白天，那是云柱，而在晚上，却是火柱。”
黑夜和月光是优秀的古物修复者，也是伟大的魔法师。新旧事物无法分清。大自然是一位有教养且公正的教师，不散布粗野的见解，也不阿谀奉承；她既不激进也不保守。想想月光，它是如此文明，却又如此原始！
比起白天的阳光，月光与我们的认知方式更为协调。平常夜晚的月光与我们的思维一样风格轻快，和我们顿悟的时刻一样清晰明亮。
According to 4)Pliny, there is a stone in Arabia called 5)Selenites, “wherein is a white, which increases and decreases with the moon.” My journal for the last year or two, has been selenitic in this sense.
Is not the midnight like Central Africa to most of us? Are we not tempted to explore it, —to 6)penetrate to the shores of its lake 7)Tchad, and discover the source of its Nile, 8)perchance the 9)Mountains of the Moon? Who knows what fertility and beauty, moral and natural, are there to be found? In the Mountains of the Moon, in the Central Africa of the night, there is where all Niles have their hidden
10)heads. The expeditions up the Nile as yet extend but to the 11)cataracts, or perchance to the mouth of the White Nile; but it is the Black Nile that concerns us.
I shall be a 12)benefactor if I conquer some realms from the night, if I report to the 13)gazettes anything 14)transpiring about us at that season worthy of their attention, —if I can show men that there is some beauty awake while they are asleep, —
if I add to the 15)domains of poetry.
Night is certainly more novel and less 16)profane than day. I soon discovered that I was acquainted only with its 17)complexion, and as for the moon, I had seen her only as it were through a 18)crevice in a shutter, occasionally. Why not walk a little way in her light?
It must be allowed that the light of the moon, sufficient though it is for the 19)pensive walker, and not 20)disproportionate to the inner light we have, is very inferior in quality and intensity to that of the sun. But the moon is not to be judged alone by the quantity of light she sends to us, but also by her influence on the earth and its inhabitants. “The moon 21)gravitates toward the earth, and the earth
22)reciprocally toward the moon.”
Many men walk by day; few walk by night. It is a very different season. Take a July night, for instance. About ten o’clock, —when man is asleep, and day fairly forgotten, —the beauty of moonlight is seen over lonely pastures where cattle are silently feeding. Instead of the sun there are the moon and stars, —instead of butterflies in the meadows, fire-flies, winged sparks of fire!
Small trees and shrubs are seen in the midst,
23)overwhelmed as by an 24)inundation. The shadows of rocks and trees, and shrubs and hills, are more
25)conspicuous than the objects themselves. For the same reason the whole landscape is more 26)variegated and 27)picturesque than by day. All white objects are more remarkable than by day. A distant cliff looks like a 28)phosphorescent space on a hillside. The woods are heavy and dark. Nature 29)slumbers. You see the moonlight reflected from particular 30)stumps in the
31)recesses of the forest, as if she selected what to shine on.
In the night the eyes are partly closed or retire into the head. Other senses take the lead. The walker is guided as well by the sense of smell. Every plant and field and forest emits its odor now, 32)swamp pink in the meadow and 33)tansy in the road. The senses both of hearing and smelling are more alert. We hear the 34)tinkling of 35)rills which we never detected before. From time to time, high up on the sides of hills, you pass through a 36)stratum of warm air. The stars are the jewels of the night, and perchance surpass anything which day has to show.
How insupportable would be the days, if the night with its dews and darkness did not come to restore the 37)drooping world. As 38)the shades begin to gather around us, our 39)primeval instincts are aroused, and we steal forth from our 40)lairs, like the inhabitants of the jungle, in search of those silent and 41)brooding thoughts which are the natural 42)prey of the intellect.
43)Richter says that “The earth is every day overspread with the veil of night for the same reason as the cages of birds are darkened, 44)viz: that we may the more readily 45)apprehend the higher harmonies of thought in the hush and quiet of darkness. Thoughts which day turns into smoke and mist, stand about us in the night as light and flames; even as the column which 46)fluctuates above the 47)crater of
48)Vesuvius, in the daytime appears a pillar of cloud, but by night a pillar of fire.”
Great restorer of 49)antiquity, great 50)enchanter. New and old things are 51)confounded. Nature is an
52)instructed and 53)impartial teacher, spreading no crude opinions, and 54)flattering none; she will be neither radical nor conservative. Consider the moonlight, so civil, yet so 55)savage!
The light is more 56)proportionate to our knowledge than that of day. It is no more dusky in ordinary nights, than our mind’s habitual atmosphere, and the moonlight is as bright as our most
57)illuminated moments are.
若干年前一次偶然在月光下散步的经历，给我留下了难忘的回忆。我于是决定要经常散步，去了解大自然的另一面——我也确实这么做了。
据普林尼说，在阿拉伯有一种石头叫月光石，“其中映现一抹白色，会随着月的盈亏而改变大小。” 从这个意义上讲，我过去一两年的出行日记也如这月光石，随着月的盈亏而变化。
对大多数人来说，“午夜”不就如“非洲中部”那般引人入胜吗？我们不曾迫不及待想去中非——深入到乍得湖岸边，去探索尼罗河或者明月山脉的源头吗？谁知道在那儿能发现怎样的富饶和美丽、怎样的精神享受和天然奇景？在非洲中部的夜晚，明月山脉隐藏着尼罗河及其支流的神秘源头。沿着尼罗河的探险之旅，可以延伸至大瀑布，或到白尼罗河的河口处；但是，更加引人瞩目的是夜晚的尼罗河。
如果我能征服夜晚的一些未知领域，如果我向报刊投稿，描绘在那值得惦念的季节里我们身边发生的一切；如果我可以告知人们当他们睡着时，有一些美好的事物在悄悄绽放，如果我为诗歌的园地添砖加瓦，我将会被人们称赞。
比起白天，夜晚无疑更加新奇、脱俗。我很快意识到自己只了解夜晚的表面；至于月亮，我只是透过百叶窗的缝隙偶尔瞥见其身影。何不沐浴在月光中，走上一小段路呢？
必须承认，虽然月光足以供沉思的散步者照亮心田，但其质量和强度与阳光相比，的确稍逊一筹。然而，不能仅从月光的强弱来论断月亮的价值，还应视其给地球及其居住者带来的影响而定。“月球受地球引力制约着，同时地球也受月球引力影响。”
许多人会在白天散步，却很少有人在夜间散步。这是很不一样的季节了。就说七月的夜晚吧。十点钟左右，当人们睡着了，白天已被抛在脑后，在静寂的牧场上，牛群在静静地吃草，这时美丽的月光在你面前显露无遗。挂在天上的不是太阳而是月亮和星星，在草地上翩翩起舞的不是蝴蝶，而是萤火虫，像极了长着双翼的火花！
月光下，小乔木和灌木丛仿佛被淹没在洪流中一般。岩石、乔木、灌木和山丘的影子，比起它们本身更为显眼。同样的，整个夜景比白天显得更斑驳和独特。所有白色物体比在白天更惹人注目，远处一片悬崖看起来像是一处闪着磷光的山坡。树林阴沉而黑暗，大自然睡得正酣。月光从树林深幽处的树桩上反射出来，仿佛只照耀自己钟爱的事物。
深夜时分，视觉处于模糊或隐退的状态，其他的感官变为主导。散步者被嗅觉所引导，每棵植物、每片原野以及森林此刻散发出自己的香气，草地上弥漫着美髯兰的芳香，道路上满溢艾菊的芬芳。听觉和嗅觉都更加灵敏起来。我们从未像现在这般清晰地听到溪水流淌的清脆声音。当你沿山边小路走上山丘时，你会不时地感受到一团温暖空气的拥抱。星星是黑夜的珠宝，或许它们比白天里的任何事物都更胜一筹。
如果夜晚没有用它的露珠与黑暗来重振这颓丧的世界，那么日子将会是多么让人难以忍受啊！随着夜色开始萦绕身旁，我们原始的本能被唤醒，我们像丛林里的居住者一样从巢穴中悄悄溜出来，去探索那些鲜为人知的、深沉的思想，这些思想恰是智者的天然猎物。
里克特说：“地球每天都会披上黑夜的面纱，原因与鸟笼盖上帘布如出一辙，即：在黑暗的静谧中我们可能更容易理解更高层次的思想。思想在白天时变成烟和雾，在夜晚时却以光和火焰的形式出现在我们面前。思想甚至像维苏威火山口上方喷涌的柱状物，在白天，那是云柱，而在晚上，却是火柱。”
黑夜和月光是优秀的古物修复者，也是伟大的魔法师。新旧事物无法分清。大自然是一位有教养且公正的教师，不散布粗野的见解，也不阿谀奉承；她既不激进也不保守。想想月光，它是如此文明，却又如此原始！
比起白天的阳光，月光与我们的认知方式更为协调。平常夜晚的月光与我们的思维一样风格轻快，和我们顿悟的时刻一样清晰明亮。