八月三十一日
走路，讀書，看植物，種植物，我的日常生活大概就是這樣。這幾年學會多借書，習慣每星期到學校借書，《湖濱散記》就是這星期借來的好書。先讀中文譯本，好壞我並不置評，讀起來確實敖口不順，所以，一方面參照古騰堡的電子文本，一方面準備下星期大台大圖書館借書英文版，翻閱好書，樂融融。
梭羅，總是語出驚人，「不動產」常常成為幽禁我們的地方，到死才獲得解放：
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The farmer is endeavoring to solve the problem of a
livelihood by a formula more complicated than the problem itself. To get his
shoestrings he speculates in herds of cattle. With consummate skill he has
set his trap with a hair spring to catch comfort and independence, and then,
as he turned away, got his own leg into it. This is the reason he is poor;
and for a similar reason we are all poor in respect to a thousand savage
comforts, though surrounded by luxuries. As Chapman sings,
"The false society of men—
—for earthly greatness
All heavenly comforts rarefies
to air."
And when the farmer has got his house, he may not be
the richer but the poorer for it, and it be the house that has got him. As I
understand it, that was a valid objection urged by Momus against the house
which Minerva made, that she "had not made it movable, by which means a
bad neighborhood might be avoided"; and it may still be urged, for our
houses are such unwieldy property that we are often imprisoned rather than
housed in them; and the bad neighborhood to be avoided is our own scurvy selves. I know
one or two families, at least, in this town, who, for nearly a generation,
have been wishing to sell their houses in the outskirts and move into the
village, but have not been able to accomplish it, and only death will set them free.
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九月一日
這兩天yahoo部落格宣布關門，勸眾大居民快遷移；萬物都有毀壞的一日，房子都有倒的一天，我們這個世代，加速進行太多毀滅工程。之前常有電子書與紙本書論戰，就材質而言，我們也許可以期待一顆超強的晶體，存放千年萬年；但是，就電子化與網路化的世界，文字滯留人心的短暫，應該幾乎是零；而電子產物的更替速度，似乎預告電子書寫比莎草紙、牛皮與紙張消逝更快。
漫遊《湖濱散記》文字，也幻想來一盤簡簡單單的馬齒莧(purslane, Portulaca oleracea)! 生活的累贅多了，需要放下。
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I learned from my two years' experience that it
would cost incredibly little trouble to obtain one's necessary food, even in
this latitude; that a man may use as simple a diet as the animals, and yet
retain health and strength. I have made a satisfactory dinner, satisfactory
on several accounts, simply off a dish of
purslane (Portulaca oleracea) which I gathered in my cornfield, boiled
and salted. I give the Latin on account of the savoriness of the trivial
name. And pray what more can a reasonable man desire, in peaceful times, in
ordinary noons, than a sufficient number of ears of green sweet corn boiled,
with the addition of salt? Even the little variety which I used was a
yielding to the demands of appetite, and not of health. Yet men have come to such a pass that they frequently
starve, not for want of necessaries, but for want of luxuries; and I
know a good woman who thinks that her son lost his life because he took to
drinking water only.
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給個小註--- yahoo放牛吃草~
九月二日
試問liberal和free有甚麼不同?梭羅引用Flower Garden, by
Sheik Sadi中的比喻，化成植物意象，海棗樹(date tree)是liberal，柏(cypress)是free，幾分晦澀難懂？liberal是指慷慨大方對別人，free是個人自由自在的態度，海棗與香柏都是美索不達米亞平原常見的植物，舊約聖經多處提到。海棗結實累累，是豐盛的象徵，所以Sadi喻為富裕者，應該慷慨大方付出。而柏樹，雖然沒有太多果實可以餽贈別人，卻是自由自在伸展，舞出高雅，舞出美麗！
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I read in the Gulistan, or Flower Garden, of Sheik Sadi of Shiraz, that "they asked a
wise man, saying: Of the many celebrated trees which the Most High God has
created lofty and umbrageous, they call none azad, or
free, excepting the cypress, which bears no fruit; what mystery is
there in this? He replied, Each has its appropriate produce, and appointed
season, during the continuance of which it is fresh and blooming, and during
their absence dry and withered; to neither of which states is the cypress
exposed, being always flourishing; and of this nature are the azads, or
religious independents.—Fix not thy heart on that
which is transitory; for the Dijlah, or Tigris, will continue to flow
through Bagdad after the race of caliphs is extinct: if
thy hand has plenty, be liberal as the date tree; but if it affords nothing
to give away, be an azad, or free man, like the cypress."
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我種的海棗，將餽贈親朋好友
九月五日
生命，是我們一生中最美好的禮物，梭羅的這一句子---- There is nowhere recorded a simple and
irrepressible satisfaction with the gift of life, any memorable praise of God.-----說道我的心坎，單純的心思，心滿意足，感恩與喜樂。只是，世間所謂的貧窮，常常是被社會制度創造出來的，梭羅的思維，這不是簡化的安貧樂道口號可以說明，我的體會是，創造生命最高的價值，不在於擁有多少財富，而是如何善用與珍惜我們的生命，這是每一個人最貴重資產！
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Our
manners have been corrupted by communication with the saints. Our hymn-books resound with a melodious cursing
of God and enduring Him forever. One would say that even the prophets and
redeemers had rather consoled the fears than confirmed the hopes of man. There is nowhere
recorded a simple and irrepressible satisfaction with the gift of life,
any memorable praise of God. All health and success does me good, however far
off and withdrawn it may appear; all disease and failure helps to make me sad
and does me evil, however much sympathy it may have with me or I with it. If, then, we
would indeed restore mankind by truly Indian, botanic, magnetic, or natural
means, let us first be as simple and well as Nature ourselves,
dispel the clouds which hang over our own brows, and take up a little life
into our pores. Do not stay to be an overseer of the poor, but endeavor to become one of
the worthies of the world.
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圖： 天堂鳥
[天堂鳥] ET Bear 植物語: 接觸美好的事物, 就是身處天堂。
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