I believe we are not alone.

我相信我們并不孤單。

Even if I am on the other side of the world from the farmhouse I live in, I still dream of the ancient vines out the window, and the shed out back that my grandfather’s father built in 1870 with eucalyptus trunks. As long as I can recreate these images, I never quite leave home.

即使我處身地球的另一端，遠離我家農莊，我仍然能夢見窗外那古老的藤蔓，夢見我爺爺的父親在1870年用桉樹建造的棚屋。只要這些影像還在我腦中浮現，我就離家不遠。

I don’t think farming in the same place for six generations is a dead weight that keeps you shackled, doing the identical thing year in and year out. Instead, it is a rare link to others before me, who pruned the same vines and painted the same barn that I have. If those in this house survived the Panic of 1893 or the Great Depression, or bathed with cold water and used an outhouse, then surely I know I can weather high gas prices.

我不認為六代人在同一地方過著耕種的生活，年復一年地干著同樣的活是一種讓人喘不過氣來的負擔。相反，我與這些先人修剪著相同的藤蔓、給同一座谷倉上漆，這是我與他們之間難得的紐帶。如果在這間屋子里住過的人能夠挺過1893年的金融恐慌或是經濟大蕭條，能夠忍受冷水浴、戶外廁所，那么我也肯定能夠應付攀升的汽油價格。

I believe that all of us need some grounding in our modern world of constant moving, buying, selling, meeting and leaving. Some find constancy in religion. Others lean on friends or community for permanence. But we need some daily signposts that we are not novel, not better, not worse from those who came before us.

我相信在這個現代社會，在不停的遷移、買賣、相聚、分離的生活中，所有人都需要一些寄托。一些人寄情于宗教，另一些人依賴于朋友或社區來尋求安穩，但我們還需要一些日常的標志物提醒我們：我們也和前人一樣，并沒有更新潮、更好或更糟。

For me, this house, this farm, these ancient vines are those roots. Although I came into this world alone and will leave alone, I am not alone.

對我來說，這房子、這農莊、這些古老的藤蔓，都是我生活的根基。雖然我孤獨地來到這個世界，也將獨自離去，但我并不孤單。

There are ghosts of dozens of conversations in the hallways, stories I remember about buying new plows that now rust in the barnyard and ruined crops from the same vines that we are now harvesting.

在屋里的門廊里回蕩著許多舊時的對話，提到一些我記憶猶新的往事，如購買新的犁頭——如今已銹蝕在場院中，還有那曾被毀壞的作物，而我們現正在同一個藤架上獲得收成。

I believe all of us are natural links in a long chain of being: I need to know what time of day it is, what season is coming, whether the wind is blowing north or from the east, and if the moon is still full tomorrow night, just as the farmers who came before me did.

我相信我們與前人都是人類長長紐帶上的不同環節。與以前的農民一樣，我需要知道現在是一天里的什么時間，接下來是什么季節，會吹南方還是東風，明晚的月亮是否還是圓的。

The physical world around us changes constantly; human nature does not. We must struggle in our brief existence to find some transcendent meaning during reoccurring heartbreak and disappointment and so find solace in the knowledge that our ancestors have all gone through this before.

我們周圍的現實世界在不斷地改變，但人類的本性不會變。在短暫的一生中，憂傷及失望會不斷出現，我們必須努力找出超越現實的意義，要認識到我們的祖先都經歷過了這些生活坎坷，從而得到心靈的慰藉。

You may find all that too intrusive, living with the past as present. I find it exhilarating. I believe there is an old answer for every new problem, that wise whispers of the past are with us to assure us that if we just listen and remember, we are not alone; we have been here before.

你或者會覺得生活中有先人的介入太難接受，但我卻發現這很令人振奮。我相信每個新問題都有傳統的答案，前人充滿智慧的肺腑之言無處不在，只要我們能用心傾聽、銘記，我們就不會孤單，因為我們以前也曾有過相同的經歷。



 

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