台灣獨立紀念日

The present was my next experiment of this kind, which I purpose to describe more at length, for convenience putting the experience of two years into one. As I have said, I do not propose to write an ode to dejection, but to brag as lustily as chanticleer in the morning, standing on his roost, if only to wake my neighbors up.

When first I took up my abode in the woods, that is, began to spend my nights as well as days there, which, by accident, was on Independence Day, or the Fourth of July, 1845, my house was not finished for winter, but was merely a defence against the rain, without plastering or chimney, the walls being of rough, weather-stained boards, with wide chinks, which made it cool at night. The upright white hewn studs and freshly planed door and window casings gave it a clean and airy look, especially in the morning, when its timbers were saturated with dew, so that I fancied that by noon some sweet gum would exude from them. To my imagination it retained throughout the day more or less of this auroral character, reminding me of a certain house on a mountain which I had visited a year before. This was an airy and unplastered cabin, fit to entertain a travelling god, and where a goddess might trail her garments. The winds which passed over my dwelling were such as sweep over the ridges of mountains, bearing the broken strains, or celestial parts only, of terrestrial music. The morning wind forever blows, the poem of creation is uninterrupted; but few are the ears that hear it. Olympus is but the outside of the earth everywhere.

註：梭羅於1845年三月底起造湖邊小屋，7月4日(美國獨立紀念日)正式入厝。

當我讀到這裡時，很不幸的，台灣正處於近幾年來最不獨立的年代，最令人氣餒的年代。雖然我希望像梭羅一樣，學公雞在清晨引頸高啼，試圖喚醒我的國人：盡可能的作一個自由自在的人，不要委身於任何東西 －－ 不論是美國，日本，還是中國。並不是如憤青一般高唱台灣民族主義，只是站在一個台灣人的立場，真誠地喜愛他的國家與國內的事物。但是要聽的耳朵太少。