[Day 11] Economy***

[Day 11] Economy***

Let us consider for a moment what most of the trouble and anxiety which I have referred to is about, and how much it is necessary that we be troubled, or, at least, careful. It would be some advantage to live a primitive and frontier life, though in the midst of an outward civilization, if only to learn what are the gross necessaries of life and what methods have been taken to obtain them; or even to look over the old day-books of the merchants, to see what it was that men most commonly bought at the stores, what they stored, that is, what are the grossest groceries. For the improvements of ages have had but little influence on the essential laws of man’s existence; as our skeletons, probably, are not to be distinguished from those of our ancestors.

By the words, necessary of life, I mean whatever, of all that man obtains by his own exertions, has been from the first, or from long use has become, so important to human life that few, if any, whether from savageness, or poverty, or philosophy, ever attempt to do without it. To many creatures there is in this sense but one necessary of life, Food. To the bison of the prairie it is a few inches of palatable grass, with water to drink; unless he seeks the Shelter of the forest or the mountain’s shadow. None of the brute creation requires more than Food and Shelter.

The necessaries of life for man in this climate may, accurately enough, be distributed under the several heads of Food, Shelter, Clothing, and Fuel; for not till we have secured these are we prepared to entertain the true problems of life with freedom and a prospect of success. Man has invented, not only houses, but clothes and cooked food; and possibly from the accidental discovery of the warmth of fire, and the consequent use of it, at first a luxury, arose the present necessity to sit by it.

* "월든" 원서로 읽기 이제 겨우 11일째다. 이제 겨우 10여 쪽 읽었을 뿐인데 이게 영어구나 라는 생각이 든다. 학교에서 배운 모든 문법 사항들이 동원되어 있다. 수동태, 가정법, 양보구문, 도치구문 등의 문장 형식과 구조는 물론 비유, 상징, 풍자, 조소등의 표현기법 들, 그 시대의 사회와 인식 수준들이 가득하다. 그러느라 한쪽 분량 읽는데 두시간은 족히 걸리는 것 같다. 혼자 읽기 어렵다. 그래서 어느 번역판을 참고해가며 한줄 한줄 대조해 본다. 큰 도움이 되고 있다. 번역본은 원문의 느낌이 살아나지 않는 것 같다. 번역에 동의 못할 부분도 군데 군데 눈에 띈다.