For the first week ， whenever i looked out on the pond it impressed me like a tarn high up on the side of a mountain ， its bottom far above the surface of other lakes ， and ， as the sun arose ， i saw it throwing off its nightly clothing of mist ， and here and there ， by degrees ， its soft ripples or its smooth reflecting surface was revealed ， while the mists ， like ghosts ， were stealthily withdrawing in every direction into the woods ， as at the breaking up of some nocturnal conventicle 在第一个星期内，无论什么时候我凝望着湖水，湖给我的印象都好像山里的一泓龙潭，高高在山的一边，它的底还比别的湖沼的水平面高了不少，以至日出的时候，我看到它脱去了夜晚的雾衣，它轻柔的粼波，或它波平如镜的湖面，都渐渐地在这里那里呈现了，这时的雾，像幽灵偷偷地从每一个方向，退隐入森林中，又好像是一个夜间的秘密宗教集会散会了一样。
Speak , then , without reserve , as without hatred ; tell the truth , the whole truth ; i do not know , never may know , the persons of whom you are about to speak ; besides , i am an italian , and not a frenchman , and belong to god , and not to man , and i shall shortly retire to my convent , which i have only quitted to fulfil the last wishes of a dying man . 所以，说吧，别保留什么，也别意气用事，把真相讲出来，全部的真相。我不认识，也许永远不会认识您将要说到的那些人。而且，我是一个意大利人，不是法国人，是只属于上帝而不属于凡人的，我就要退隐到我的修道院里去了，我此次来只是为了来实现一个人临终时的愿望而已。 ”
