2. The attached original text is as follows:
Think like a mountain
Aldo leopold (USA)
A deep and proud howl echoed from one cliff to another, rippling in the valley and gradually disappearing into the night. This is a generation that is not tamed, antagonistic and despises all the sufferings in the world.
Every living thing (and probably many dead things) will notice this call. For deer, it is a warning of death; For the pine forest, this is a prophecy of melee and bloodshed in the midnight snow; For coyotes, this is a promise to collect; For cowherd, it is a bad omen for the bank deficit (making ends meet); For hunters, it is spikes that resist the challenge of projectiles. However, behind these obvious and direct hopes and fears, there is a deeper meaning, which only Dashan knows. Only when this mountain exists for a long time can we listen to the wolf's howl objectively.
However, people who can't tell its hidden meaning also know the existence of this call, because it can be felt in all areas where there are wolves, and it is it that distinguishes the places where there are wolves from other places. It makes people who hear wolves barking at night and look at wolf footprints during the day creepy. Even if you can't see the wolf, you can't hear its voice. It is hidden in many small events: the neigh of a packhorse in the middle of the night, the creak of rolling rocks, the crash of escaped deer, and the shadow of spruce on the road. Only uneducated beginners can't feel the existence of wolves or the fact that wolves are hidden in the mountains.
My understanding of this began on the day when I saw a wolf die. We are having lunch on a high cliff. Below the cliff, a swift river winds through. We saw a doe-that's what we thought at the time-wading through the rapids, her chest immersed in white water. When it climbed ashore and wagged its tail, we realized that we were wrong: it was a wolf. In addition, six obviously developing little wolves also ran out from the willow bushes, wagging their tails happily and playing together. They are really a group of wolves crawling around in the open space under our cliff and colliding with each other.
At that time, we had never heard of such a thing as letting go of a chance to kill a wolf. In one second, we loaded the bullet, and the excitement was higher than the accuracy: it was always unclear how to aim at the steep hillside. When the chamber of our rifle was empty, the wolf had fallen, and a little wolf was dragging one leg into the cold and quiet rock.
When we arrived at the old wolf's residence, we just saw his eyes flashing with green light that was uncomfortable and dying. At this time, I realized, and I always thought so, that there was something new to me in these eyes, something that only it and the mountain knew. At that time, I was very young, and I felt itchy without pulling the trigger. At that time, I always thought that the fewer wolves, the more deer. Therefore, a place without wolves means a paradise for hunters. However, when I saw this dying green light, I felt that neither the wolf nor the mountain would agree with this view.
Since then, I have witnessed state after state killing all their wolves. I have seen many mountains that have just lost wolves, and I have seen the slopes in the south become wrinkled because of the newly built winding deer path. I saw that all edible shrubs and saplings were eaten, first they became useless, and then they died. I saw that every edible tree with fallen leaves was only as high as the saddle horn. Such a mountain looks as if someone gave God a pair of scissors and banned all other activities. As a result, the hunger of the hungry deer turned white with the dead mugwort bushes, or rotted in Du Panang with leaves above the deer head. These deer died because they were too numerous.
I now think that just as a deer lives in extreme fear of wolves, that mountain will live in extreme fear of its deer. Moreover, it is probably a good reason that when a male deer dragged by a wolf can be replaced in two or three years, a grassland exhausted by too many deer may not be restored for decades.
The same is true of cattle. The cattle herder who cleared the wolves in his pasture didn't realize that he replaced the wolves in order to adjust the number of cattle to suit his pasture. He doesn't know how to think like a mountain. Because of this, we have sandstorms, and rivers wash the future to the sea.
We are all striving for security, prosperity, comfort, longevity and peace. Deer struggle with brisk limbs, cowherd struggles with ferrules and poison, politicians use pens, and all of us use machines, votes and dollars. All these bring the same thing: peace in our time. It is very good to measure your grades by this point, and you probably have to think objectively. However, too much security seems to only create long-term dangers. Perhaps this is the potential meaning of Thoreau's famous saying. The revelation of this world lies in the wilderness. Probably, this is also the hidden connotation in Wolf Howl. It is understood by mountains, but it is rarely understood by humans.
Three. About the author:
Aldo leopold (1887- 1948) is an American writer, ecologist and land ethicist. Known as the seeder of American environmental ethics, he published three books and more than 500 articles in his life. 1949, The Year of Shaxian County was published, which is his most important work.
The Yearbook of Shaxiang records the author's personal knowledge and understanding of the refraction and reflection of all kinds of life in nature. Beautiful writing and profound thinking. Known as the "Green Bible".
Thinking Like a Mountain is an essay included in Shaxiang Yearbook.