关于本书
这个经典美国故事的主人公瑞普·凡·温克尔心地善良，却是出了名的懒汉，住在卡茨基尔山脚下一个荷兰人的小村庄里。为了躲开严厉的妻子和日常的责任，他走进荒野深处，遇到了一个神秘的身影，由此经历了一场意想不到、改变一生的奇遇。
开篇
By Woden, God of Saxons,
以撒克逊人之神沃登的名义，
From whence comes Wensday, that is Wodensday.
星期三就是由他而来，也就是沃登之日。
Truth is a thing that ever I will keep
真理是我将永远持守的东西
Unto thylke day in which I creep into
直到那一天，我爬进
My sepulchre——
我的坟墓——
Cartwright.
卡特赖特。
INTRODUCTION
引言
The following tale was found among the papers of the late Diedrich Knickerbocker, an old gentleman of New York,
下面的故事是在已故的迪德里希·尼克博克的文件中发现的，他是纽约的一位老先生，
who was very curious in the Dutch history of the province,
对这个州的荷兰历史，
and the manners of the descendants from its primitive settlers.
以及它最初定居者的后裔们的风俗习惯非常好奇。
His historical researches, however, did not lie so much among books as among men;
不过，他的历史研究与其说是在书本中进行，不如说是在人群中进行；
for the former are lamentably scanty on his favourite topics; whereas he found the old burghers,
因为前者在他最喜爱的题目上少得可怜；而他发现那些老市民，
and still more their wives, rich in that legendary lore so invaluable to true history.
更不用说他们的妻子，都富于那种对真正的历史极为宝贵的传说知识。
Whenever, therefore, he happened upon a genuine Dutch family, snugly shut up in its low-roofed farmhouse,
因此，每当他偶然遇到一个真正的荷兰家庭，舒舒服服地关在它那低矮屋顶的农舍里，
under a spreading sycamore, he looked upon it as a little clasped volume of black-letter,
在一棵枝叶繁茂的梧桐树下，他就把它看作一本用扣子扣住的黑体字小书，
and studied it with the zeal of a book-worm.
并且以书虫般的热情去研究它。
The result of all these researches was a history of the province during the reign of the Dutch governors,
所有这些研究的成果，是一部关于荷兰总督统治时期该州的历史，
which he published some years since.
他在几年前出版了这部书。
There have been various opinions as to the literary character of his work, and,
对于他这部著作的文学性质，人们有各种各样的看法，而且，
to tell the truth, it is not a whit better than it should be.
说实话，它丝毫也不比它应有的样子更好。