The Road Not Taken (未選擇的路)

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that, the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I marked the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

未選擇的路

The Road Not Taken

羅伯特.弗羅斯特(1874一1963)是在馬薩諸塞州勞倫斯上的中學，也在達特第斯學院和哈佛大學讀過一段時間。獲得詩名之前，弗羅斯特時而務農，時而到中學教希臘語和拉丁語。他的第一部詩集出版于1913年。1916年后，他一直在著名學府任職，通常的身份是“住校詩人”。弗羅斯特的詩歌備受喜愛，原因之一是未受過多少學校教育的人都看得懂。當許多詩人熱衷于搞詩歌試驗時，他卻堅持使用日常語言，描寫自己觀察入微的日常事件。弗羅斯特的許多詩歌反映了他與大自然的貼近。他通過自然來表達一種象征意義，而不是什么田園式的思鄉情調。《未選擇的路》是弗羅斯特的一首名詩，作于1915年。

黃葉林中出條岔路，

無奈一人難于兼顧，

順著一條婉蜒小路，

久久佇立極目遠眺，

只見小徑拐進灌木。

接著選擇了另一條，

同樣清楚似乎更好，

引人踩踏鋪滿茂草，

踏在其間難分彼此，

盡管真有兩條道。

清晨里躺著兩條路，

一樣葉被無人踏臟，

愿將第一條來日補，

但知條條相連遠途，

懷疑日后怎能回返。

在很久以后某一地，

我將嘆息訴說于人，

兩路岔開在樹林里，

我選的那條足跡稀，

而一切差別由此起