羅伯特‧弗羅斯特
(ROBERT FROST)

未選擇的路
The Road Not Taken

 

羅伯特‧弗羅斯特(1874一1963)是在麻塞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於1913年。1916年後,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。當許多詩人熱衷於搞詩歌試驗時,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徵意義,而不是什麼田園式的思鄉情調。《未選擇的路》是弗羅斯特的一首名詩,作於1915年。


黃葉林中出條岔路,

    無奈一人難於兼顧,

    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,

    儘管真有兩條道。

 

    清晨裏躺著兩條路,

    一樣葉被無人踏髒,

    願將第一條來日補,

    但知條條相連遠途,

    懷疑日後怎能回返。

 

    在很久以後某一地,

    我將歎息訴說於人,

    兩路岔開在樹林裏,

    我選的那條足跡稀,

    而一切差別由此起。

 

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 kept 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.