The Road Not Taken
By Robert Frost
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.
港西人翻譯：
成為旅行者，我站了很久
並儘可能地向下看
到它在灌木叢中彎曲的地方；
然後去了另一條路，同樣清新，
也許有更好的體驗，
因為條路長滿了草，渴望被探索；
雖然兩條路其實都差不多，
那天早上那兩條路同樣躺在
樹葉上
沒有被腳印踩黑。
哦，我把第一條路留到另一天！
然而知道條路帶我到哪裏，
我懷疑自己會否再回來。
我會隨着年齡嘆息著說這一切：
樹林裡分出了兩條路，而我──
我選了那人跡罕至的路，
這一切都變得不同了。
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
注解：
1）I looked down as far as I could to where it bent in the mass of bushes and small plants
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,
注解：
1）Had worn them really about the same: 落葉再次覆蓋着道路，所以看似無人踏觸過般
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.
注解：
1）with a sigh: 詩人在這首詩沒有提及過那個difference是正面或負面。Sigh這個字不知道是想表達對自己的選擇而後悔還是因為當時做了那個決定而感激自己，鬆一口氣
這首詩的創作原因只是出於詩人想諷刺一下朋友Edward Thomas在一起散步時對走那條路的猶豫不決。
Thomas在1915年回信Robert Frost: 「你讓我再次想起那條未曾走過的道路，沒有錯…… 但我懷疑你是否能在不向他人展示並建議他們應該笑甚麼時讓任何人看到這首詩的樂趣。」
雖然現時的分析都在一個更高的立意切入，我們不可否認詩的原意的確無那麼「高貴」— 只是諷刺而已。
可是，暫時放下詩的原本目的，Frost的描寫令讀者聯想到自己作選擇的情況。
那種「瞻前顧後」，想追隨著夢想的麵包碎但又為生活擔憂的矛盾，可能你也經驗過。
這首詩我喜歡與我的私人學生分享，特別是在公開試期間。累了，讀讀最後一節詩句 — 提醒自己：「若知為何而生，遂可納受一切。」
下次再見~