The Road of Life

The Road Not Taken
by Robert Frost (1874-1963)

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.

Robert Lee Frost (1874-1963) was one of American's best-known and loved poets. His poems often begin in delight and end in wisdom, revealing universal significance in them, and call for readers' deep thought behind the poem's description of familiar scenes in their ordinary life. Moreover, this simplicity of language expressing the universal essence of life and the easy rhymes attract even more people to appreciate the meaning of life and become attached to his poems. No wonder he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1924, 1931, 1937 and 1943.

沒有走的路 (Robert Frost 1874-1963)

黃樹林裡分叉兩條路，只可惜我不能都踏行。
我，孤單的旅人，佇立良久，
極目眺望一條路的盡頭，看它隱沒在林叢深處。

於是我選擇了另一條路，一樣平直，
或許還值得，因為青草茵茵，還未被踩過，
若有過往人蹤，路的狀況會相差無幾。

那天早晨，兩條路都覆蓋在枯葉下，沒有踐踏的汙痕，
啊，原先那條路留給另一天吧，
明知一條路會引出另一條路，我懷疑我是否會回到原處。

在許多許多年以後，在某處，我會輕輕嘆息說：
黃樹林裡分叉兩條路，
而我，我選擇了較少人跡的一條，
使得一切多麼地不同。


Robert Frost (1874-1963)是美國一位最著名且最受喜愛的詩人。他的詩常有愉快的開頭和有智慧的結尾，其中透露著眾所皆知的意義，並引起讀者對於他的詩和自己日常生活的深思。此外，簡單的表達方式和輕鬆的韻腳，表達出生活的本質，甚至讓人們更欣賞生命的意義，變得喜愛他的詩。難怪他會獲得1924、1931、1937、1943年的普立茲詩文獎。