杜鹃花
爱默生
(有人问花儿来自哪里)
在五月, 当海风刺穿了我们的孤独,
我在树林中发现了鲜艳的杜鹃花,
在一个潮湿的角落,它铺展开无叶的花瓣,
去讨那沙地和懒惰的小溪欢喜。
那紫色的花瓣,飘落在池塘,
用他们美丽来让黑色的水流快乐;
红羽毛的鸟儿可能来这里纳凉,
并且去向让它们的美减价的花朵求爱。
杜鹃花! 如果那明智的人问你
为什么让这样的魅力在大地和天空被浪费,
告诉他们,亲爱的,如果眼睛是为了观看而生,
那么美就是它自己存在的理由:
为什么你在那里,啊,玫瑰的竞争者!
我从来不想去问,我从来也不知道:
可是,就凭我的简单无知来猜测——是自我
——那带我到那儿的相同力量也带去了你。
The Rhodora
On Being Asked Whence Is the Flower
IN May, when sea-winds pierced our solitudes,
I found the fresh Rhodora in the woods,
Spreading its leafless blooms in a damp nook,
To please the desert and the sluggish brook.
The purple petals, fallen in the pool,
Made the black water with their beauty gay;
Here might the red-bird come his plumes to cool,
And court the flower that cheapens his array.
Rhodora! if the sages ask thee why
This charm is wasted on the earth and sky,
Tell them, dear, that if eyes were made for seeing,
Then Beauty is its own excuse for being:
Why thou wert there, O rival of the rose!
I never thought to ask, I never knew:
But, in my simple ignorance, suppose
The self-same Power that brought me there brought you.