紫杜鹃
有人问起这花从哪里来?
拉尔夫·沃尔多·爱默生
五月，当凄厉的海风穿过荒漠，
我看到树林里紫杜鹃灿然开放
无叶的花朵点缀于阴湿的角落，
荒漠和缓流的小溪有多么快乐。
紫色的花瓣纷纷扬扬飘入水池，
乌黑的池水因这美丽欢欣无比。
红鸟可能会飞来这里浸湿羽毛，
向令它们惭愧的花儿倾吐爱慕，
紫杜鹃!如果圣人问你，为何
你把美艳白白抛掷在天地之间，
告诉他们，亲爱的，
如果眼睛生来就是为了观看，
那么美就是它们存在的理由。
你为什么在那里。玫瑰的匹敌
我从未想起要问，也从来不知道。
不过，以我愚人之见，我以为，
把我带来的神明也把你带到这里。
英文原诗：
The Rhodora [1839]
by Ralph Waldo Emerson
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.
1834 [1839]