補牆 / Robert Frost

有一點什麼，它大概是不喜歡牆，

它使得牆腳下的凍地漲得隆起，

大白天把牆頭石塊弄得紛紛落；

使牆裂了縫，二人並肩都走得過。

士紳們行獵時又是另一番糟塌；

他們要掀開每塊石頭上的石頭，

我總是跟在他們後面去修補，

但是他們要把兔子從隱處趕出來，

討好那群汪汪叫的狗。我說的牆縫

誰也沒看見或聽見它是如何形成的，

但是到了春天補牆時，就看見它在那裡。

我通知了住在山那邊的鄰居；

有一天我們約好，巡視地界一番，

在我們兩家之間再把牆重新砌起。

我們走的時候，中間隔著一沿牆。

落在兩邊的石塊，由各自去料理。

有些是長塊的，有些幾乎圓得像球，

需要一點魔術才能把它們放穩當：

「給我好好待著，等我們轉過身再滾落！」

我們搬弄石頭，把手指都磨粗了。

啊！這不過又是一種戶外遊戲，

一個人站在一邊。此外沒有多少用處：

在牆那地方，我們根本不需要牆：

他那邊全是松樹，我這邊則是蘋果園。

我的蘋果樹永遠也不會踱過去，

吃掉他松樹下的毬果。我對他說。

他只是說：「好籬笆造出好鄰居。」

春天在我心裡作祟，我在懸想

能不能把一個念頭注入他的腦裡：

為什麼好籬笆造出好鄰居？是否指著

有牛的人家？可是我們此地又沒有牛。

我在造牆之前，先要弄個清楚，

圈進來的是什麼，圈出去的是什麼，

並且我可能開罪的是什麼人家。

那兒的什麼東西，它不喜歡牆，

想要推倒它。」我說那是「精靈」，

但也不完全是精靈，我想還是

讓他自己看罷。我看見他在那裡

搬一塊石頭，兩手緊抓住石頭的上端，

像一個舊石器時代的武裝野蠻人。

看起來像是在黑暗中摸索，

這黑暗不僅是來自森林與樹蔭。

他不肯探究他父親傳給他的格言，

想到這句格言，他很喜歡，

便再說一遍，「好籬笆造出好鄰居。」




MENDING WALL by Robert Frost

Something there is that doesn't love a wall,

That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,

And spills the upper boulders in the sun,

And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.

The work of hunters is another thing:

I have come after them and made repair

Where they have left not one stone on a stone,

But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,

To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,

No one has seen them made or heard them made,

But at spring mending-time we find them there.

I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;

And on a day we meet to walk the line

And set the wall between us once again.

We keep the wall between us as we go.

To each the boulders that have fallen to each.

And some are loaves and some so nearly balls

We have to use a spell to make them balance:

'Stay where you are until our backs are turned!'

We wear our fingers rough with handling them.

Oh, just another kind of out-door game,

One on a side. It comes to little more:

There where it is we do not need the wall:

He is all pine and I am apple orchard.

My apple trees will never get across

And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.

He only says, 'Good fences make good neighbors'.

Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder

If I could put a notion in his head:

Why do they make good neighbors? Isn't it

Where there are cows?

But here there are no cows.

Before I built a wall I'd ask to know

What I was walling in or walling out,

And to whom I was like to give offense.

Something there is that doesn't love a wall,

That wants it down.' I could say '.Elves' to him,

But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather

He said it for himself. I see him there

Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top

In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.

He moves in darkness as it seems to me

Not of woods only and the shade of trees.

He will not go behind his father's saying,

And he likes having thought of it so well

He says again, "Good fences make good neighbors."