QuintEssence's Blog

The Road Not Taken 

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 took the one less traveled by, 

And that has made all the difference.



很喜歡這首詩的風格，簡簡單單的文字中，

充滿豐富的畫面與劇情張力。


我們都是那個旅者，人生中多數的情況，

是必須從兩者中擇一；總是無法兼得的。


不管是金錢的分配、時間的分配、甚至愛的分配，都是如此。


在做決定前，我們躊躇良久；在做決定後，我們懷疑：

當初如果選擇另一條路，是否更好?


Robert Frost在本詩的最後，用了"difference"這個字。

"不同"，沒有任何褒或貶的意味，可以變得更好，當然也可以是更糟。


然而，從前句"帶著嘆息訴說"，我們可以看出，

旅者心中還是遺憾著當初的抉擇。


這是人性的矛盾，人生的無奈。