MENDING WALL
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 offence.
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."
修补墙壁
刘尔威 译
有一种东西不喜欢墙壁，
它使冻结的地面在墙壁下膨胀，
在阳光中倒出地表的大石头；
甚至使裂纹超过了两人并起的肩膀。
猎人毁墙则是另一件事情：
我要跟在他们后面修复他们经过
且不把石头放回原处的地方，
他们还会让兔子不再躲藏，
以取悦那吠叫的狗。我所说的裂纹，
没有人看见或听见它们怎样形成，
但在春天修补的时候便会看到千疮百孔。
我约了那位山那边的邻居；
在某天我们走到那断墙并见了面
又一次将墙壁搁置在了我们中间。
我们边走边把破的墙补上，
用落向各自墙角的所有石头。
有些如同面包片有些则类似球形
我们要用一段符咒来使它们平衡：
“我们转身之前，请留在你所在的位置！”
处理它们使我们的手磨得粗糙。
哦，像是另一种户外游戏，
一个站一边。有点感觉了：
其实这里是我们不需墙壁的地方：
他那儿全都是松树而我的是苹果园。
我告诉他，我的苹果树绝不会
穿越过去在他的松树下吃松果。
他只说，“只有好栅栏才能促成好邻居。”
在我心里春天是个危害，我在想
我能否在他脑中放置这样一个想法：
“为什么栅栏能促成好邻居？难道它
不该竖在有奶牛的地方？但是这儿没奶牛。
在我建墙壁之前我就该知道
我做围墙是想围住以及隔开什么，
我又可能会得罪谁。
有些东西不喜欢墙壁，
希望墙壁倒下。”我会对他说那是“小精灵”，
但正确说那不是，我宁可
让他自己说那是什么。我看他在那里
用双手尖紧紧抓着
块石头，像原始人的石器武装。
在我看来他在黑暗中移动，
不止是木头还有树木的阴影。
他不会去探究父辈所说的话，
他倒喜欢想起这一句所以会又
说，“只有好栅栏才能促成好邻居。”
