In May, when sea-winds pierced our solitudes, 五月,海風刺透靜寂 I found the fresh Rhodora in the woods, 林中忽遇紫杜鵑 Spreading its leafless blooms in a damp nook, 葉空,畫滿,編綴濕地 To please the desert and the sluggish brook. 荒原緩溪為之一亮 The purple petals, fallen in the pool, 紫瓣繽紛飄落 Made the black water with their beauty gay; 黑水斑駁豔麗 Here might the red-bird come his plumes to cool, 緋鳥或暫歇涼 And court the flower that cheapens his array. 愛花瓣令羽色黯淡 Rhodora! if the sages ask thee why 若問汝何以 This charm is wasted on the earth and sky, 絕色虛擲天地 Tell them, dear, that if eyes were made for seeing, 請謂之:眼為視而生 Then beauty is its own excuse for being: 則美為美而在 Why thou wert there, O rival of the rose! 與玫瑰競色 I never thought to ask, I never knew: 何必問緣起 But, in my simple ignorance, suppose 吾來看汝,汝自開落 The self-same power that brought me there brought you. 緣起同一
Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet, who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. His well-known essays were Self-Reliance, The Over-Soul, Circles, The Poet and Experience. Emerson developed certain ideas such as individuality, freedom, the ability for man to realize almost anything, and the relationship between the soul and the surrounding world. Emerson's "nature" was more philosophical than naturalistic; "Philosophically considered, the universe is composed of Nature and the Soul." Emerson's essays remain one of the linchpins of American thinking. When asked to sum up his work, he said his central doctrine was "the infinitude of the private man."(Source: Wikipedia)
In May, when sea-winds pierced our solitudes, 五月,海風刺透靜寂 I found the fresh Rhodora in the woods, 林中忽遇紫杜鵑 Spreading its leafless blooms in a damp nook, 葉空,畫滿,編綴濕地 To please the desert and the sluggish brook. 荒原緩溪為之一亮 The purple petals, fallen in the pool, 紫瓣繽紛飄落 Made the black water with their beauty gay; 黑水斑駁豔麗 Here might the red-bird come his plumes to cool, 緋鳥或暫歇涼 And court the flower that cheapens his array. 愛花瓣令羽色黯淡 Rhodora! if the sages ask thee why 若問汝何以 This charm is wasted on the earth and sky, 絕色虛擲天地 Tell them, dear, that if eyes were made for seeing, 請謂之:眼為視而生 Then beauty is its own excuse for being: 則美為美而在 Why thou wert there, O rival of the rose! 與玫瑰競色 I never thought to ask, I never knew: 何必問緣起 But, in my simple ignorance, suppose 吾來看汝,汝自開落 The self-same power that brought me there brought you. 緣起同一