The Rhodora

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.
五月，海风刺透静寂
林中忽遇紫杜鹃
叶空，花满，遍缀湿地
荒原缓溪为之一亮
紫瓣缤纷飘落
黑水斑驳艳丽
绯鸟或暂歇凉
爱花瓣令羽色黯淡
若问汝何以
绝色虚掷天地
请谓之：眼为视而生
则美为美而在
与玫瑰竞色
何必问缘起
吾来看汝，汝自开落
缘起同一
                         ——龙应台译本, 爱默生<紫杜娟>