众多经典英文诗歌，早有前辈筚路蓝缕，译介海内。时人译家亦众，各有千秋。然诗无达诂，自无达译。我因读诗，时觉理解略现不同，偶欲献上所感；又常见原作格律甚整，实为其诗不可或缺之品性要素，略望探寻如何以中文再现其妙。遂边玩边译，后又不断修改，终得本文所列之版本。然英文与中文差别甚巨，诗的格律更难相匹，确乃实情。故译文虽以中诗韵律节奏为基本，却无固定的对应格式，也未受严格的音韵限制；惟尽己所能，持守原诗意味，并体现其音韵节奏之感。未敢妄言兼顾，但求二者相衡。不揣浅陋，于此奉上，以求教于同好。

紫杜鹃 ——答问花自何方来

译注：原诗五步抑扬格，aabbcdcdeeffghgh韵式，似为十四行诗之拓展，措辞古雅。故仿古风，而依原韵式迻译。原载:《爱思想》、《學人Scholar》
 

附原文：
The Rhodora
On Being Asked, Whence Is The Flower?
by Ralph Waldo Emerson

　　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.