Provider:Fr. Pierre Demer /談德義神父

My long two-pointed ladder's sticking through a tree
1
Toward heaven still,
And there's a barrel that I didn't fill
Beside it, and there may be two or three
Apples I didn't pick upon some bough.
5
But I am done with apple-picking now.
Essence of winter sleep is on the night,
The scent of apples: I am drowsing off.
I cannot rub the strangeness from my sight
I got from looking through a pane of glass
10
I skimmed this morning from the drinking trough
And held against the world of hoary grass.
It melted, and I let it fall and break.
But I was well
Upon my way to sleep before it fell,
15
And I could tell
What form my dreaming was about to take.
Magnified apples appear and disappear,
Stem end and blossom end,
And every fleck of russet showing dear.
20
My instep arch not only keeps the ache,
It keeps the pressure of a ladder-round.
I feel the ladder sway as the boughs bend.
And I keep hearing from the cellar bin
The rumbling sound
25
Of load on load of apples coming in.
For I have had too much
Of apple-picking: I am overtired
Of the great harvest I myself desired.
There were ten thousand thousand fruit to touch,
30
Cherish in hand, lift down, and not let fall.
For all
That struck the earth,
No matter if not bruised or spiked with stubble,
Went surely to the cider-apple heap
35
As of no worth.
One can see what will trouble
This sleep of mine, whatever sleep it is.
Were he not gone,
The woodchuck could say whether it's like his
40
Long sleep, as I describe its coming on,
Or just some human sleep.

Line / No.
Word or Phrase
Annotation
2
 heaven 天空；此處有天堂的暗示。[back]
7
 Essence 精華。[back]
11
 skimmed （由液體表面）撇取。
The drinking trough[trof] 水槽。[back]
12
 hoary grass hoary指因邁而灰白。此處指深秋或初冬時灰灰黃黃的草。[back]
20
 fleck 小點。
russet [、r ^ osit] 黃褐色；赤褐色。[back]
21
 instep arch 足背彎。[back]
22
 ladder-round 即ladder-rung梯子的橫撐；梯級。[back]
24
 cellar bin 地窖倉。Bin箱或倉。[back]
34
 bruised 擦破皮；擦傷。
spiked with stubble 被草頭刺破。stubble：草頭；殘梗。[back]
40
 woodchuck 土撥鼠。[back]


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