The Road Not Taken

'Poem' yang aku baca semasa mengambil kelas 'American Literature' lebih kurang 24 tahun yang lampau, di University of Southwestern Louisiana. Tak tahu kenapa tetapi puisi yang ditulis oleh Robert Frost ini masih terlekat di memoriku. Puisi ini sebenarnya dicetak sekitar tahun 1915.

Di semua universiti di Amerika Syarikat, rata-rata pelajar diwajibkan mengambil matapelajaran Kesusasteraan Amerika 1 dan Kesusasteraan Amerika 2. Tidak kira sama ada mereka adalah pelajar tempatan ataupun luar negara. Puisi Robert Frost adalah seperti berikut;


The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference

...Robert Frost

And I would like to dedicate this poem to my eldest daughter in Egypt. May Allah bless you!