Robert Frost. The Road Not Taken. Russian Translation by Simon Patlis

Also in Translations:

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Robert Frost. Howard Sochurek The LIFE Picture Collection
Robert Frost. The Road Not Taken. Russian Translation by Simon Patlis

 
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, 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.
 
1916
 

Дорога, которую не выбрал
 

Расходились в осеннем лесу две тропы;

Жаль, – не мог я, один, по обеим пойти…

Долго думал, – куда мне направить стопы?

Вот одна, – разглядел как, средь жёлтой листвы,

Изгибалась она далеко впереди…
 

Постоял, посмотрел, и пошёл по другой,

Что похожа была, но влекла чуть сильней,

Может тем, что несмятой покрыта травой;

В остальном, если сравнивать с первой тропой,

Никакого отличия не было в ней.
 

Утро. Лес был опавшей листвой заметён,

На обеих дорожках следов не видать.

Я оставил одну из дорог на потом…

Зная: путь продолжается новым путём, –

И я вряд ли приду в это место опять.
 

Через годы, о том вспоминая, вздохну:

Как однажды, давно, на прогулке лесной

Из двух троп на развилке я выбрал одну, –

Что протоптана меньше была, – и судьбу

Свою выбрал я с этой случайной тропой.
 

About the Author:

FROST BETTER PHOTO Robert_Frost,_1910s
Robert Frost
San Francisco, CA & Boston, MA. USA

Robert Lee Frost (March 26, 1874 – January 29, 1963) was an American poet. His work was initially published in England before it was published in the United States. Robert Frost was born in San Francisco His father was a descendant of Nicholas Frost of Tiverton, Devon, England, who had sailed to New Hampshire in 1634 on the Wolfrana, and his mother was a Scottish immigrant. Known for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American colloquial speech,[2] Frost frequently wrote about settings from rural life in New England in the early 20th century, using them to examine complex social and philosophical themes. Frequently honored during his lifetime, Frost is the only poet to receive four Pulitzer Prizes for Poetry. He became one of America’s rare “public literary figures, almost an artistic institution”.

About the Translator:

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Simon Patlis
San Diego, USA

Simon Patlis grew up in the former Soviet Union (first in Tashkent, later in Kishinev.) Since moving to the US in 1991, he’s lived in San Diego, CA. Mathematician by education, he works as an IT consultant. He has been writing poetry since childhood and translates English and Russian poetry (English to Russian, Russian to English). He is the author of “Duda”, published in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, in 2006. His work was published in “The Notebook. A Collection of Contemporary Russian Poetry in North America” (“Общая Тетрадь”, Moscow, 2007), as well as in other collections and almanacs of poetry published over the years in Russia and the US.

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