沃尔特·惠特曼[1]
我在路易斯安那看见一棵橡树在生长，
它孤独站立，树枝垂挂着苔藓，
伫立于此，没有一个同伴，
却长出了苍绿的欢乐叶片，
它的样子粗俗、刚直、健壮，让我想到自己，
它孤独站在那里，没有一个朋友，却迸发出快乐的叶子，
这让我感到惊奇，因为我明白我做不到，
我折下一根带有绿叶的细枝，
上面还缠着少许青苔，
我把它带回来，摆在屋中能看到的地方，
不需要它提醒，我就想到亲爱的朋友，
（因为我觉得近来我经常想到他们）
这树枝于我仍然是一个奇妙的象征，
它使我想到男子气概的爱；
尽管啊，尽管那棵橡树孤独地生长在
路易斯安那广袤的平原上，
身边没有一个朋友或情侣，
却仍能迸发着欢乐的叶子，闪耀发光，
我很清楚我做不到。
I Saw in Louisiana a Live-Oak Growing
Walt Whitman
I saw in Louisiana a live-oak growing,
All alone stood it and the moss hung down from the branches,
Without any companion it stood there uttering
joyous leaves of dark green,
And its look, rude, unbending, lusty, made me think of myself,
But I wondered how it could utter joyous leaves standing alone
there without its friend near, for I knew I could not,
And I broke off a twig with a certain number of leaves upon it,
and twined around it a little moss,
And brought it away, and I have placed it in sight in my room,
It is not needed to remind me as of my own dear friends,
(For I believe lately I think of little else than of them,)
Yet it remains to me a curious token,
it makes me think of manly love;
For all that, and though the live-oak glistens there in
Louisiana solitary in a wide flat space,
Uttering joyous leaves all its life
without a friend or lover near,
I know very well I could not.
注释：
[1]沃尔特·惠特曼1819—1892，出生于纽约州长岛，美国著名诗人、人文主义者，创造了诗歌的自由体（Free Verse）。其代表作品是诗集《草叶集》。
