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.
中文譯本：
問花何處來
當五月的海風吹破我們的孤獨，
林中的紫杜鵑開放得如火如荼。
在潮濕角落裏伸展著無葉花朵，
荒野和緩緩流動小河為之喜悅。
紫色的花瓣像美人飄落在水面，
陰郁的小河中漣漪也變得忻歡。
也許紅雀會來此清爽他的霓裳，
向令他自慚形穢花朵傾訴衷腸。
紅杜鵑，如果哲人來問為什麽，
妳的魅力在天下地上如此消磨。
請告訴他眼睛如果是用來視物，
那麽美麗只要存在也就是緣故。
至於妳為何不與玫瑰爭奇鬥艷？
我從來沒想去詢問也不曉答案。
雖然無知我也懷有簡單的看法，
帶來了妳我的神力也帶來了她。
賞析：
作者對杜鵑的描寫不流於它的爭奇鬥艷、雍容華貴，而是特寫它的清爽、舒展，表達了對大自然無處不在的美的陶醉，意喻人生的精彩並不只在於轟轟烈烈、驚天動地，平平淡淡的眾生亦是最美的組成。