两个陌生人从泥里走了出来，抓住了我在院子里劈柴，其中一个兴高采烈地叫着:“狠狠地打他们!”我很清楚他为什么落在后面，让另一个走了。我很清楚他的想法:他想拿我的工作挣钱。我劈了几块好橡木，像砧板那么大;我命中的每一击都像石头一样碎成碎片。那一天，我放松了我的灵魂，把时间花在了不重要的木头上。太阳很温暖，风却很冷。你知道四月的一天是什么样子的，太阳出来了，风停了，你在五月中旬过了一个月。但如果你敢说话，一片云掠过阳光照耀的拱门，一阵风吹过冰封的山峰，你就回到了两个月前的三月中旬。一只蓝鸟温柔地飞上天空，转向风去拨动羽毛，他的歌声如此嘹亮，连一朵尚未盛开的花也没有惊动。 It is snowing a flake; and he half knew Winter was only playing possum. Except in color he isn't blue, But he wouldn't advise a thing to blossom. The water for which we may have to look In summertime with a witching wand, In every wheelrut's now a brook, In every print of a hoof a pond. Be glad of water, but don't forget The lurking frost in the earth beneath That will steal forth after the sun is set And show on the water its crystal teeth. The time when most I loved my task The two must make me love it more By coming with what they came to ask. You'd think I never had felt before The weight of an ax-head poised aloft, The grip of earth on outspread feet, The life of muscles rocking soft And smooth and moist in vernal heat. Out of the wood two hulking tramps (From sleeping God knows where last night, But not long since in the lumber camps). They thought all chopping was theirs of right. Men of the woods and lumberjacks, They judged me by their appropriate tool. Except as a fellow handled an ax They had no way of knowing a fool. Nothing on either side was said. They knew they had but to stay their stay And all their logic would fill my head: As that I had no right to play With what was another man's work for gain. My right might be love but theirs was need. And where the two exist in twain Theirs was the better right--agreed. But yield who will to their separation, My object in living is to unite My avocation and my vocation As my two eyes make one in sight. Only where love and need are one, And the work is play for mortal stakes, Is the deed ever really done For Heaven and the future's sakes.