平行時空的我們，真的過得比較好嗎？- 讀Robert Frost《未行之路》The Road Not Taken
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.
－Robert Frost 《The Road Not Taken》
旅人在樹林裡遇見了一個分岔路口，站在路口選擇該走哪一條路。這首詩在1915年創作，即使過了100多年的現在，依然引人深思，感動每個在十字路口面臨抉擇的人生旅人。分岔的兩條路中，有一條人跡雜沓，而另一條乏人問津、野草叢生，詩中的旅人最後選擇了人跡杳然的那一條，從此造就了截然不同的人生。
從小到大，我們面臨無數的抉擇，每一個抉擇的背後，都代表了放棄另一個選項；有時或許會對選擇感到後悔，想著「如果那時選擇另外一條路就好了」，但是人生沒有後悔藥。以前讀這首詩，總以為詩人寫著
"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference."
隱含著因為不盲從選擇人跡雜沓的路，人生更加成功非凡；多年後的現在，重讀一次這首詩，赫然發現似乎並非如此。詩人只寫「一切都變得不一樣」，此處並未特別說明是成功或失敗，僅僅是中性的「不一樣」，因為不同的選擇，才會造就不同的人生，畢竟，好不好是比較來的，而我們永遠也無法得知在另一個時空做了另一個選擇的自己，是不是真的過得比較好；而詩人多年後回顧往事的歎息，好似為當年的選擇所造就不同的人生所下的註解，更留給讀者無限想像空間。
人生無法預測，無法回頭。假如我們能夠再回到當初的分岔路口，是否會選擇同一條路呢？
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