After Apple

My long two-pointed ladder's* 梯子象征通往天堂的路
sticking through a tree
Toward heaven still,
And there's a barrel that I didn't fill* 未装满的桶象征未完的事业
Beside it, and there may be two or three
Apples I didn't pick upon some bough.* 同样表示还有未完的心愿
But I am done with apple-picking now.* 工作已经完成，心愿已了
Essence of winter sleep is on the night,
The scent of apples: I am drowsing off.* 昏昏欲谁，表示生命到了尾声
I cannot rub the strangeness from my sight* 还看见陌生的东西
I got from looking through a pane of glass
I skimmed this morning from the drinking trough
And held against the world of hoary grass.
It melted, and I let it fall and break.
But I was well
Upon my way to sleep before it fell,* 睡觉表示死亡，
And I could tell
What form my dreaming was about to take. * 可以想象死后的情形
Magnified apples* appear and disappear, 在弥留之际，眼中已经模糊
Stem end and blossom end,
And every fleck of russet showing clear.
My instep arch not only keeps the ache,
It keeps the pressure of a ladder-round.
I feel the ladder sway as the boughs bend.
And I keep hearing from the cellar bin
The rumbling sound
Of load on load of apples coming in.* 似乎听到了越来越多的苹果
For I have had too much
Of apple-picking: I am overtired* 工作过度，感到十分疲倦
Of the great harvest I myself desired.
There were ten thousand thousand fruit to touch,
Cherish in hand, lift down, and not let fall.
For all
That struck the earth,
No matter if not bruised or spiked with stubble,
Went surely to the cider-apple heap
As of no worth.
One can see what will trouble
This sleep of mine, whatever sleep it is.
Were he not gone,
The woodchuck could say whether it's like his
Long sleep, as I describe its coming on,
Or just some human sleep.
睡觉有两种，
一种是人的正常睡觉， 另一种是长眠

本诗中充满象征和意象，苹果象征人的工作，而睡觉则表示死亡，满载的苹果表示人生收获丰硕，但工作过度容易让人感到疲倦，表示如果一生过于忙碌，人就容易感到厌倦。