《先知 The Prophet》章节试读

《先知 The Prophet》的笔记-第41页

*ON Love*
Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but form itself.
Love possesses not nor would it be possessed.
For love is sufficient unto love.
Love has no other desire but to fulfil itself.
*ON Marriage*
Love one another, but make not a bond of love:
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
Fill each other's cup but drink not from on cup.
Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf.
Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping.
For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.
And stand together yet not too near together:
For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.
*ON GIVING*
It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.
You often say," I would give, but only to the deserving.
The trees in your orchard say not so, nor the flocks in your pasture.
For in truth it is life that gives unto life--while you, who deem yourself a giver, are but a witness.
For to be overmindful of your debt, is to doubt his generosity who has the freehearted earth for mother, and God for father.
*ON WORK*
Work is love made visible.
*ON JOY AND SORROW*
Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.
And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.
And how else can it be?
The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.
When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.
When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.
*ON CRIME AND PUNISHMENT*
And as a single leaf turns not yellow but with the silent knowledge of the whole tree,
So the wrong-doer cannot do wrong without the hidden will of you all.
Yea, the guilty is oftentimes the victim of the injured,
And still more the condemned is the burden bearer for the guiltless and unblamed.
Is not remorse the justice which is administered by that very law which you would fain serve?
Yet you cannot lay remorse upon the innocent nor lift it from the heart of the guilty.
Unbidden shall it call in the night, that men may wake and gaze upon themselves.
*ON LAWS*
They see only their shadows, and their shadows are their laws.
*ON FREEDOM*
In truth that which you call freedom is the strongest of these chains, though its links glitter in the sun and dazzle your eyes.
And if it is a despot you would dethrone, see first that his throne erected within you is destroyed.
And if it is a care you would cast off, that care has been chosen by you rather than imposed upon you.
And if it is a fear you would dispel, the seat of that fear is in your heart and not in the hand of the feared.
*ON FRIENDSHIP*
If he must know the ebb of your tide, let him know its flood also.
*ON GOOD AND EVIL*
But you who are strong and swift, see that
you do not limp before the lame, deeming it kindness.
*ON PRAYER*
You pray in your distress and in your need; would that you might pray also in the fullness of your joy and in your days of abundance.
*ON RELIGION*
Your daily life is your temple and your religion.
For in adoration you cannot fly higher than their hopes nor humble yourself lower than their despair.
*ON DEATH*
Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing.
And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb.
And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.