纪伯伦经典作品《先知》 选（中英文）

When love beckons you, follow him, though his ways are hard and steep.
And when his wings enfold you, yield to him, though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.
And when he speaks to you, believe in him, though his voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste the garden.
For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning.
Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun, so shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.
——On Love
当爱召唤你时，跟随它，虽然它的道路艰难而险峻。
当它展翅拥抱你时，依顺它，虽然它羽翼中的利刃会伤害你。
当它开口对你说话时，相信它，虽然它的声音会像狂风劲扫园中的花朵似的击碎你的梦。
爱虽然可以为你加冕，但也能将你钉上十字架；它虽然可以帮助你成长，但也能将你削砍剪刈。
它会攀至枝头高处，抚慰你在阳光下颤动的最柔嫩的叶子；但也会潜至你的根部，动摇你紧紧依附着大地的根须。
——《爱》

Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto himself.
He threshes you to make you naked.
He sifts you to free you from your husks.
He grinds you to whiteness.
He kneads you until you are pliant.
——On Love
爱把你像麦捆般聚拢在身边。
它将你们脱离，使你们赤裸。
它将你们筛选，使你们摆脱麸糠。
它碾磨你们，直至你们清白。
它揉捏你们，直至你们柔顺。
——《爱》

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 Marriage
奉献你们的心，但并不是要你们紧握住对方的心不放。
因为只有生命的手才能握紧你们的心。


应站在一起，但不要靠得太近，
因为廊柱分立，才能撑起庙宇。
橡树和松柏也不能在彼此的阴影下生长。
——《婚姻》

You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore.
You shall be together when the white wings of death scatter your days.
Ay, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God.
But let there be spaces in your togetherness,
And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.
Love one another, but make not a bond of love.
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
——On Marriage
你们一同出生，也将长相厮守。
当死神之翼驱散你们的生命时，你们也应在一起。
即使在上地的记忆中，你们也将始终相守，
但是请在你们彼此的世界中保留一些空间，
好让空中的风在你们之间舞蹈。
彼此相爱，但不要让爱成为束缚。
让爱成为奔流于你们灵魂海岸间的大海。
——《婚姻》

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you.
And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.
——On Children
孩子其实并不是你们的孩子。
他们是生命对自身渴求的儿女。
他们借你们而生，却并非从你们而来。
尽管他们与你们同在，却并不属于你们。
——《孩子》

You may give them your love but not your thoughts. For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls.
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
——On Children
你可以把你们的爱给予他们，却不能给予思想，因为他们有自己的思想。
你们可以庇护他们的身体，但不是他们的灵魂。
因为他们的灵魂栖息于明日之屋，那是你们在梦中也无法造访的地方。
——《孩子》

You give but little when you give of your possesions.
It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.
——On Giving
若你们只是拿出自己的财产，那么你们的施与微不足道。
当你们奉献自己时，那才是真正的施与。
——《施与》

There are those who give little of the much which they have—and they give it for recognition and their hidden desire makes their gifts unwholesome.
And there are those who have little and give it all.
These are the believers in life and the bounty of life, and their coffer is never empty.
There are those who give with joy, and the joy is their reward.
And there are those who give with pain, and that pain is their baptism.
And there are those who give and know not pain in givings, nor do they seek joy, nor give with mindfulness of virtue.
They give as in yonder valley the myrtle breathes its fragrance into space.
Through the hands of such as these God speaks, and from behind their eyes he smiles upon the earth.
——On Giving
有些人只捐赠自己财产的九牛一毛——他们不过是为得到认可，然而他们隐藏的私欲使他们的礼物无益身心。
也有些人，拥有甚少，却全部捐献。
他们相信生命本身就足够丰裕，他们的保险箱从不会空着。
有些人欢快地施与，这欢快便是他们的报酬。
有些人痛苦地施与，这痛苦便是他们的洗礼。

有些人，施与时并不觉得痛苦，也不是为了寻求快乐，或突现美得；他们施与，犹如山谷那边的桂花，在空气中散发出淡淡的馨香。
上帝借助这些人之手传道，借由他们之眸对大地微笑。
——《施与》

All you have shall some day be given.
Therefore give now, that the season of giving may be yours and not your inheritors.
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.
They give that they may live, for to withhold is to perish.
——On Giving
总有一天，你拥有的一切都将施与他人；
所以现在就施与吧，把施与的机会留给自己，而不是你的后来人。
你们常说：“我只赠给值得的人。”

你们果园中的树木和草地上的羊群就不会这样说。
因为施与，它们才得以生存，而拒绝给予则会招致灭亡。
——《施与》

Would that you could live on the fragrance of the earth, and like an air plant be sustained by the light.
But since you must kill to eat, and rob the young of its mother's milk to quench your thirst, let it then be an cat of worship.
And let your board stand an altar on which the pure and the innocent of forest and plain are sacrificed for that which is purer and still more innocent in man.
——On Eating and Drinking
但愿你们能生活在大地的芳香中，宛如空气中的植物，生活在阳光中得以延续生命。
既然你们不得不杀生为食，从出生糕犊口里掠夺它母亲的乳汁以解你自己的干渴，那就让这成为一种膜拜吧。

在你们的砧板上立一座祭坛，让森林和平原的天真纯洁祭祀更加天真纯洁的人类吧。
——《饮食》

And in winter, when you draw the wine, let there be in your heart a song for each cup; And let there be in the song a remembrance for the autumn days, and for the vineyard, and for the winepress.
——On Eating and Drinking
在冬天，当你们啜饮佳酿时，请在心中为每一杯酒献歌一曲；在歌声中想起秋天的日子、葡萄园和葡萄酒的酿制。
——《饮食》

You work that you may keep pace with the earth and the soul of the earth.
For to be idle is to become a stranger unto the seasons, and to step out of life's procession, that marches in majesty and proud submission towards the infinite.
——On Work

你们工作，因而能跟上大地的步伐，领会大地的精神。
因为懒散会使人变成时令的陌生人，游离于生命的队伍之外；那队伍正带着威严豪迈的臣服走向永恒。
——《工作》

When you work you fulfill a part of earth's furthest dream, assigned to you when that dream was born.
And in keeping yourself with labor you are in truth loving life.
And to love life through labor is to be intimate with life's inmost secret.
——On Work
当你们工作时，你们便实现了大地最悠远之梦的一部分，在梦还没有诞生时，它便已经分配给你了，
你们劳动不辍，才真正置身于真爱的生命中，
借由劳动来热爱生命，便是懂得了生命最深处的奥秘。
——《工作》

And I say that life is indeed darkness save when there is urge,
And all urge is blind save when there is knowledge,
And all knowledge is vain save when there is work,
And all work is empty save when there is love;

And when you work with love you bind yourself to yourself, and to one another, and to God.
——On Work
我说生活的确是黑暗的，除非有了希冀，
所有希冀都是盲目的，除非有了知识，
所有知识都是无用的，除非有了工作，
所有工作都是空洞的，除非有了爱；
当你们带着爱工作时，你们就会与自己、与他人、与上帝融为一体。
——《工作》

And what is it to work with love?
It is to weave the cloth with threads drawn from your heart, even as if your beloved were to wear that cloth.
It is to build a house with affection, even as if your beloved were to dwell in that house.
It is to sow seeds with tenderness and reap the harvest with joy, even as if your beloved were to eat the fruit.
It is to change all things you fashion with a breath of your own spirit, and to know that all the blessed dead are standing about you and watching.
——《工作》

什么事带着爱工作呢？
就是用你的心织布缝衣，仿佛你的挚爱要穿上这件衣服。
就是激情满怀地建造房屋，仿佛你的挚爱要居住其中。
就是柔情蜜意地播种，欢喜地收获，放佛你的挚爱要品尝果实。
就是把你灵魂的气息注入你的一切物品，而且知道所有被祝福的谢世之人都在你身边守护着。
——《工作》

Work is love made visible.
And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.
For if you bake bread with indifference, you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half man's hunger.
And if you grudge the crushing of the grapes, your grudge distils a poison in the wine.
And if you sing though as angels, and love not the singing, you muffle man's ears to the voices of the day and the voices of the night.
——On Work
工作就是实实在在的爱。
如果你们无法带着爱工作，只是觉得厌恶，那么你最好不要工作，就坐在庙宇门口，等待着以劳动为乐的人救济你们。
如果你们默然地烘烤面包，你们烤出的苦面包只能让人半饱。
如果你们不情愿地榨葡萄汁，你们的不情愿就会在葡萄酒中掺杂一滴毒液。
如果你们能像天使那样歌唱，却并不爱歌唱，你们就会遮蔽人们聆听昼夜之声的耳朵。
——《工作》

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.
Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter's oven ?
And i s not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives ?
——On Joy and Sorrow
你们的欢乐是无法掩饰的忧伤。你欢笑的泉眼常常也饱含着泪水。
除此之外，又当如何？
镌刻在你们身上的忧伤愈深，你们能盛装的欢乐愈多。
斟满了美酒的杯盏，难道不是曾在陶工炉火中锻造的杯盏吗？
抚平了心弦的诗琴，难道不是曾在木匠利刃下雕琢的木材吗？
——《欢乐与忧伤》

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 Joy and Sorrow
当你们快乐时，审视自己的内心，你们会发现曾经的忧伤如今却让你们快乐。
当你们忧伤时，再次审视自己的内心，你们会发现曾经的快乐如今却让你们流泪。
——《欢乐与忧伤》

Build of your imaginings a bower in the wilderness ere you build a house within the city walls.
For even as you have home-comings in your twilight, so has the wanderer in you, the ever distant and alone.
——On Houses
在你们打算建房于城内之前，先用你们的想象力在旷野里建一座凉亭。
因为你们在迟暮之年回归家园时，你们那在远方孤单且漂泊的心也会归来。
——《房子》

Your house is your large body.
It grows in the sun and sleeps in the stillness of the night; and it is not dreamless. Does not your house dream? And dreaming, leave the city for grove or hilltop?
Would that I could gather your houses into my hand, and like a sower scatter them in forest and meadow.
Would the valleys were your streets, and the green paths your alleys, that you might seek one another through vineyards, and come with the fragrance of the earth in your garments.
——On Houses
你们的房屋是你们更大的躯壳。
它在阳光下成长，在夜的寂静中安歇，而它并非没有梦想。难道你们的房子无梦？它们不正梦想着远离都市，前往林中或山间吗？

我愿将你们的房子凝聚在手中，像播种般将它们撒向森林和草地。
我愿山谷成为你们的街道，绿径成为你们的小巷。
这样你们就可以穿过葡萄园彼此寻访，衣上带着泥土的芳香归来。
——《房子》

Verily the lust for comfort murders the passion of the soul, and then walks grinning in the funeral.
But you, children of peace, you restless in rest, you shall not be trapped nor tamed.
——On Houses
事实上，对安逸的欲望扼杀了灵魂的激情，而它还在葬礼上咧嘴大笑。
但你们，苍穹之子，只有在安逸中时刻警醒，才不会被诱惑或者被驯化。
——《房子》

Your house shall be not an anchor but a mast; It shall not be a glistening film that covers a wound, but an eyelid that guards the eye. You shall not fold your wings that you may pass through doors, nor bend your heads that they strike not against a ceiling, nor fear to breathe lest walls should crack and fall down.
You shall not dwell in tombs made by the dead for the living.
And though of magnificence and splendour, your house shall not hold your secret nor shelter your longing.
For that which is bouldless in you abides in the mansion of the sky, whose door is the morning mist and whose windows are the songs and the silences of night.
——On Houses
你们的房子不是锚，而是桅。
它不是掩饰伤口的亮光薄膜，而应是眼睑来保护眼睛。
你们不应只为穿过房门而敛起羽翼，不应以防止撞到天花板而低下头颅，也不应因担心墙壁破裂坍塌而屏住呼吸。
你们不应住在死者为生者筑造的坟墓中。
尽管你们的宅邸富丽堂皇，但无法隐藏你们的秘密，无法遮蔽你们的渴望。
因为你们无限的潜能逗留在苍穹中，它用晨雾作门，用黑夜的歌声和静谧作窗。
——《房子》

Your clothes conceal much of your beauty, yet they hide not the unbeautiful.
And though you seek in garments the freedom of privacy you may find in them a harness and a chain.
Would that you could meet the sun and the wind with more of your skin and less of your raiment. For the breath of life is in the sunlight and the hand of life is in the wind.
——On Clothes
你们的衣裳掩饰了你们多数的美，却遮不住丑陋。
尽管你们想在衣裳中寻找隐私的自由，但你们找到的却是牵绊和桎梏。
愿你们用自己的肌肤而不是衣裳来迎接阳光和微风。
因为生命的气息在阳光中，而生命的手在微风中。
——《衣裳》

Forget not that modesty is for a shield against the eye of the unclean.
And when the unclean shall be no more, what were modesty but a fetter and a fouling of the mind?
And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.
——On Clothes
记住，腼腆仅是遮挡污秽目光的盾牌。
当那污秽不复存在时，腼腆岂不成了心灵上的桎梏和污垢？
谨记，大地乐于感觉你赤裸的双足，微风渴望与你的秀发玩耍。
——《衣裳》

To you the earth yields her fruit and you shall not want if you know how to fill your hands.
It is in exchanging the gifts of the earth that you shall find abundance and be satisfied.
Yet unless the exchange be in love and kindly justice, it will but lead some to greed and other to hunger.
——On Buying and Selling
大地赐予你们累累硕果，但是，除非你们明白用什么作为交换，否则就不该索取。
在与大地交换礼物的过程中，你们会找到丰富的满足。
此种交换只有在爱和仁慈的公平中才能进行，否则便会使一些人贪婪成性，而另一些人饥肠辘辘。
——《买卖》

The murdered is not unaccountable for its own murder,
And the robbed is not blameless in being robbed.

The righteous is not innocent of the deeds of the wicked, and the white-handed is not clean in the doings of the felon.
And still more often the condemned is the burden-bearer for the guiltless and unblamed.
You cannot separate the just from the unjust and the good from the wicked;
For they stand together before the face of the sun even as the black thread and the white are woven together. And when the black thread breaks, the weaver shall look into the whole cloth, and he shall examine the loom also.
——On Crime and Punishment
被害者对其被害难逃其咎，被劫者对其被劫难逃其责。
正直者与邪恶行径也不是毫无干系的，无辜者对暴虐之徒的罪行也不是清清白白的。

更为常见的是，负罪者担负了无罪和免于谴责之人的重担。
你们不能区分正邪善恶，
因为它们在阳光下共存，仿佛黑线与白线混织在一起。
黑线一旦断开，织工就应检查整块布，也应看看机杼。
——《罪与罚》

If any of you would bring judgment to the unfaithful wife,
Let him also weigh the heart of her husband in scales, and measure his soul with measurements.
——On Crime and Punishment
倘若你们谁要把一位不忠的妻子送上法庭，
请他也用天平测测她丈夫的心，用尺去量量他的灵魂。
——《罪与罚》

For reason, ruling alone, is a force confining; and passion, unattended, is a flame that burns to its own destruction.
Therefore let your soul exalt your reason to be height of passion, that it may sing;
And let it direct your passion with reason, that your passion may live through its own daily restruction, and like the phoenix rise above its own ashes.
——On Reason and Passion
理性独自掌权，是一种局限的力量；热情不加以束缚，则是自我焚烧的火焰。
所以，让你们的灵魂将理性升华到热情的极致，它将高唱；
让你们的灵魂用理性来引导热情，这样你们的热情才会历经每日的复活，宛如凤凰从灰烬中展翅重生。
——《理性与热情》

Surely you would not honor one guest above the other; for he who is more mindful of one loses the love and the faith of both.
Among the hills, when you sit in the cool shade of the white poplars,sharing the peace and serenity of distant fields and meadows——Then let your heart say in silence, "God rests in reason."
And when the storm comes, and the mighty wind shakes the forest, and thunder and lightning proclaim the majesty of the sky——Then let your heart say in awe, "God moves in passion."
——On Reason and Passion
当然，你们不会厚此薄彼；因为偏爱其中一个便会使你同时失去两者的爱和忠诚。
在群山当中，当你们坐在白杨树的阴凉下，享受着远处田野的安宁和草原的宁静安详时——让你们的心在静谧中说：“上帝憩于理性。”
当暴风雨来临时，狂风震撼森林，泪点弘扬天空的庄严肃穆时——让你们的心在敬畏中说：“上帝行于热情。”
——《理性与热情》

Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.
Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that its heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain.
——On Pain
你们的痛苦正是那破壳而出的悟性。
就像果核必须破壳而出，才能享受阳光，你们也必须明白痛苦。
——《痛苦》

And could you keep your heart in wonder at the daily miracles of your life, your pain would not seem less wondrous than your joy.
And you would accept the seasons of your heart, even as you have always accepted the seasons that pass over your fields.
——On Pain
如果你们的心灵能够惊叹于日常生活的奇迹，你们的痛苦就会与你们的快乐一样神奇。
你们会习惯心灵的四季变换，如同习惯接受田野的四季变换。
——《痛苦》

Much of your pain is self-chosen.
It is the bitter potion by which the physician within you heals your sick self.
Therefore trust the physician, and drink his remedy in silence and tranquility:
For his hand, though heavy and hard, is guided by the tender hand of the Unseen.
——On Pain
你们的痛苦多是你们自己的选择。
它是你们内心的医生为治愈你们病痛的一味苦药。
因此信任这位医生，平静地喝下他的药剂。
因为他的手虽然重而硬，却由一只看不见的温柔之手指引着。
——《痛苦》



The soul unfolds itself, like a lotus of countless petals.
——On Self-Knowledge
灵魂伸展自我，犹如一朵有着无数花瓣的莲花绽放。
——《自知》

No man can reveal to you aught but that which already lies half asleep in the dawning of your knowledge.
——On Teaching
除了那在你们知识的晨曦中半梦半醒的东西外，没有人能给你们启迪。
——《教学》

The astronomer may speak to you of his understanding of space, but he cannot give you his understanding.
The musician may sing to you of the rhythm which is in all space, but he can not give you the ear which arrests the rhythm nor the voice that echoes it.
——On Teaching
天文学家可以向你们畅谈他对太空的理解，但无法给予你们他的觉悟。
音乐家可以为你们唱出蕴涵于宇宙中的旋律，但无法给予你们捕捉这旋律的耳朵，或者附和这旋律的嗓音。
——《教学》

For the vision of one man lends not its wings to another man.
——On Teaching
因为独到的洞察力是私人的羽翼，无法外借。
——《教学》

Your friend is your needs answered.
He is your field which you sow with love and reap with thanksgiving.

——On Friendship
你的朋友是为了需求的满足。
他是你带着爱播种，带着感恩之心收获的田地。
——《友谊》

And let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.
——On Friendship
不要对你们的友谊别有企图，除了追寻心灵的深耕外。
——《友谊》

And in much of your talking, thinking is half murdered.
——On Talking
在你们的许多谈话中，思想被扼杀了半数。
——《谈话》

And there are those who have the truth within them, but they tell it not in words.
In the bosom of such as these spirits dwells rhythmic silence.
——On Talking
那些心怀真理的人，从不付诸言语。
在这些人的胸中，灵魂寄居在节奏和谐的静谧里。
——《谈话》