摘自李家真译本
The Coming of the Ship | 船来
Fain would I take with me all that is here. But how shall I?
A voice cannot carry the tongue and the lips that gave it wings. Alone must it seek the ether.
And alone and without his nest shall the eagle fly across the sun.
我巴不得带上这里的一切。可是，怎样带呢？
声音带不走赋予它翅膀的唇舌，只能够独自探索苍穹。
雄鹰也带不走自己的巢窠，只能够独自飞越太阳。
On Love | 爱
But if in your fear you would seek only love’s peace and love’s pleasure,
Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love’s threshing-floor,
Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears.
然而，你若是心生畏惧，只寻求爱的安宁与乐趣，
倒不如掩上自己的裸露躯体，逃出爱的打谷场地，
遁入无冬无夏的境遇。你可以在那里欢笑，只可惜笑不出你全部的笑声，你可以在那里哭泣，只可惜哭不出你全部的泪滴。
On Marriage | 婚姻
Love one another, but make not a bond of love:
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
彼此须当相爱，却不可将爱变成绑缚：
要让爱成为浩瀚大洋，在彼此灵魂的两岸之间起伏。
Fill each other’s cup but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf.
斟满彼此的酒杯，却不可同饮一盏。
以面包相互馈赠，却不可共食一片。
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.
你们要并肩而立，却不可靠得太近：
要知道，神庙的廊柱皆有间距，
橡树和柏树也不会托庇于彼此的树荫。
On Children | 子女
Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
你的子女，并不是你的子女。
他们降诞于生命对自身的渴求。
They come through you but not from you.
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
他们由你而来，却不是自你而生。
他们与你相伴，却并非属你所有。
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.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
你尽可给他们爱，却不可给他们思想，
因为他们，有他们自己的思想。
你尽可用屋宇庇护他们的身体，却不能庇护他们的灵魂，
因为他们的灵魂栖居在未来的屋宇，那是你做梦也无法造访的地方。
你尽可努力模仿他们，却万万不可尝试，将他们变得与你一样。
因为生命从不倒退，也不在昨日延宕。
On Giving | 施与
You give but little when you give of your possessions.
It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.
施舍财产，所施不值一提。
施舍本身，方是真正布施。
And what is fear of need but need itself?
Is not dread of thirst when your well is full, the thirst that is unquenchable?
匮乏之忧，岂不正是匮乏本身？
井满之时的焦渴之忧，岂不正是无法解除的焦渴？
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.
你时常说，“我愿施与，但我只给应得之人。”
你果园里的树木不这么说，你牧场里的畜群不这么讲。
它们施与是为生存，因为悭吝便是灭亡。
Surely he who is worthy to receive his days and his nights, is worthy of all else from you.
And he who has deserved to drink from the ocean of life deserves to fill his cup from your little stream.
他人既然有份获得世间的白昼与黑夜，自然有份，从你那里获得其余一切。
他人既然有份在生命的大洋之中饮水，自然有份，借你的小小溪流，灌满自己的空杯。
On Work | 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 blind yourself to yourself, and to one another, and to God.
而我告诉你们，生命确然黑暗，除非有所追求，
追求皆属盲目，除非拥有知识，
知识皆属徒然，除非工作不殆，
工作皆属空虚，除非心中有爱；
你们若是怀着热爱工作，便可把握自身，连结彼此，与真神时刻不离。
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.
如何才是，怀着热爱工作？
是从心里抽出丝线来纺织布帛，一如布帛会是你亲人的穿着。
是用满怀的深情建造房屋，一如房屋会是你亲人的居所。
是温柔地播种，欢欣地收获，一如果实会是你亲人的食物。
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.
要知道，倘若你漠不关心地烤制面饼，你的面饼必然又苦又涩，只能缓解一半的饥饿。
倘若你怨恨榨葡萄的工作，你的怨恨必然堆积凝结，化成酒中的毒液。
倘若你歌喉有如天使，但却对歌唱全无热爱，你只会蒙蔽人们的耳朵，致使他们无法倾听，白昼与黑夜的声音。
On Joy and Sorrow | 悲喜
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.
喜乐之时，不妨审视内心深处，你会发现你的欢喜，来由正是曾令你伤悲的物事。
伤悲之时，不妨再度审视内心，你会发现你的悲泣，为的正是曾令你喜乐的东西。
On Clothes | 衣饰
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.
你们的衣饰，掩去你们大部分的美丽，但却不能，将丑陋遮蔽。
你们借衣饰寻求隐私的自在，寻来的或许只是锁链与轭具。
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?
你们须当谨记，礼节不过是一面盾牌，为的是挡住不洁者的眼目。
当不洁者不复存在之时，礼节岂不只是，心灵的羁绊与垢污？
On Crime and Punishment | 罪与罚
But I say that even as the holy and the righteous cannot rise beyond the highest which is in each one of you,
So the wicked and the wick cannot fall lower than the lowest which is in you also.
而我告诉你们，无论圣者与义人如何超升，终究不能越过你们内心的至高之处，
同样道理，无论恶人与弱者如何堕落，终究不会低于你们内心的至卑之物。
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.
没有整棵树的默许，单独的树叶不能径自枯黄，
同样道理，没有你们全体的暗中主使，不义之人亦不能行下不义。
The murdered is not unaccountable for his own murder,
And the robbed is not blameless in being robbed.
若是有人行凶，被杀者并非全无错处，
若是有人行劫，遭劫者亦非无可究诘。
The righteous is not innocent of the deeds of the wicked,
And the white-handed is not clean in the doings of the felon.
对于恶人所为，守义之人非是无辜，
对于罪犯所行，清白之人亦须担责。
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.
正邪无法分开，善恶无从隔断；
因为它们并肩站在太阳面前，如同彼此交织的黑白纱线。
And if any of you would punish in the name of righteousness and lay the axe unto the evil tree, let him see to its roots;
And verily he will find the roots of the good and the bad, the fruitful and the fruitless, all entwined together in the silent heart of the earth.
你们当中倘若有人，意欲以正义之名斤斧邪恶之树，那便应当，查看它的树根；
而你必将发现，那里有善根与恶根，丰硕之根与无果之根，全都长在大地静默的心里，交缠难分。
Only then shall you know that the erect and the fallen are but one man standing in twilight between the night of his pigmy-self and the day of his god-self,
And that the corner-stone of the temple is not higher than the lowest stone in its foundation.
只有明了一切因果，你们才会懂得，屹立的和跌倒的只是同一个人，站在半明半暗的黄昏，一边是侏儒之性的黑夜，一边是神性的白昼，
也才懂得，神庙的奠基之石，并不会高于它地基底层的石头。
On Freedom | 自由
You shall be free indeed when your days are not without a care nor your nights without a want and a grief,
But rather when these things girdle your life and yet you rise above them naked and unbound.
倘若你的白昼没有烦扰，夜晚也没有匮乏与悲愁，这不是真正的自由，
真正的自由，是这些东西将你的生活团团围住，而你赤条条地超然其上，不受它们的束缚。
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.
如果说，不自由是你们意欲摈弃的一种烦扰，这烦扰却是你们自己讨来，没有人强迫你们领受。
如果说，不自由是你们意欲驱散的一种畏惧，畏惧的根源却在你们心里，并不在你们畏惧之人的手中。
And when the shadow fades and is no more, the light that lingers becomes a shadow to another light.
And thus your freedom when it loses its fetters becomes itself the fetter of a greater freedom.
影子消隐之时，遗留的光，便会成为另一道光的影子。
同样道理，你的自由脱去桎梏以后，自身便会成为桎梏，束缚更大的自由。
On Pain | 痛苦
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.
你的痛苦是因为，包裹你心智的外壳，正在破裂毁伤。
你必须体验痛苦，正如果核必须破裂，果仁才见阳光。
On Self-Knowledge | 自知
But let there be no scales to weigh your unknown treasure;
And seek not the depths of your knowledge with staff or sounding line.
For self is a sea boundless and measureless.
然而，不可用天平称量你的未知宝藏；
不可用标杆测绳，探求你知识的深浅。
因为自我如同海洋，无量无疆。
Say not, “I have found the truth,” but rather, “I have found a truth.”
Say not, “I have found the path of the soul.” Say rather, “I have met the soul walking upon my path.”
For the soul walks upon all paths.
不可说，“我已觅得真理”，毋宁说，“我已觅得真理之一。”
不可说，“我已觅得灵魂的道路”，毋宁说，“我已遇见灵魂，它行走在我的道路。”
因为灵魂，同时行走在所有的道路。
On Teaching | 教育
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 cannot give you the ear which arrests the rhythm nor the voice that echoes it.
And he who is versed in the science of numbers can tell of the regions of weight and measure, but he cannot conduct you thither.
For the vision of one man lends not its wings to another man.
天文学者能向你讲述他对宇宙的认识，但却不能，将他的认识送给你。
乐师能为你唱出盈满宇宙的韵律，却不能给你，领会韵律的耳轮，也不能给你，应和韵律的嗓音。
精通数理的人，能说清度量衡的阀域，但却不能，让你到达那些阀域。
因为一个人的想象，并不能将他的翅膀，借给另一个人。
On Good and Evil | 善恶
Of the good in you I can speak, but not of the evil.
For what is evil but good tortured by its own hunger and thirst?
Verily when good is hungry it seeks food even in dark caves, and when it thirsts it drinks even of dead waters.
我可以讲论你们的善性，恶性却无法讲论。
因为邪恶，岂不只是苦于自身饥渴的善心？
千真万确，善心若是饥饿，甚至会在暗穴觅食，若是焦渴，甚至会向死水求饮。
On Death | 死亡
The owl whose night-bound eyes are blind unto the day cannot unveil the mystery of light.
If you would indeed behold the spirit of death, open your heart wide unto the body of life.
For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one.
鸱鸮无法了悟光明的秘密，因为它的双眼囿于黑夜，对白昼不视不知。
若是真想窥见死亡的精魂，你们须当敞开心扉，接纳生命的躯体。
因为生命与死亡一体，正如河川与海洋一体。
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, them shall you truly dance.
饮过沉默之河，你才能真正放歌。
抵达山岳之巅，你才能开始登攀。
大地取去你的肢体，你才能真正起舞。
