《先知》(The Prophet)告別

The Farewell

And now it was evening.

And Almitra the seeress said, "Blessed be this day and this place and your spirit that has spoken."

And he answered, Was it I who spoke? Was I not also a listener?

Then he descended the steps of the Temple and all the people followed him. And he reached his ship and stood upon the deck.

And facing the people again, he raised his voice and said:

People of Orphalese, the wind bids me leave you.

Less hasty am I than the wind, yet I must go.

We wanderers, ever seeking the lonelier way, begin no day where we have ended another day; and no sunrise finds us where sunset left us.

Even while the earth sleeps we travel.

We are the seeds of the tenacious plant, and it is in our ripeness and our fullness of heart that we are given to the wind and are scattered.

Brief were my days among you, and briefer still the words I have spoken.

But should my voice fade in your ears, and my love vanish in your memory, then I will come again,

And with a richer heart and lips more yielding to the spirit will I speak.

Yea, I shall return with the tide,

And though death may hide me, and the greater silence enfold me, yet again will I seek your understanding.

And not in vain will I seek.

If aught I have said is truth, that truth shall reveal itself in a clearer voice, and in words more kin to your thoughts.

I go with the wind, people of Orphalese, but not down into emptiness;

And if this day is not a fulfillment of your needs and my love, then let it be a promise till another day. Know therefore, that from the greater silence I shall return.

The mist that drifts away at dawn, leaving but dew in the fields, shall rise and gather into a cloud and then fall down in rain.

And not unlike the mist have I been.

In the stillness of the night I have walked in your streets, and my spirit has entered your houses,

And your heart-beats were in my heart, and your breath was upon my face, and I knew you all.

Ay, I knew your joy and your pain, and in your sleep your dreams were my dreams.

And oftentimes I was among you a lake among the mountains.

I mirrored the summits in you and the bending slopes, and even the passing flocks of your thoughts and your desires.

And to my silence came the laughter of your children in streams, and the longing of your youths in rivers.

And when they reached my depth the streams and the rivers ceased not yet to sing.

But sweeter still than laughter and greater than longing came to me.

It was boundless in you;

The vast man in whom you are all but cells and sinews;

He in whose chant all your singing is but a soundless throbbing.

It is in the vast man that you are vast,

And in beholding him that I beheld you and loved you.

For what distances can love reach that are not in that vast sphere?

What visions, what expectations and what presumptions can outsoar that flight?

Like a giant oak tree covered with apple blossoms is the vast man in you.

His mind binds you to the earth, his fragrance lifts you into space, and in his durability you are deathless.

You have been told that, even like a chain, you are as weak as your weakest link.

This is but half the truth. You are also as strong as your strongest link.

To measure you by your smallest deed is to reckon the power of ocean by the frailty of its foam.

To judge you by your failures is to cast blame upon the seasons for their inconsistency.

Ay, you are like an ocean,

And though heavy-grounded ships await the tide upon your shores, yet, even like an ocean, you cannot hasten your tides.

And like the seasons you are also,

And though in your winter you deny your spring,

Yet spring, reposing within you, smiles in her drowsiness and is not offended.

Think not I say these things in order that you may say the one to the other, "He praised us well. He saw but the good in us."

I only speak to you in words of that which you yourselves know in thought.

And what is word knowledge but a shadow of wordless knowledge?

Your thoughts and my words are waves from a sealed memory that keeps records of our yesterdays,

And of the ancient days when the earth knew not us nor herself,

And of nights when earth was upwrought with confusion,

Wise men have come to you to give you of their wisdom. I came to take of your wisdom:

And behold I have found that which is greater than wisdom.

It is a flame spirit in you ever gathering more of itself,

While you, heedless of its expansion, bewail the withering of your days.

It is life in quest of life in bodies that fear the grave.

There are no graves here.

These mountains and plains are a cradle and a stepping-stone.

Whenever you pass by the field where you have laid your ancestors look well thereupon, and you shall see yourselves and your children dancing hand in hand.

Verily you often make merry without knowing.

Others have come to you to whom for golden promises made unto your faith you have given but riches and power and glory.

Less than a promise have I given, and yet more generous have you been to me.

You have given me deeper thirsting after life.

Surely there is no greater gift to a man than that which turns all his aims into parching lips and all life into a fountain.

And in this lies my honour and my reward, -

That whenever I come to the fountain to drink I find the living water itself thirsty;

And it drinks me while I drink it.

Some of you have deemed me proud and over-shy to receive gifts.

To proud indeed am I to receive wages, but not gifts.

And though I have eaten berries among the hill when you would have had me sit at your board,

And slept in the portico of the temple where you would gladly have sheltered me,

Yet was it not your loving mindfulness of my days and my nights that made food sweet to my mouth and girdled my sleep with visions?

For this I bless you most:

You give much and know not that you give at all.

Verily the kindness that gazes upon itself in a mirror turns to stone,

And a good deed that calls itself by tender names becomes the parent to a curse.

And some of you have called me aloof, and drunk with my own aloneness,

And you have said, "He holds council with the trees of the forest, but not with men.

He sits alone on hill-tops and looks down upon our city."

True it is that I have climbed the hills and walked in remote places.

How could I have seen you save from a great height or a great distance?

How can one be indeed near unless he be far?

And others among you called unto me, not in words, and they said,

Stranger, stranger, lover of unreachable heights, why dwell you among the summits where eagles build their nests?

Why seek you the unattainable?

What storms would you trap in your net,

And what vaporous birds do you hunt in the sky?

Come and be one of us.

Descend and appease your hunger with our bread and quench your thirst with our wine."

In the solitude of their souls they said these things;

But were their solitude deeper they would have known that I sought but the secret of your joy and your pain,

And I hunted only your larger selves that walk the sky.

But the hunter was also the hunted:

For many of my arrows left my bow only to seek my own breast.

And the flier was also the creeper;

For when my wings were spread in the sun their shadow upon the earth was a turtle.

And I the believer was also the doubter;

For often have I put my finger in my own wound that I might have the greater belief in you and the greater knowledge of you.

And it is with this belief and this knowledge that I say,

You are not enclosed within your bodies, nor confined to houses or fields.

That which is you dwells above the mountain and roves with the wind.

It is not a thing that crawls into the sun for warmth or digs holes into darkness for safety,

But a thing free, a spirit that envelops the earth and moves in the ether.

If this be vague words, then seek not to clear them.

Vague and nebulous is the beginning of all things, but not their end,

And I fain would have you remember me as a beginning.

Life, and all that lives, is conceived in the mist and not in the crystal.

And who knows but a crystal is mist in decay?

This would I have you remember in remembering me:

That which seems most feeble and bewildered in you is the strongest and most determined.

Is it not your breath that has erected and hardened the structure of your bones?

And is it not a dream which none of you remember having dreamt that building your city and fashioned all there is in it?

Could you but see the tides of that breath you would cease to see all else,

And if you could hear the whispering of the dream you would hear no other sound.

But you do not see, nor do you hear, and it is well.

The veil that clouds your eyes shall be lifted by the hands that wove it,

And the clay that fills your ears shall be pierced by those fingers that kneaded it.

And you shall see

And you shall hear.

Yet you shall not deplore having known blindness, nor regret having been deaf.

For in that day you shall know the hidden purposes in all things,

And you shall bless darkness as you would bless light.

After saying these things he looked about him, and he saw the pilot of his ship standing by the helm and gazing now at the full sails and now at the distance.

And he said:

Patient, over-patient, is the captain of my ship.

The wind blows, and restless are the sails;

Even the rudder begs direction;

Yet quietly my captain awaits my silence.

And these my mariners, who have heard the choir of the greater sea, they too have heard me patiently.

Now they shall wait no longer.

I am ready.

The stream has reached the sea, and once more the great mother holds her son against her breast.

Fare you well, people of Orphalese.

This day has ended.

It is closing upon us even as the water-lily upon its own tomorrow.

What was given us here we shall keep,

And if it suffices not, then again must we come together and together stretch our hands unto the giver.

Forget not that I shall come back to you.

A little while, and my longing shall gather dust and foam for another body.

A little while, a moment of rest upon the wind, and another woman shall bear me.

Farewell to you and the youth I have spent with you.

It was but yesterday we met in a dream.

You have sung to me in my aloneness, and I of your longings have built a tower in the sky.

But now our sleep has fled and our dream is over, and it is no longer dawn.

The noontide is upon us and our half waking has turned to fuller day, and we must part.

If in the twilight of memory we should meet once more, we shall speak again together and you shall sing to me a deeper song.

And if our hands should meet in another dream, we shall build another tower in the sky.

So saying he made a signal to the seamen, and straightaway they weighed anchor and cast the ship loose from its moorings, and they moved eastward.

And a cry came from the people as from a single heart, and it rose the dusk and was carried out over the sea like a great trumpeting.

Only Almitra was silent, gazing after the ship until it had vanished into the mist.

And when all the people were dispersed she still stood alone upon the sea-wall, remembering in her heart his saying,

A little while, a moment of rest upon the wind, and another woman shall bear me."

告別

已經(jīng)是夜了。

女預(yù)言家艾爾梅特拉說，今日，此地，和你所傾訴的心靈，都有福了。

他答道："難道我只是一個傾訴者?我不也是一個傾聽者么?"

他步下圣殿的臺階，人們跟隨著他。他登上他的航船，立于甲板

上。

他再次面對人們，提高嗓音說道：

"奧法利斯城的人們!風(fēng)在催促我離開你們。

"盡管我不像風(fēng)這般急切，但我不得不登程了。

"我們是些不停地尋找更孤寂道路的流浪者，我們的一天并不在

另一天結(jié)束時開始;朝陽也不會在暮日離開我們的地方找到我們。

"甚至當(dāng)大地沉睡時，我們也在趕路。

"我們是具有生命力的種子，當(dāng)我們的心孩成熟充實時，就被獻

給風(fēng)，飄散四方。"

我在你們中間度過的日子十分短暫，我向你們傾吐的話語則更短。

不過，倘若我的聲音從你們耳邊遠逝，我的愛在你們心中消失，那我還會再來，

我將以一顆更充實的心動和更靈性的唇說話。

是的，我將踏浪而來，

也許死亡會將我隱藏，更深的沉默會將我覆蓋，但我將再次尋求你們的理解。

而我的尋找不會是徒勞的。

如果我講到的是真理，那么真理會用更清晰和更親近你們心靈的話語表達自己。

奧法利斯城的人們啊!我將與風(fēng)同去，但不會陷入虛空;

如果今天不是滿足你們需要和成全我的愛的日子，那么讓它成為某一天能夠?qū)崿F(xiàn)的希望吧。

人的需要或許會改變，但他的愛不會變，他想以愛滿足需要的愿望也不會變。

你們應(yīng)當(dāng)知道，我將從更深的靜寂中歸來。

黎明散去的霧留給大地的露水，升騰凝聚為云，又化作甘霖降落。

我與霧沒有什么不同。

我曾在寂靜的夜晚盤踞于你們的街頭，我的靈魂飄入你們的房舍。

你們的心跳在我的胸中，你們的氣息拂過我的面龐，我認識了你們所有的人。

是的，我體會你們的歡樂與痛苦，你們睡眠中的夢也是我的夢。

多少次，我像山谷中的湖泊置身你們當(dāng)中。

我如明鏡，映出你們的山峰，你們彎曲的斜坡，甚至徘徊于你們心頭的思緒與欲望。

溪水中你們孩子的笑聲，河流中你們青年的渴望，都飄入了我的心田。

當(dāng)他們來到我心深處，溪水與河流仍不停止歌唱。

但有比笑聲更甜美、比渴望更深切的東西，也進入了我的心田。

這就是你們身上的無窮性;

這是一個巨人，你們不過是他體內(nèi)的細胞和肌腱;

他是一位歌者，你們的歌唱在他不過是無聲的顫抖。

在巨人的體內(nèi)你們才宏闊浩瀚，

我通過注視他，注視你們，熱愛你們。

愛所能達到的地方哪處不屬于這片素的領(lǐng)地?

怎樣的洞察力，怎樣的期許，怎樣的假設(shè)能飛越那領(lǐng)空?

這巨人如覆滿蘋果花的巨大橡樹矗立在你們體內(nèi)，

他的力量將你們縛于大地，他的芬芳將你們托至空中，在他的不朽里你們永生。

你們常常聽說，你們像最薄弱的鏈環(huán)一樣脆弱。

此言半對。因為你們也像最堅固的鏈環(huán)一樣堅強。

用你們的微行評價你們，就是以泡沫的脆弱推測大海的雄偉。

以你們的失敗評判你們，就是責(zé)怪季節(jié)更替為反復(fù)無常。

的確，你們像大海，

盡管載重的航船?？吭谀銈兊陌哆叺却凉q潮，但就像大海，你們

不急于弄潮。

你們也像四季，

盡管在冬季你們棄絕了春天，

但眼于你們心中的春天，在睡夢中微笑，不以為然。

不要以為我談?wù)撨@些是為了讓你們彼此說出"他盛贊我們。他

只看到我們的優(yōu)長"。

我用言語告訴你們的，正是你們自己意識所領(lǐng)悟的。

難道言語的知識不正是無形知識的影子么?

你們的意識和我的語言，是從我們封閉的記憶中涌出的浪潮，那記憶記錄了我們的往昔，

記錄了那些遙遠的白晝，那時，大地不知道我們，也不了解她自己，

也記錄了那些黑夜，當(dāng)時大地在混沌困惑中輾轉(zhuǎn)不安。

智者前來是給你們帶來智慧，而我前來是求取你們的智慧：

因為我發(fā)現(xiàn)了超越智慧之物。

那便是在你們身上不斷凝聚燃燒的精神，

而你們不曾留意它的發(fā)展，只為你們歲月的流逝悲悼哀嘆。

這是生命在恐懼墳?zāi)沟娜怏w中追求生命。

這里沒有墳?zāi)埂?/p>

這群山和平原是搖籃，是溪中墊腳的石頭。

每當(dāng)你們走過埋葬祖先的地方，請仔細觀看，你們會看到你們自己和你們的孩子們手牽著手跳舞。

的確，你們常常不知不覺創(chuàng)造了歡樂。

也有其他人造訪你們，為了他們對你們信仰的黃金般的許諾，你們付出了財富、權(quán)力和榮耀。

我給予你們的抵不上一個許諾，可你們對我更加慷慨。

你們給了我對生命更深沉的渴望。

真的，對一個人來說，世上最好的贈禮莫過于將他的一切希冀化為焦唇，將一切生命化為甘泉。

這里有我的榮耀和回報，----

每當(dāng)我來到泉邊飲水，我發(fā)現(xiàn)那生命之流也在干渴;

我飲它時，它亦飲我。

你們中有些人認為我高做或過于羞怯而不愿接受饋贈。

我的確太驕傲而不愿接受酬報，但不是禮物。

雖然你們請我坐在你們餐桌旁時，我卻以山間的萄果為食，

雖然你們邀我留宿時，我卻睡臥于圣殿的門廊.

然而，不正是你們對我日與夜的護愛，使食物甜在我的口中，使美景京繞于我的夢境?

為此我祝福你們：

你們的給予如此之多，而你們卻不知曉。

的確，對鏡自賞的慈憫，會變成頑石，

用種種美名自夸的善行，會化作詛咒之源。

你們中有些人以為我冷漠自閉，陶醉于自己的孤獨，

你們說："他與林中的樹木攀談，卻不理會人類。

"他獨坐山頂俯視我們的城市。"

的確，我曾登上高山峻嶺，走過偏僻之地。

但若不從更高更遠處，我又怎能看見你們?

若從本相遠，人又怎能相近?

你們中的另一些人對我說，但不是通過語言，他們說：

"怪人啊，怪人!愛慕無法企及的高度的人，你為什么要棲息在鷹隼都不筑巢的峰頂?

"你為什么總追求那不可能得到的東西?

"你想網(wǎng)羅的是怎樣的風(fēng)暴?

"你在空中捕捉的又是哪種臆想中的飛鳥?

"下來做我們中的一員吧。

"下來用我們的面包充饑，用我們的葡萄酒解渴吧。"

他們在靈魂的孤寂中這樣說;

不過，他們倘若有更深的孤寂，便會了解我追尋的只是你們歡樂

與痛苦的秘密，

我捕捉的只是你們在空中飛行的大我。

但捕獵者也是獵物;

因為我許多離弦的箭只為尋找我自己的胸膛。

飛翔者也是爬行者;

因為當(dāng)我的翅膀在陽光下伸展，投在地面上的陰影便是龜鱉。

而我這個篤信者也是懷疑者;

因為我曾常常用手指觸摸自己的傷口，這樣我會更加信任和了解你們。

憑借這信任和了解，我說，

你們不被軀殼束縛，也不受屋宇或地界羈囚。

你們的真我居于高山之巔，與風(fēng)道游四方。

它不是一只起日求暖、掘洞求安的動物，

而是一個自由自在、包容世界、在空中翱翔的精魂。

如果這些話股俄含混，也不要試圖澄清它們。

膝跪代表一切事物之始，而非其終。

而我愿讓你們在記憶中視我為一個開端。

生命，乃至一切有生者，均在霧中，而非水晶中孕育而成。

但有誰知道那水晶只是衰亡的霧?

我希望你們憶起我時能記?。?/p>

你們內(nèi)中看上去最孱弱和最惶惑的，正是最強勁和最堅執(zhí)的。

難道不是你們的呼吸支撐了你們的骨架，使之堅強?

難道不是你們誰都不記得的夢建起了你們的城堡，營造了里面的一切?

如果你們見到過那呼吸的潮汐，你們就會對其他一切事物視而不見;

如果你們聽到過那夢中的低語，你們就會對其他一切聲響聽而不聞。

但你們既不看，也不聽，這樣也好。

因為遮蓋你們眼簾的面紗，將由編織它的手掀起，

堵塞你們耳道的泥巴，將由揉捏它的手指穿透。

因而你們將看到，

你們將聽到。

不過你們不應(yīng)因曾經(jīng)盲目或耳聾而痛悔。

因為在那些日子里，你們會了解萬物隱匿的目的，

從而祝福黑暗，就像祝福光明一般。

說完這些話，他環(huán)顧四周，看到自己航船的舵手立于舵旁，凝視著張滿的帆，繼而眺望著遠方。

他于是說道：

耐心等待著，我的船長還在耐心等待著。

風(fēng)已起，帆躁動;

即使錨也在請求啟航;

但我的船長還在靜候著我的沉寂。

我這些聽過法海更宏偉合唱的海員們，也在耐心地聽我訴說。

現(xiàn)在他們不用再等待了。

我已做好準備。

溪流已奔入海洋，偉大的母親再次將她的兒子攬入懷抱。

別了，奧法利斯城的人們!

這一天已經(jīng)結(jié)束。

它在我們心上閉合，就像蓮花休閉于自己的明天。

我們要保存這里施與我們的一切，

如果不夠，那我們必須再次相聚，一起向饋贈者伸出手臂。

不要忘記，我將會回到你們的身邊。

再過一會兒，我的愿望就要為另一個軀體聚集微塵與泡沫。

再過一會兒，在風(fēng)中小想片刻，另一位女子就會孕育我。

別了，你們!別了，我在你們中度過的青春時光!

就在昨日我們還曾在夢中相會。

你們在我的孤寂中為我歌唱，而我，在空中為你們的渴望建起一座樓閣。

而現(xiàn)在，我們的睡眠已經(jīng)逃逸，我們的夢境已經(jīng)結(jié)束，且已非黎明時分。

日已當(dāng)空，我們的混沌已到了完滿的白晝，我們必須分離了。

假如在記憶的股股中我們再次相聚，我們將暢談，而你們將會為我唱一曲更深情的歌。

假如我們的雙手在另一個夢中相握，我們將會在空中搭建另一座樓閣。

說話間，他向水手示意，他們立刻拔錨啟航，離開泊位，向東方駛?cè)ァ?/p>

哭聲從人群中響起，就像從同一顆心中迸發(fā)出來，融入暮色，如喇叭嗚咽，在海面上回蕩。

只有艾爾梅特拉沉默著，目光追隨著航船，直到它消失在霧中。

當(dāng)人們?nèi)忌⑷?，她仍獨自立于海堤上，在心中回味著他的話語，

"再過一會兒，在風(fēng)中小想片刻，另一位女子就會孕育我。"