卡裏·紀伯倫/Kahlil Gibran
Build of your imaginings a bower in the wilderness before 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.
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 flagrance of the earth in your garments.
But these things are not yet to be.
In their fear your forefathers gathered you too near together. And that fear shall endure a little longer. A little longer shall your city walls separate your hearths from your fields.
And tell me, people of Orphalese, what have you in these houses? And what is it you guard with fastened doors?
Have you peace, the quiet urge that reveals your power?
Have you remembrances, the glimmering arches that span the summits of the mind?
Have you beauty, that leads the heart from things fashioned of wood and stone to the holy mountain?
Tell me, have you these in your houses? Or have you only comfort, and the lust for comfort, that stealthy thing that enters the house a guest, and then becomes a host, and then a master?
Ay, and it becomes a tamer, and with hook and scourge makes puppets of your larger desires. Though its hands are silken, its heart is of iron. It lulls you to sleep only to stand by your bed and jeer at the dignity of the flesh. It makes mock of your sound senses, and lays them in thistledown like fragile vessels. Verily the lust for comfort murders the passion of the soul, and than walks grinning in the funeral.
But you, children of space, you restless in rest, you shall not be trapped nor tamed.
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 boundless 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.
在你們打算在城裏建房子之前，先用你們的想象力在曠野裏建一座涼亭。因為你們在遲暮之年回歸家園時，那在遠方孤單漂泊的心也會歸來。
房屋是你們更大的軀殼，它在陽光下成長，在夜的寂靜中安歇，而它並非沒有夢想。難道你們的房子沒有夢嗎？它們不正夢想著遠離都市，前往林中或山間嗎？
我願將你們的房子聚集在手中，像播種般將它們撒向森林和草地。
我願山穀成為你們的街道，綠徑成為你們的小巷，這樣你們就可以穿過葡萄園彼此尋訪，衣上帶著泥土的芳香歸來。
然而這尚未實現。
因為恐懼，先輩將你們緊密地聚集在一起，如今這恐懼依舊持續著，城牆依舊阻隔著你們的家庭和土地。
告訴我，奧菲裏斯城的人們，你們房子裏有什麽？你們大門緊閉，是在守護什麽？
你們擁有安寧嗎？——那足以在沉靜的驅動下顯出強大力量的平安？
你們擁有回憶嗎？——那跨越意誌巔峰的依稀閃爍的拱門？
你們擁有美嗎？——那將心靈從木石所在之地引向聖山的向導？
告訴我，你們的房子是否擁有這些？或者，其中隻有安逸和追求安逸的熱望——這鬼祟之物進來做客，卻反客為主，成為統帥？
唉，它又化做馴獸師，用鐵鉤和皮鞭使你們更強烈的欲望變做傀儡。盡管它的手細膩如絲，它的心卻堅硬如鐵；它哄你們入睡，隻為站在你們床邊譏嘲肉體的尊嚴；它嘲笑你們健全的感官，置它們於易碎的容器之下。事實上，對安逸的欲望扼殺了靈魂的**，而它還在葬禮上咧嘴大笑。
但你們，蒼穹之子，隻有在安逸中時刻警醒，才不會被**或馴化。
你們的房子不是錨，而是桅。它不是掩飾傷口的亮光薄膜，而應是保護眼睛的眼瞼。你們不應隻為穿過房門而斂起羽翼，不應因怕撞到天花板而低下頭顱，也不應因擔心牆壁破裂坍塌而屏住呼吸。
不應住在死者為生者築造的墳墓中。盡管你們的宅邸富麗堂皇，但無法隱藏你們的秘密，無法遮蔽你們的渴望。
因為那以晨霧為門、以黑夜的歌聲和靜謐為窗的——你們無限的潛能，仍逗留在蒼穹中。
心靈小語
我們每天誠惶誠恐、戰戰兢兢，是在守護什麽？也許我們從未這樣自問，那些看似屬於我們的東西，一直被認為是寶貴的。而更需要我們關注的是生命的房子，裏麵已經有美德的裝飾了嗎？
W 詞匯筆記
scatter[?sk?t?]v.撒（種）；使散亂；摧毀（希望等）；消除（恐怖等）
例 Our hopes and plans are scattered to the four winds.
我們的希望和計劃全落空了。
endure[in?dju?]v.忍受；忍耐；堅持下去；存在下去
例 His fame will endure forever.
他的名望將永垂不朽。
span[sp?n]v.橫越；持續
例 His interests spanned a wide range of subjects.
他的興趣涉及廣泛的學科。
dwell[dwel]v.居住；注意；凝思
例 She dwells too much upon her past.
她過於詳細地敘述她的過去。
S 小試身手
我願將你們的房子聚集在手中，像播種般將它們撒向森林和草地。
譯___________________________________________
你們擁有美嗎？——那將心靈從木石所在之地引向聖山的向導？
譯___________________________________________
事實上，對安逸的欲望扼殺了靈魂的**，而它還在葬禮上咧嘴大笑。
譯___________________________________________
P 短語家族
It lulls you to sleep only to stand by your bed and jeer at the dignity of the flesh.
stand by：站在旁邊；袖手旁觀；待命
造___________________________________________
It makes mock of your sound senses, and lays them in thistledown like fragile vessels.
make mock of：嘲笑某人；愚弄
造___________________________________________