On Children

And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said, ”Speak to us of Children.”

And he said:

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.

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.

You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.

The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.

Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness;

For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.


一個懷中抱著孩子的婦人說：請給我們談論孩子吧！

他說：
你們的孩子，都不是你們的孩子。
乃是生命為自己渴望的兒女。
他們借你們而來，卻不是從你們而來。
他們雖和你同在，卻不屬於你們。

你們可以給他們愛，卻不可給他們思想。
因為他們有自己的思想。
你們可以庇蔭他們的身體卻不能庇蔭他們的靈魂。
因為他們的靈魂，是住在「明日」的宅中，那是你們在夢中也不能想見的。
你們可以努力去模仿他們，卻不能使他們來像你們。
因為生命是不倒行的，也不與昨日一同停留。
你們是弓，你們的孩子是從弦上發出的生命箭矢。
那射者在無窮之中看定了目標，也用神力將你們引滿，使他的箭矢急速而遙遠地射了出去。
讓你們在射者手中的彎曲成為喜樂吧！
因為他愛那飛出的箭，也愛那靜止的弓。





引自紀伯倫「先知」