《先知》(The Prophet)自由

And an orator said, "Speak to us of Freedom."

And he answered:

At the city gate and by your fireside I have seen you prostrate yourself and worship your own freedom,

Even as slaves humble themselves before a tyrant and praise him though he slays them.

Ay, in the grove of the temple and in the shadow of the citadel I have seen the freest among you wear their freedom as a yoke and a handcuff.

And my heart bled within me; for you can only be free when even the desire of seeking freedom becomes a harness to you, and when you cease to speak of freedom as a goal and a fulfillment.

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.

And how shall you rise beyond your days and nights unless you break the chains which you at the dawn of your understanding have fastened around your noon hour?

In truth that which you call freedom is the strongest of these chains, though its links glitter in the sun and dazzle the eyes.

And what is it but fragments of your own self you would discard that you may become free?

If it is an unjust law you would abolish, that law was written with your own hand upon your own forehead.

You cannot erase it by burning your law books nor by washing the foreheads of your judges, though you pour the sea upon them.

And if it is a despot you would dethrone, see first that his throne erected within you is destroyed.

For how can a tyrant rule the free and the proud, but for a tyranny in their own freedom and a shame in their won pride?

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.

Verily all things move within your being in constant half embrace, the desired and the dreaded, the repugnant and the cherished, the pursued and that which you would escape.

These things move within you as lights and shadows in pairs that cling.

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.

自由

一位演說家說，請給我們講講自由。

他答道：

在城門邊，在爐火旁，我曾看到你們五體投地，膜拜自己的自由，

就像奴隸在暴君面前卑躬屈膝，盡管他們倍受他的戕害。

唉，在廟宇的叢林中，在城堡的陰影下。我曾看到你們中最自由者披枷戴銬般穿戴著自己的自由。

我的心在胸中滴血;因為只有當你們感到尋求自由的愿望也是一種束縛，只有當你們不再稱自由是目標是成就時，你們才是自由的。

當你們的白晝并非無憂無慮，你們的夜晚并非沒有希望和悲傷，你們是自由的，

不過，當這些事物羈絆你們的生命，而你們超脫它們，赤裸而無拘無束，你們更是自由的。

你們在自己知識的黎明鎖住了你們的正午，若不砸碎這鎖鏈，你們如何能超越自己的晝夜?

實際上，你們所謂的自由正是最堅固的鎖鏈，雖然它的鏈環(huán)在陽光下閃耀，迷惑了你們的眼睛。

你們想要丟棄以換取自由的，難道不正是你們自身的一部分?

如果那是一個你們想要廢除的法律，這法律正是由你們的手寫在你們的額頭上的。

你們無法將它抹去，即使你們焚毀律典或傾大海之水來沖洗法官的額頭。

如果那是一個你們想要廢黜的暴君，先看看他豎立在你們心中的寶座是否已被摧毀。

因為如果他們的自由里沒有專制，他們的尊嚴中沒有恥辱，暴君怎能統(tǒng)治自由尊嚴的人?

如果那是你們想要擺脫的焦慮，這焦慮并非強加于你們，而是你們的選擇。

如果那是你們想要驅散的恐懼，這恐懼是根植在你們的心里，而非恐懼對象的手中。

的確，期望與恐懼，厭惡與珍惜，追求與逃避，所有這一切始終相擁相伴在你們體內運行，恰似光與影彼此緊緊相依相隨。

當陰影消逝，駐留的光將成為另一道光的陰影。

因此，當你們的自由擺脫桎梏，它本身將會成為更大自由的桎梏。