Khalil Gibran

 

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 of 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.

Your 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.

 

读小巫的书《和孩子划清界限》时看到这首诗，作者是Khalil Gibran；也就是我们常听说的纪伯伦。

在Wikipedia中有详细的词条Khalil Gibran。上面这段文字严格说来不是一首诗，它是纪伯伦的一本书中的一段话，书的名字是Prophet；Wikipedia的词条在这里；而在Google Book中也可以找到这本书，可以阅读其中的一部分内容。

原文简单易懂，其实不需要中文翻译，倒是觉得原汁原味更加有意境。而且现在网络上流行的中文译文，在最后三行中不是十分的精确。