NGỌC-THANH Calligraphy: THE PROPHET by KAHLIL GIBRAN (English)_KẺ TIÊN TRI bản dịch HỒNG HÀ ( Vietnamese )

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jrcole/gibran/prophet/prophet.htm

The Prophet

by Kahlil Gibran

Kẻ Tiên Tri

Tác giả : Kahlil Gibran
Dịch giả : Hồng Hà

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Contents

The Coming of the Ship* Love* Marriage * Children * Giving* Eating and Drinking* Work* Joy and Sorrow * Houses* Clothes* Buying and Selling * Crime and Punishment * Laws * Freedom* Reason and Passion * Pain* Self-Knowledge* Teaching* Friendship* Talking* Time* Good and Evil* Prayer* Pleasure* Beauty* Religion* Death* The Farewell *

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The Coming of the Ship

Almustafa, the chosen and the beloved, who was a dawn unto his own day, had waited twelve years in the city of Orphalese for his ship that was to return and bear him back to the isle of his birth.

And in the twelfth year, on the seventh day of Ielool, the month of reaping, he climbed the hill without the city walls and looked seaward; and he beheld the ship coming with the mist.

Then the gates of his heart were flung open, and his joy flew far over the sea. And he closed his eyes and prayed in the silences of his soul.

But he descended the hill, a sadness came upon him, and he thought in his heart: How shall I go in peace and without sorrow? Nay, not without a wound in the spirit shall I leave this city.

Long were the days of pain I have spent within its walls, and long were the nights of aloneness; and who can depart from his pain and his aloneness without regret?

Too many fragments of the spirit have I scattered in these streets, and too many are the children of my longing that walk naked among these hills, and I cannot withdraw from them without a burden and an ache.

It is not a garment I cast off this day, but a skin that I tear with my own hands. Nor is it a thought I leave behind me, but a heart made sweet with hunger and with thirst.

Yet I cannot tarry longer. The sea that calls all things unto her calls me, and I must embark. For to stay, though the hours burn in the night, is to freeze and crystallize and be bound in a mould.

Fain would I take with me all that is here. But how shall I?
A voice cannot carry the tongue and the lips that give it wings. Alone must it seek the ether.

And alone and without his nest shall the eagle fly across the sun.

Now when he reached the foot of the hill, he turned again towards the sea, and he saw his ship approaching the harbour, and upon her prow the mariners, the men of his own land.

And his soul cried out to them, and he said:

Sons of my ancient mother, you riders of the tides,

How often have you sailed in my dreams. And now you come in my awakening, which is my deeper dream.

Ready am I to go, and my eagerness with sails full set awaits the wind.

Only another breath will I breathe in this still air, only another loving look cast backward,

Then I shall stand among you, a seafarer among seafarers.

And you, vast sea, sleepless mother, Who alone are peace and freedom to the river and the stream,

Only another winding will this stream make, only another murmur in this glade, And then shall I come to you, a boundless drop to a boundless ocean.

And as he walked he saw from afar men and women leaving their fields and their vineyards and hastening towards the city gates.

And he heard their voices calling his name, and shouting from the field to field telling one another of the coming of the ship.

And he said to himself:

Shall the day of parting be the day of gathering?

And shall it be said that my eve was in truth my dawn?

And what shall I give unto him who has left his plough in midfurrow, or to him who has stopped the wheel of his winepress?

Shall my heart become a tree heavy-laden with fruit that I may gather and give unto them?

And shall my desires flow like a fountain that I may fill their cups?

Am I a harp that the hand of the mighty may touch me, or a flute that his breath may pass through me?

A seeker of silences am I, and what treasure have I found in silences that I may dispense with confidence?

If this is my day of harvest, in what fields have I sowed the seed, and in what unremembered seasons?

If this indeed be the hour in which I lift up my lantern, it is not my flame that shall burn therein.

Empty and dark shall I raise my lantern,

And the guardian of the night shall fill it with oil and he shall light it also.

These things he said in words. But much in his heart remained unsaid. For he himself could not speak his deeper secret.

And when he entered into the city all the people came to meet him, and they were crying out to him as with one voice.

And the elders of the city stood forth and said:

Go not yet away from us.

A noontide have you been in our twilight, and your youth has given us dreams to dream.

No stranger are you among us, nor a guest, but our son and our dearly beloved. Suffer not yet our eyes to hunger for your face.

And the priests and the priestesses said unto him:

Let not the waves of the sea separate us now, and the years you have spent in our midst become a memory.

You have walked among us a spirit, and your shadow has been a light upon our faces.

Much have we loved you. But speechless was our love, and with veils has it been veiled. Yet now it cries aloud unto you, and would stand revealed before you.

And ever has it been that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.

And others came also and entreated him.

But he answered them not. He only bent his head; and those who stood near saw his tears falling upon his breast.

And he and the people proceeded towards the great square before the temple. And there came out of the sanctuary a woman whose name was Almitra. And she was a seeress.

And he looked upon her with exceeding tenderness, for it was she who had first sought and believed in him when he had been but a day in their city.

And she hailed him, saying: Prophet of God, in quest for the uttermost, long have you searched the distances for your ship.

And now your ship has come, and you must needs go.

Deep is your longing for the land of your memories and the dwelling place of your greater desires; and our love would not bind you nor our needs hold you.

Yet this we ask ere you leave us, that you speak to us and give us of your truth. And we will give it unto our children, and they unto their children, and it shall not perish.

In your aloneness you have watched with our days, and in your wakefulness you have listened to the weeping and the laughter of our sleep.

Now therefore disclose us to ourselves, and tell us all that has been shown you of that which is between birth and death.

And he answered,

People of Orphalese, of what can I speak save of that which is even now moving your souls?

Almustapha, đấng được chọn, được yêu và là bình minh ngay trong lúc sinh thời, đã chờ đợi mười hai năm trong thành Orphalese con tàu trở lại đón người về nơi hòn đảo người ra chào đời.

Và vào năm thứ mười hai, ngày mồng bẩy Ielool, tháng gặt hái, người leo lên ngọn đồi ngoài tường thành và ngóng ra biển; và người thấy tàu mình tiến vào với sa mù.

Bấy giờ với cánh cửa của lòng người bộc mở và nguồn vui người phơi phới tung bay trùm biển khơi. Và người nhắm mắt nguyện cầu trong những cõi vắng lặng mênh mang của hồn.

Nhưng khi xuống đồi, một mối sầu chợt đến, người thầm nghĩ:

Làm sao ta có thể thanh thản ra đi chẳng chút u hoài? Không đâu, ta sẽ chẳng thể rời thành phố này với không một vết thương trong hồn.

Dài làm sao những ngày đớn đau ta đã sống giữa những bức tường thành, và dài làm sao những đêm của cô đơn; kẻ nào có thể đang tâm rời bỏ niềm đau và nỗi cô đơn mình chẳng luyến thương?

Biết bao mảnh hồn ta đã vương trên những phố phường này, biết bao đứa con của khát vọng ta đã trần truồng lang thang giữa những núi đồi này, ta không thể dời xa chúng mà không nặng lòng và nhức nhối.

Không phải một bộ y trang ta dứt bỏ hôm nay mà là một lớp da tự lột bằng tay.

Cũng không phải một ý nghĩa ta để lại đằng sau mà là một trái tim mà đói khát đã làm cho dịu ngọt.

Nhưng ta không thể chần chờ lâu hơn nữa.

Đại dương đang kêu gọi mọi vật trở về đang vời ta, và ta phải lên tàu.

Vì ở lại, cho dù thời gian có cháy đỏ trong đêm thì hồn người vẫn còn đông giá, quắp co và khép mình vào khuôn thước.

Ta hẳn sẵn lòng đem theo tất cả mọi thứ nơi đây. Nhưng làm sao được?

Giọng nói không chở nổi lưỡi và môi đã tháp cánh cho nó. Một mình nó phải tự kiếm lấy vòm thanh khí.

Và một mình không tổ ấm, con phượng hoàng bay qua vầng thái dương.

Bây giờ khi tới chân đồi, người lại hướng về biển và thấy con tàu đang tiến vào hải cảng và trên mũi tàu những thủy thủ, những người của cố hương mình.

Và hồn người lên tiếng gọi họ, đoạn người nói

Hỡi các con trai của mẹ ta xưa, những người cưỡi trên sóng nước.

Đã bao lần các người dong buồm trong những giấc ta mơ. Và bây giờ các người đến trong lúc ta tỉnh thức; giấc mơ sâu thẳm hơn của ta.

Ta đã sẵn sàng lên đường rồi, và nỗi hăng say trương hết buồm đón gió.

Ta sẽ chỉ thở một hơi nữa trong bầu không khí lắng đọng này, chỉ ném lại đằng sau một tia nhìn thân ái nữa thôi.

Rồi ta sẽ đứng giữa các người, một thủy thủ giữa những thủy thủ.

Và người nữa, hỡi đại dương bao la, ngừơi mẹ muôn đời không ngủ.
Chỉ mình người là nỗi bình yên và tự do cho sông ngòi và kinh rạch.

Dòng suối này chỉ uốn một khúc quanh nữa thôi, chỉ thì thào một lần nữa thôi trong khoảng rừng thưa này.

Và rồi ta sẽ đến với người, một giọt nước vô biên hòa trong một đại dương vô biên.

Vừa cất bước, người thấy từ xa đàn ông đàn bà rời những cánh đồng và vườn nho, hối hả kéo nhau về phía cổng thành.

Và người nghe tiếng họ gọi tên mình ơi ới truyền qua các cánh đồng, bảo nhau rằng tàu người đã đến.

Và người tự nhủ:

Có thể nào ngày phải chia tay lại là ngày đến vây quanh chiếu ngồi?

Và mai sau có kể rằng xế chiều ta lại chính là bình minh ta?

Và ta có gì đem cho người buông tay cày giữa luống hay cho ngừơi dừng bánh xe của máy ép nho?

Phải chi tim ta thành một cây trĩu trái để ta có thể hái đem cho họ nhỉ?

Và phải chi khát vọng ta tuôn trào như suối để ta có thể rót đầy chén họ.

Ta là đàn thụ cầm để bàn tay đấng cao cả có thể chạm đến, hay một ống sáo để hơi thở ngài luồn qua chăng?

Là một kẻ kiếm tìm im lặng, ta đã thấy kho báu nào trong đáy những nỗi niềm im lặng để có thể đem phân phát với lòng tin yêu?
Nếu đây là ngày mùa ta, thì ta đã gieo hạt trong ruộng nào và vào những mùa bất khả tưởng niệm nào?

Nếu quả đây là giờ ta nâng ngọn đèn lên thì chẳng phải ngọn lửa ta đã cháy vàng trong ấy.

Trống trơn và tăm tối ta sẽ nâng cao ngọn đèn.

Và người tuần đinh canh đêm cũng sẽ rót dầu và châm lửa vào đèn.

Những điều trên người nói thành lời nhưng nhiều điều trong lòng người hãy còn vô ngôn. Vì chính người cũng chẳng thể nói lên nỗi bí ẩn sâu kín của mình.

Khi người vào thành mọi người đều tìm gặp và đồng thanh kêu người

Và những bậc trưởng lão trong thành đứng dậy nói:

Xin chớ vội rời xa chúng tôi.

Người từng là buổi ngọ của chúng tôi vào giữa buổi hoàng hôn, và tuổi trẻ của người đã cho chúng tôi những giấc mộng để mơ.

Người không phải là kẻ xa lạ giữa chúng tôi, cũng chẳng phải là khách, mà là con trai và là kẻ rất đỗi yêu dấu của chúng tôi.

Xin chớ để mắt của chúng tôi phải đói khát khuôn mặt người.

Những thầy tư tế và các nữ trợ tế đều thưa cùng người:

Xin chớ để sóng biển chia cách ta lúc này và những năm tháng ngừi đã sống giữa chúng tôi trở thành kỷ niệm.

Người đã đi giữa chúng tôi như một thần linh và bóng người là ánh sáng trên mặt chúng tôi.

Chúng tôi rất đỗi yêu người. Nhưng tình yêu chúng tôi câm lặng và bị màn che bao phủ.

Tuy nhiên tình yêu ấy lớn tiếng gọi và muốn bộc lộ trước người.

Đã tự bao giờ rồi tình yêu chẳng dò nổi bề sâu của chính mình cho đến giờ chia tay.

Những người khác cũng đến khẩn nài người. Nhưng người không đáp lời họ. Người chỉ lặng lẽ cúi đầu; và những kẻ đứng gần đấy thấy nước mắt người lã chã rơi xuống ngực.

Và người cùng dân chúng đi tới vuông đất lớn trước đền thờ.

Từ trong đền một thiếu phụ tên là Almiltra bước ra. Và nàng là một nữ tiên tri.

Và người nhìn nàng rất đỗi dịu dàng, vì chính nàng là kẻ đầu tiên tìm đến và tin cậy nơi người khi người mới đến thành phố họ được một ngày.

Và nàng cất tiếng chào mừng người.

Hỡi đấng tiên tri của Thượng Đế, mãi tìm kiếm sự vô cùng, tự lâu người tìm tàu mình nơi chốn xa.

Nay tàu đã tới, người cần phải lên đường.

Sâu thẳm làm sao nỗi khát vọng của người về miền đất hoài mong nơi cư trú những khát khao vĩ đại hơn của người; tình yêu chúng tôi chẳng nên ràng buộc người cũng như sự cần thiết của chúng tôi chẳng nên cầm giữ người.

Tuy nhiên trước khi rời bỏ chúng tôi, xin người hãy nói và ban cho chúng tôi chân lý của người.

Chúng tôi sẽ truyền lại cho con cái chúng tôi, và chúng sẽ truyền lại cho con cái chúng và chân lý ấy chẳng thể hư mất.

Trong cô đơn người đã chiêm ngắm với những ngày của chúng tôi, trong tỉnh thức người đã nghe tiếng khóc điệu cười trong giấc chúng tôi say.

Bởi thế giờ đây xin tiết lộ chúng tôi cho chính chúng tôi, và xin nói hết những gì biểu lộ cho người giữa cõi tử sinh.

Và người đáp lời:

Hỡi dân thành Orphalese, ta biết nói về gì đây ngoài những điều đang chuyển động trong hồn các người?

On Love

Then said Almitra, "Speak to us of Love."
And he raised his head and looked upon the people, and there fell a stillness upon them. And with a great voice he said:

When love beckons to you follow him,

Though his ways are hard and steep.

And when his wings enfold you yield to him,

Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you. And when he speaks to you believe in him,

Though his voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste the garden.

For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning.

Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun,

So shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth. Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto himself.

He threshes you to make you naked.

He sifts you to free you from your husks.

He grinds you to whiteness.

He kneads you until you are pliant;

And then he assigns you to his sacred fire, that you may become sacred bread for God's sacred feast.

All these things shall love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart, and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life's heart.

But if in your fear you would seek only love's peace and love's pleasure,

Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love's threshing-floor,

Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears.

Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.

Love possesses not nor would it be possessed; For love is sufficient unto love. When you love you should not say,

"God is in my heart," but rather, I am in the heart of God."

And think not you can direct the course of love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.

Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself.

But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:

To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.

To know the pain of too much tenderness.

To be wounded by your own understanding of love;

And to bleed willingly and joyfully.

To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;

To rest at the noon hour and meditate love's ecstasy;

To return home at eventide with gratitude;

And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.

Về Tình Yêu

Bấy giờ Almitra thưa: Xin hãy nói về Tình Yêu. Và người ngước mắt nhìn mọi tình người, một sự im lặng bao trùm lấy họ. Với giọng sang sảng người phán:

Khi tình yêu vẫy gọi hãy theo chàng.

Dù đường tình sóng gió gian nan.

Khi cánh tình ấp ủ hãy nhu thuần.

Dù thanh gươm giấu nơi đầu cánh có gây thương tích cho các người.

Và khi tình yêu lên tiếng, hãy tin chàng.

Dù lời chàng có làm các người tan nát mộng mơ như gió bấc thổi tiêu sơ mảnh vườn.

Vì dẫu tình yêu tấn phong các người thì cũng chính chàng sẽ hành hình các người.

Dẫu tình giúp các người tăng trưởng thì cũng chính chàng sẽ khiến các người tàn rụng.

Dẫu tình lên cao vút đến tận ngọn các người và mơn trớn những cành non rung rung trong nắng.

Thì cũng chính chàng sẽ xuống tận gốc các người và lay động phần đang bám vào lòng đất.

Tình Yêu gom các người vào lòng tựa những bó lúa.

Chàng đập khiến các người trần truồng.

Chàng sàng sẩy để giải thoát các người ra khỏi trấu.

Chàng xay các người thành trắng.

Chàng nhào các người tới khi mềm dẻo;

Và rồi trao các người cho ngọn lửa thiêng của chàng, để các người trở thành bánh thánh cho bữa tiệc thánh của Thượng Đế.

Tình Yêu sẽ làm tất cả những điều ấy cho các ngươi để các ngươi có thể hiểu hết những bí ẩn của lòng mình, và trong hiểu biết này; trở nên một mảnh của lòng đời.

Nhưng nếu vì e sợ mà các người chỉ muốn tìm an bình và lạc thú của tình yêu,

Thì tốt hơn các ngươi hãy che giấu sự trần truồng của các người và bước ra khỏi sân đập của tình yêu,

Vào trong thế giới không mùa nơi các người sẽ cười nhưng cười không cả tiếng, và sẽ khóc, nhưng khóc không cạn lệ.

Tình Yêu không cho gì ngoại trừ bản thân và không nhận gì ngoài bản thân.

Tình Yêu không chiếm hữu cũng không thể bị chiếm hữu.

Bởi chính tình yêu đã đủ cho tình yêu rồi.

Khi yêu các người chớ nói: Thượng Đế ở trong lòng tôi, nhưng hãy nói, Tôi ở trong lòng Thượng Đế.

Và cũng đừng tưởng mình hướng dẫn nổi nguồn tình, bởi tình yêu, nếu thấy các người xứng đáng, sẽ hướng dẫn nguồn tình các người.

Tình Yêu không có khát vọng nào ngoài khát vọng viên thành bản thân.

Nhưng nếu các người yêu và cần có khát vọng, thì hãy lấy những điều sau đây làm ước nguyện mình:

Được chảy tan và tựa một giòng suối rạt rào ca hát khúc nhạc du dương ru đêm sâu.

Được biết nỗi khổ đau của dịu dàng quá mức.

Được thương đau bởi chính sự thấu cảm về tình yêu mình;

Được đổ máu một cách sẵn sàng và hân hoan.

Được thức giấc buổi mai với con tim tháp cánh và cảm tạ có thêm một ngày nữa để yêu đương;

Được ngơi nghỉ giữa trưa và trầm tưởng về sự ngây ngất của Tình Yêu;

Được trở lại nhà lúc chiều tà với lòng tri ân;

Và rồi được ngủ với lời nguyện cầu cho người yêu dấu trong tim và một khúc tụng ca trên đôi môi.

On Marriage

Then Almitra spoke again and said, "And what of Marriage, master?"

And he answered saying:

You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore.

You shall be together when white wings of death scatter your days.

Aye, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God.
But let there be spaces in your togetherness,

And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.

Love one another but make not a bond of love:

Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.

Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup.

Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf.

Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone,

Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.

Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping.

For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.

And stand together, yet not too near together:

For the pillars of the temple stand apart,

And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.

Về Hôn Nhân

Almitra lại cất tiếng thưa: Thưa Thầy còn về Hôn Nhân thì sao thưa Thầy?

Và người đáp:

Các người đã sinh ra gần nhau thì các người sẽ gần nhau mãi mãi.

Các người sẽ gần nhau cho tới khi đôi cánh trắng tử thần đến phá tan nát ngày mình.

Phải, các người sẽ gần nhau ngay trong ký ức im lìm của Thượng Đế.

Nhưng hãy để những khoảng cách trong sự chung đụng với nhau.

Và để những cơn gió Thiên Đàng nhảy múa giữa các người.

Hãy yêu nhau, nhưng đừng kết một giây tình trói buộc.

Tốt hơn hết hãy để nó là một biển giao động giữa bờ hồn các người.

Hãy rót đầy chén nhau nhưng chớ uống cùng một chén.

Hãy lấy bánh mình cho nhau nhưng chớ ăn cùng một ổ.

Hãy múa hát cùng nhau và sung sướng nhưng hãy để mỗi người được ở riêng một mình.

Ngay những dây tỳ bà cũng riêng rẽ dù cùng rung lên theo một nhạc điệu.

Hãy đem dâng trái tim mình, nhưng đừng giao cho người kia cất giữ.

Vì chỉ có bàn tay của Đời mới chứa nổi trái tim các người.

Và hãy đứng gần nhau nhưng chớ gần nhau quá;

Bởi những cột đền thờ đứng cách xa nhau.

Và cây sồi và cây trắc bá có mọc trong bóng mát của nhau đâu.

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.

Về Con Cái

Và một người đàn bà ôm hài nhi trước ngực thưa: xin người hãy dạy chúng tôi về Con Trẻ.

Và người nói:

Con các người chẳng phải là con cái các người đâu.

Chúng là con trai và con gái của nỗi khát khao của Đời đối với tự thân.

Chúng đến qua các người nhưng chẳng từ các người.

Và tuy chúng ở cùng các người chúng cũng chẳng thuộc về các người.

Các người có thể cho chúng tình yêu nhưng chẳng thể cho chúng tư tưởng mình,

Bởi chúng có tư tưởng riêng của chúng.

Các người có thể cầm giữ thân xác chúng trong nhà nhưng không chứa nổi tâm hồn chúng.

Vì tâm hồn chúng cư ngụ trong ngôi nhà của ngày mai, nơi các người không thể viếng thăm, dù là trong giấc mơ.

Các người có thể gắng sức trở nên giống chúng, nhưng chớ tìm cách làm cho chúng giống mình.

Vì đời sống không trở gót, cũng chẳng lần lữa với ngày qua.

Các người là những cây cung từ đấy con các người tựa những mũi tên sống động được bắn vụt đi.

Cung thủ thấy đích trên đường vô cùng và Ngài uốn các ngươi bằng sức mạnh để những mũi tên Ngài có thể bay mau và xa.

Hãy hân hoan uốn mình trong tay cung thủ;

Vì dẫu mũi tên bay đi như thế nào thì Ngài cũng yêu cây cung vững mạnh như thế ấy.

On Giving

Then said a rich man, "Speak to us of Giving."

And he answered:

You give but little when you give of your possessions.

It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.

For what are your possessions but things you keep and guard for fear you may need them tomorrow?

And tomorrow, what shall tomorrow bring to the overprudent dog burying bones in the trackless sand as he follows the pilgrims to the holy city?

And what is fear of need but need itself?

Is not dread of thirst when your well is full, thirst that is unquenchable?

There are those who give little of the much which they have - and they give it for recognition and their hidden desire makes their gifts unwholesome.

And there are those who have little and give it all.

These are the believers in life and the bounty of life, and their coffer is never empty.

There are those who give with joy, and that joy is their reward.

And there are those who give with pain, and that pain is their baptism.

And there are those who give and know not pain in giving, nor do they seek joy, nor give with mindfulness of virtue;

They give as in yonder valley the myrtle breathes its fragrance into space.

Though the hands of such as these God speaks, and from behind their eyes He smiles upon the earth.

It is well to give when asked, but it is better to give unasked, through understanding;

And to the open-handed the search for one who shall receive is joy greater than giving

And is there aught you would withhold?

All you have shall some day be given;

Therefore give now, that the season of giving may be yours and not your inheritors'.

You often say, "I would give, but only to the deserving."

The trees in your orchard say not so, nor the flocks in your pasture.

They give that they may live, for to withhold is to perish.

Surely he who is worthy to receive his days and his nights is worthy of all else from you.

And he who has deserved to drink from the ocean of life deserves to fill his cup from your little stream.

And what desert greater shall there be than that which lies in the courage and the confidence, nay the charity, of receiving?

And who are you that men should rend their bosom and unveil their pride, that you may see their worth naked and their pride unabashed?

See first that you yourself deserve to be a giver, and an instrument of giving.

For in truth it is life that gives unto life - while you, who deem yourself a giver, are but a witness.

And you receivers - and you are all receivers - assume no weight of gratitude, lest you lay a yoke upon yourself and upon him who gives.

Rather rise together with the giver on his gifts as on wings;
For to be overmindful of your debt, is to doubt his generosity who has the free-hearted earth for mother, and God for father.

Về Sụ’ Cho Tặng

Rồi một người giàu có thưa: Xin người hãy nói về sự Cho Tặng.

Và người đáp:

Các người đem cho rất ít khi đem cho những vật sở hữu của các người.

Đem cho chính bản thân, ấy mới thực là cho.

Vì vật các người sở hữu là gì nếu không phải là những thứ các người cất giữ và canh chừng vì sợ ngày mai sẽ cần đến chúng?

Và ngày mai, ngày mai sẽ đem lại gì cho các con chó quá cẩn trọng chôn những khúc xương trong bãi cát không dấu vết khi theo các người hành hương về Thánh Địa?

Và sợ thiếu thốn là gì nếu không phải đó chính là sự thiếu thốn?

Chẳng phải sợ khát khi giếng các người đầy là sự khát khao không giải được đó sao?

Có kẻ cho rất ít trong lượng vô cùng họ có – và họ cho để được chú ý và lòng ham muốn thầm kín đó khiến tặng phẩm họ trở nên bất toàn.

Lại có những kẻ sở hữu rất ít và đem cho cả.

Đấy là những kẻ tin tưởng vào đời sống và sự sung mãn của đời sống, và rương của họ chẳng bao giờ trống rỗng.

Có những kẻ hoan hỉ cho, và niềm hoan hỉ ấy là phần thưởng của họ.

Có những kẻ đau đớn cho, và nỗi đau đớn này là lễ rửa tội của họ.

Lại có những kẻ cho mà không biết đến đớn đau khi cho, cũng chẳng tìm kiếm niềm hoan hỉ, cũng chẳng cho với chủ tâm thi hành công đức.

Họ cho như dưới thung lũng xa kia cây đào kim nhưỡng thổi hương ngát vào không gian.

Qua bàn tay của những kẻ ấy Thượng Đến lên tiếng nói, và từ sau mắt họ Ngài mỉm miệng cười trên trần gian.

Cho khi người hỏi xin là một điều quý hóa, nhưng tốt hơn nên cho chẳng đợi xin, cho qua cảm thông;

Và đối với bàn tay mở rộng, sự tìm kiếm người nhận là một niềm vui lớn lao hơn cả sự cho.

Có vật gì các người nên giữ lại chăng?

Tất cả những gì các người có, một ngày kia sẽ phải cho đi.
Vậy hãy chọn ngay bây giờ, để mùa cho là của các người chứ chẳng phải của những kẻ thừa kế các người.

Các người thường nói:” Tôi sẽ cho, nhưng chỉ cho kẻ xứng đáng thôi.”

Cây cối trong vườn các người không nói thế, mà gia súc trong đồng các người cũng chẳng bảo vậy.

Chúng cho để có thể sống vì giữ lại là hư mất.

Chắc chắn những kẻ xứng đáng nhận những ngày với những đêm cho hắn, hẳn xứng đáng nhận mọi thứ khác nơi các người.

Và kẻ đã xứng đáng uống từ biển đời hẳn xứng đáng múc đầy chén hắn trong dòng suối nhỏ của các người.

Còn sa mạc nào lớn hơn sa mạc nằm trong lòng can trường và tin cậy, trong chính cả lòng từ thiện, của sự thu nhận?
Và các người là ai để người ta phải xé lòng, lột bỏ kiêu hãnh cho các người thấy giá trị họ trần truồng và lòng kiêu hãnh họ không bối rối?

Trước hết hãy tự gắng xứng làm một kẻ cho, và rồi một công cụ của sự cho.

Vì thực ra đó là đời sống cho đời sống trong khi các người tưởng mình là người cho lại chỉ là nhân chứng thôi.

Và hỡi những kẻ nhận_vì các người đều là kẻ nhận_chớ lãnh gánh nặng của sự ghi ơn nào, kẻo các người đặt ách lên chính bản thân và trên kẻ cho mình.

Tốt hơn hãy đứng cùng kẻ cho trên tặng phẩm hắn như trên đôi cánh;

Vì quá băn khoăn về món nợ tức là nghi ngờ lượng cả của kẻ cho có mẹ là lòng đất bao dung, có cha là Thượng Đế nhân từ.

On Eating and Drinking

Then an old man, a keeper of an inn, said, "Speak to us of Eating and Drinking."

And he said:

Would that you could live on the fragrance of the earth, and like an air plant be sustained by the light.

But since you must kill to eat, and rob the young of its mother's milk to quench your thirst, let it then be an act of worship,

And let your board stand an altar on which the pure and the innocent of forest and plain are sacrificed for that which is purer and still more innocent in many.

When you kill a beast say to him in your heart,

"By the same power that slays you, I to am slain; and I too shall be consumed.

For the law that delivered you into my hand shall deliver me into a mightier hand.

Your blood and my blood is naught but the sap that feeds the tree of heaven." And when you crush an apple with your teeth, say to it in your heart,

"Your seeds shall live in my body,

And the buds of your tomorrow shall blossom in my heart,
And your fragrance shall be my breath, And together we shall rejoice through all the seasons."

And in the autumn, when you gather the grapes of your vineyard for the winepress, say in you heart, "I too am a vineyard, and my fruit shall be gathered for the winepress,
And like new wine I shall be kept in eternal vessels."

And in winter, when you draw the wine, let there be in your heart a song for each cup;

And let there be in the song a remembrance for the autumn days, and for the vineyard, and for the winepress.

Về Ăn Uống

Rồi một cụ già, chủ một lữ quán cất tiếng: Xin người hãy cho chúng tôi nghe về ăn uống.

Và người nói:

Phải chi các người có thể sống bằng hương hoa của đất đai và như loài cây gió phù dưỡng bằng ánh sáng.

Nhưng vì các người phải giết để có ăn, và cướp sữa mẹ của trẻ sơ sinh để thoa dịu cơn khát mình, vậy hãy khiến nó trở thành một hành vi sùng bái.

Và hãy để bàn ăn các người dựng một bàn thờ trên đó cái tinh khiết và hiền lành của lâm tuyền và đồng nội cung hiến cho cái tinh khiết và còn hiền lành hơn trong con người.

Khi các người giết một con thú hãy nói thầm với nó;

* Bởi cùng một quyền năng, giết mi ta cũng sẽ bị giết; và chính ta cũng sẽ bị tiêu diệt.

Bởi luật giao người vào tay ta sẽ giao ta vào một bàn tay mạnh mẽ hơn nữa.

Máu mi và máu ta đều vô nghĩa nhưng là nhựa nuôi cây thiên đàng *

Và khi các người cắn một trái táo, hãy thầm nói với nó:

* Hạt của mi sẽ sống trong thân ta.
Và nụ của mi mai này sẽ trổ hoa trong lòng ta,
Và hương thơm của mi sẽ là hơi ta thở
Và cùng nhau ta sẽ vui sướng qua khắp mọi mùa.*

Và vào mùa Thu, khi các người hái nho trong vườn mình để đem đi ép, hãy thầm nhủ:

* Ta cũng là một vườn nho, và trái ta sẽ bị hái đem đi ép,
Và tựa rượu mới, ta sẽ được cất trong những bình vĩnh cửu*

Và vào mùa Đông, khi các người rót rượu nho, hãy hát trong lòng một bài ca cho mỗi ly;

Và hãy có trong bài ca sự hồi tưởng tới những ngày Thu qua, tới vườn nho, và tới máy ép nho.

On Work

Then a ploughman said, "Speak to us of Work."

And he answered, saying:

You work that you may keep pace with the earth and the soul of the earth.

For to be idle is to become a stranger unto the seasons, and to step out of life's procession, that marches in majesty and proud submission towards the infinite.

When you work you are a flute through whose heart the whispering of the hours turns to music.

Which of you would be a reed, dumb and silent, when all else sings together in unison?

Always you have been told that work is a curse and labour a misfortune.

But I say to you that when you work you fulfill a part of earth's furthest dream, assigned to you when that dream was born,

And in keeping yourself with labour you are in truth loving life,

And to love life through labour is to be intimate with life's inmost secret.

But if you in your pain call birth an affliction and the support of the flesh a curse written upon your brow, then I answer that naught but the sweat of your brow shall wash away that which is written.

You have been told also life is darkness, and in your weariness you echo what was said by the weary.

And I say that life is indeed darkness save when there is urge,

And all urge is blind save when there is knowledge,

And all knowledge is vain save when there is work,

And all work is empty save when there is love;

And when you work with love you bind yourself to yourself, and to one another, and to God.

And what is it to work with love?

It is to weave the cloth with threads drawn from your heart, even as if your beloved were to wear that cloth.

It is to build a house with affection, even as if your beloved were to dwell in that house.

It is to sow seeds with tenderness and reap the harvest with joy, even as if your beloved were to eat the fruit.

It is to charge all things you fashion with a breath of your own spirit,

And to know that all the blessed dead are standing about you and watching.

Often have I heard you say, as if speaking in sleep, "he who works in marble, and finds the shape of his own soul in the stone, is a nobler than he who ploughs the soil.

And he who seizes the rainbow to lay it on a cloth in the likeness of man, is more than he who makes the sandals for our feet."

But I say, not in sleep but in the over-wakefulness of noontide, that the wind speaks not more sweetly to the giant oaks than to the least of all the blades of grass;

And he alone is great who turns the voice of the wind into a song made sweeter by his own loving.

Work is love made visible.

And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.

For if you bake bread with indifference, you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half man's hunger.

And if you grudge the crushing of the grapes, your grudge distils a poison in the wine.

And if you sing though as angels, and love not the singing, you muffle man's ears to the voices of the day and the voices of the night.

Về Cần Lao

Rồi một người nông phu thưa: Xin người hãy nói về Cần Lao.

Và người đáp:

Các người làm việc để giữ nhịp cùng mặt đất và hồn đất.

Vì làm biếng là trở thành kẻ xa lạ với các mùa, và bước ra khỏi đám rước của đời sống đang diễn hành trong uy nghi và tuân phục kiêu hãnh về với vô cùng.

Khi làm việc các người là ống sáo mà qua lòng ống tiếng thầm thì của thời gian chuyển thành âm nhạc.

Ai trong các người muốn là ống sậy câm nín, trong khi mọi người đang cất tiếng đồng ca?

Luôn luôn các người nghe nói rằng công việc là một lời nguyền rủa và cần lao là một điều bất hạnh.

Nhưng ta nói với các người rằng khi làm việc các người chu toàn một phần giấc mơ sâu thẳm nhất của lòng đất, đã được giao cho các người từ khi giấc mơ mới ra đời.

Và tiếp tục cần lao là các người đang thực sự yêu đời.

Và yêu đời qua cần lao là thân mật với bí ẩn thâm sâu nhất của đời sống.

Nhưng nếu trong cơn lao khổ các người gọi sự sinh ra là phiền não và việc nuôi dưỡng thân xác là lời nguyền rủa ghi trên trán mình thì ta đáp rằng không, vì mồ hôi trán các người sẽ rửa sạch hết những gì đã ghi.

Các người cũng nghe nói rằng đời là đen tối và trong mỏi mệt các người lặp lại những điều đã thốt nên bởi kẻ nhọc nhằn.

Và ta nói rằng đời quả đen tối trừ khi có hứng khởi,

Và mọi hứng khởi đều đui mù trừ khi có tri thức,

Và mọi tri thức đều vô ích trừ khi có việc làm,

Và mọi việc làm đều rỗng tuếch trừ khi có tình yêu,

Và khi làm việc với tình yêu, các người đã ràng buộc mình với bản thân, với lẫn nhau và với Thượng Đế.

Và thế nào là làm việc với Tình Yêu?

Đó là dệt vải với tơ lòng, như thể người yêu dầu của các người sẽ được mặc tấm vải ấy.

Đó là xây nhà với âu yếm như thể người yêu dấu của các người sẽ ở trong ngôi nhà ấy.

Đó là gieo hạt với dịu dàng và gặt hái với niềm hân hoan, như thể người yêu dấu của các người sẽ ăn hoa trái ấy.

Đó là đặt mọi thứ các người nặn một hơi thở của chính linh hồn mình.

Và biết rằng tất cả những người chết an lành đang đứng quanh và canh chừng các người.

Ta thường nghe các người nói, như nói trong mơ: * Người khắc cẩm thạch đúc hồn mình trong phiến đá, thì cao sang hơn kẻ làm kẻ cầy cuốc đất đai.

Và kẻ thu nắm cầu vồng để đặt lên trên tấm vải họa chân dung người thi cao sang hơn dép chân ta đi.*

Nhưng ta nói, không phải trong giấc ngủ mà trong tỉnh táo giữa trưa, rằng gió không dịu giọng với cây sồi vĩ đại hơn với cây nhỏ bé nhất trong muôn ngọn cỏ chút nào.

Và chỉ cao cả, kẻ biến tiếng gió thành bài ca dịu ngọt hơn bằng chính tình yêu của mình.

Cần Lao là Tình Yêu biểu hiện.

Và nếu các người không thể làm việc với tình yêu mà chỉ với chán ghét thì tốt hơn nên rời bỏ công việc ra ngoài ngồi trước cửa đền thờ và nhận bố thí của những kẻ làm việc với hân hoan.

Vì nếu các người nướng bánh với lạnh nhạt thì các người đã nướng thứ bánh đắng cay chỉ nuôi được nửa cơn đói của con người.

Nếu các người miễn cưỡng ép nho, thì lòng thù hiềm của các người đã cất độc dược trong rượu đó.

Và dẫu các người hát như những thiên thần, mà không yêu ca hát , thì các người đã bịt tai con người trước những giọng của ngày và những giọng của đêm thâu.

On Joy & Sorrow

Then a woman said, "Speak to us of Joy and Sorrow."

And he answered:

Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.

And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.

And how else can it be?

The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.

Is not the cup that hold your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter's oven?

And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives?

When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.

When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.

Some of you say, "Joy is greater than sorrow," and others say, "Nay, sorrow is the greater."

But I say unto you, they are inseparable.

Together they come, and when one sits alone with you at your board, remember that the other is asleep upon your bed.

Verily you are suspended like scales between your sorrow and your joy.

Only when you are empty are you at standstill and balanced.

When the treasure-keeper lifts you to weigh his gold and his silver, needs must your joy or your sorrow rise or fall.

Về Buồn Vui

Kế đó một người đàn bà thưa: Xin hãy nói về Buồn Vui.

Và Người đáp:

Niềm vui các người là nỗi buồn lộ diện.

Và trong cùng một giếng khơi nơi trổi tiếng các người cười lại thường là nơi thánh thót lệ nhân gian.

Có thể khác thế được chăng?

Nỗi buồn thường sâu khắc vào con người các người bao nhiêu thì niềm vui các người chứa đựng càng đầy bấy nhiêu.

Há chẳng phải chén đựng rượu nho các người chính là cái chén đã bị nung trong lò gốm đó sao?

Và há chẳng phải đàn tỳ bà xoa dịu hồn các người, chính là khúc gỗ đã bị dao khoét đó sao?

Khi sung sướng hãy nhìn sâu vào lòng mình và các người sẽ thấy đó chỉ là điều đã gieo buồn rầu nay đem sung sướng lại cho các ngươi đó thôi.

Khi buồn rầu lại nhìn vào lòng mình, và các ngươi sẽ thấy thực ra các người đang khóc điều đã từng là nguồn hoan lạc của mình trước kia.

Có vài người nói, * Vui kia cao cả hơn Buồn, * nhưng những kẻ khác lại bảo,

* Không, Buồn này cao cả hơn Vui.*

Nhưng ta nói cùng các người, hai điều ấy chẳng thể phân ly.

Chúng cùng đến và khi điều này ngồi riêng với các người nơi bàn ăn, hãy nhớ rằng điều kia đang say ngủ trên giường các người.

Quả thực các người bị treo tựa những đĩa cân giữa Vui Buồn.

Chỉ khi nào thành trống không các người mới đứng lặng và cân bằng.

Khi kẻ giữ kho báu nhấc các người lên để cân vàng bạc hắn, thì Buồn Vui các người buộc phải lên hay là xuống.

On Houses

Then a mason came forth and said, "Speak to us of Houses."

And he answered and said:

Build of your imaginings a bower in the wilderness ere 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 larger 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 fragrance 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 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 then 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.

Về Nhà Củ’a

Khi ấy một người thợ hồ bước tới thưa: Xin dạy chúng tôi về Nhà Cửa.

Và Người đáp:

Hãy xây trong tưởng tượng một túp lều nơi hoang liêu trước khi các người cất nhà trong vòng tường thành.

Vì dù các người có những buổi trở lại nhà vào lúc hoàng hôn, thì các người cũng có trong các người kẻ lãng du muôn đời xa cách, muôn đời lẻ loi.

Nhà cửa của các người là thân xác lớn hơn của các người.

Nó sống trong ánh sáng mặt trời và ngủ trong cõi tịch mịch của đêm thâu và chẳng phải là không biết mộng mơ. Nhà các người há không mơ hay sao? Và trong mơ, nó có rời thành phố để đến rừng cây hoặc đỉnh đồi?

Phải chi ta có thể thâu tóm các người vào trong tay và tựa người gieo hạt, giãi chúng trong rừng và trên đồng cỏ xanh.

Phải chi những thung lũng là đường phố và những lối mòn xanh xanh là ngõ hẻm để các người được tìm nhau qua những vườn nho, và đến với hương nồng của đất đai tẩm trong y phục.

Nhưng chưa thể được.

Trong sợ hãi, tổ tiên của các người đã tụ họp lại gần nhau quá. Và nỗi sợ hãi nầy sẽ còn tồn tại ít lâu nữa. Ít lâu nữa những tường thành sẽ còn chia cách nhà các người với những cánh đồng.

Hãy nói cùng ta, hỡi dân thành Orphalese, các người có gì trong những căn nhà đó? Và các người đóng chặt cửa canh giữ những gì vậy?

Các người có bình yên, sự thúc bách thầm kín bộc lộ quyền năng các người chăng?

Các người có ký ức, những vòm mờ ảo có bắc ngang những tuyệt đỉnh tâm hồn?

Các người có cái đẹp, điều hướng dẫn tâm hồn từ những tạo vật bằng gỗ đá đến thiên sơn?

Hãy nói cùng ta, các người có những thứ ấy trong nhà mình chăng?

Hay là các người chỉ có tiện nghi, và lòng khao khát tiện nghi, tên gian phi đó bước vào nhà như một vị khách, rồi biến thành chủ, và rồi ông thầy?

Thực vậy, hắn trở nên một kẻ dạy thú, và với móc cùng roi sẽ biến những ước vọng lớn của các người thành hình nộm.

Dẫu tay hắn mềm như nhung lụa, nhưng tim hắn tựa sắt đá.

Hắn ru các người ngủ chỉ để đứng bên giường và nhạo báng sự cao sang của xác thịt.

Hắn chế diễu giác quan vững mạnh của các người, và đặt chúng trong bông gòn tựa những chiếc bình mong manh.

Quả thực lòng ham muốn tiện nghi mưu sát những đam mê của tâm hồn, để rồi nhe răng cười khi đưa đám ma đi.

Nhưng các người, những đứa con của không gian, hiếu động trong ngơi nghỉ, các người sẽ không bị mắc bẫy hay thuần hóa.

Nhà các người không phải một mỏ neo mà là một cột buồm.

Nó sẽ không là lớp màng lóng lánh che vết thương, mà chính làmột làn mi bảo vệ mắt.

Các người sẽ không phải khép cánh để đi lọt cửa vào, không phải cúi đầu để khỏi đụng trần nhà cũng không phải nén hơi thở e vách nứt tường xiêu.

Các người sẽ không trú ngụ trong những nấm mồ do người chết xây cho người sống.

Và mặc dù huy hoàng tráng lệ, nhà cửa các người sẽ không giữ bí mật hay che chở khát vọng các người.

Bởi vì những gì là vô biên trong các người thường trụ tại đỉnh trời, nơi cửa ra vào là sương mai, những khuôn cửa sổ là những khúc ca và những im vắng của đêm sâu.

On Clothes

And the weaver said, "Speak to us of Clothes."

And he answered:

Your clothes conceal much of your beauty, yet they hide not the unbeautiful.

And though you seek in garments the freedom of privacy you may find in them a harness and a chain.

Would that you could meet the sun and the wind with more of your skin and less of your raiment,

For the breath of life is in the sunlight and the hand of life is in the wind.

Some of you say, "It is the north wind who has woven the clothes to wear."

But shame was his loom, and the softening of the sinews was his thread.

And when his work was done he laughed in the forest.

Forget not that modesty is for a shield against the eye of the unclean.

And when the unclean shall be no more, what were modesty but a fetter and a fouling of the mind?

And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.

Về Quần Áo

Và người thợ dệt thưa: Xin hãy nói về Áo Quần.

Và người đáp:

Quần áo che đậy nhiều vẻ đẹp của các ngươi, nhưng không che dấu nổi cái chẳng được đẹp.

Và tuy muốn tìm trong y phục sự tự do riêng tư, các người sẽ thấy nơi chúng yên cương và xiềng xích.

Phải chi da thịt các người được tiếp xúc với nắng gió nhiều hơn với quần áo.

Vì hơi thở của đời ở trong nắng và tay đời nằm trong gió.

Vài kẻ trong bọn người nói: * Gió bấc dệt nên quần áo ta mặc.*

Còn ta bảo, * Phải, chính gió bấc đấy,

Nhưng nhục nhã là khung cửi hắn, và nhu nhược của những đường gân là tơ sợi hắn.

Và khi việc đã xong, hắn cười vang trong rừng.

Chớ quên khiêm tốn là tấm mộc ngăn mắt kẻ ô trọc.

Và khi kẻ ô trọc không còn nữa, thì khiêm tốn là gì, phải chăng cái còng và sự đồi bại của tâm hồn?

Và chớ quên rằng đất sung sướng đón chân trần các người và gió khao khát được đùa cùng tóc các người.

On Buying & Selling

And a merchant said, "Speak to us of Buying and Selling."

And he answered and said:

To you the earth yields her fruit, and you shall not want if you but know how to fill your hands.

It is in exchanging the gifts of the earth that you shall find abundance and be satisfied.

Yet unless the exchange be in love and kindly justice, it will but lead some to greed and others to hunger.

When in the market place you toilers of the sea and fields and vineyards meet the weavers and the potters and the gatherers of spices,

Invoke then the master spirit of the earth, to come into your midst and sanctify the scales and the reckoning that weighs value against value.

And suffer not the barren-handed to take part in your transactions, who would sell their words for your labour.

To such men you should say,

"Come with us to the field, or go with our brothers to the sea and cast your net; For the land and the sea shall be bountiful to you even as to us."

And if there come the singers and the dancers and the flute players, - buy of their gifts also.

For they too are gatherers of fruit and frankincense, and that which they bring, though fashioned of dreams, is raiment and food for your soul.

And before you leave the marketplace, see that no one has gone his way with empty hands.

For the master spirit of the earth shall not sleep peacefully upon the wind till the needs of the least of you are satisfied.

Về Mua Bán

Rồi một thương gia thưa: Xin hãy nói về Mua Bán.

Và người đáp:

Mặt đất hiến hoa quả mình cho các người, và các người sẽ chẳng thiếu thốn nếu biết chứa đầy tay.

Nhờ trao đổi tặng phẩm của đất các người sẽ thấy sung túc và toại nguyện.

Tuy nhiên nếu không trao đổi trong thương yêu và công bằng tự nhiên, nó sẽ đưa một số người tới tham lam và những kẻ khác tới đói khát.

Ở giữa chợ kẻ nhọc nhằn trên biển, ngoài đồng và trong vườn nho gặp người thợ dệt, thợ làm đồ gốm và những người gặt hái hương liệu.

Khi ấy hãy mời gọi thổ thần đến giữa các người để thánh hóa các cán cân và sự thương lượng và những thứ đo lường giá trị.

Và chớ để kẻ trắng tay dự phần trong việc trao đổi giữa các người, chúng là những kẻ bán nước miếng đổi lấy công khó của các người.

Với những kẻ ấy các người hãy nói:

* Hãy theo chúng tôi ra đồng, hay đi cùng anh em chúng tôi ra khơi mà kéo lưới các người;

Vì đất và biển sẽ rộng rãi với các người hệt như với chúng tôi.*

Nếu những người ca sĩ, vũ công và những người thổi sáo có tới, hãy mua tặng phẩm của họ.

Vì họ cũng là những kẻ hái hoa quả và nhũ hương, và những thứ họ mang lại, dẫu là bằng mộng mơ, cũng chính là y phục và thực phẩm cho tâm hồn các ngươi.

Và trước khi rời chợ, hãy trông chừng đừng để ai ra về tay không.

Và thổ thần sẽ chẳng thể ngủ yên trong gió cho tới khi nhu cầu của kẻ hèn mọn nhất trong các người đã được thỏa nguyện.

On Crime & Punishment

Then one of the judges of the city stood forth and said, "Speak to us of Crime and Punishment."

And he answered saying:

It is when your spirit goes wandering upon the wind,

That you, alone and unguarded, commit a wrong unto others and therefore unto yourself.

And for that wrong committed must you knock and wait a while unheeded at the gate of the blessed.

Like the ocean is your god-self;

It remains for ever undefiled.

And like the ether it lifts but the winged.

Even like the sun is your god-self;

It knows not the ways of the mole nor seeks it the holes of the serpent.

But your god-self does not dwell alone in your being.

Much in you is still man, and much in you is not yet man,

But a shapeless pigmy that walks asleep in the mist searching for its own awakening.

And of the man in you would I now speak.

For it is he and not your god-self nor the pigmy in the mist, that knows crime and the punishment of crime.

Oftentimes have I heard you speak of one who commits a wrong as though he were not one of you, but a stranger unto you and an intruder upon your world.

But I say that even as the holy and the righteous cannot rise beyond the highest which is in each one of you,

So the wicked and the weak cannot fall lower than the lowest which is in you also.

And as a single leaf turns not yellow but with the silent knowledge of the whole tree,

So the wrong-doer cannot do wrong without the hidden will of you all.

Like a procession you walk together towards your god-self.

You are the way and the wayfarers.

And when one of you falls down he falls for those behind him, a caution against the stumbling stone.

Ay, and he falls for those ahead of him, who though faster and surer of foot, yet removed not the stumbling stone.

And this also, though the word lie heavy upon your hearts:

The murdered is not unaccountable for his own murder,

And the robbed is not blameless in being robbed.

The righteous is not innocent of the deeds of the wicked,

And the white-handed is not clean in the doings of the felon.

Yea, the guilty is oftentimes the victim of the injured,

And still more often the condemned is the burden-bearer for the guiltless and unblamed.

You cannot separate the just from the unjust and the good from the wicked;

For they stand together before the face of the sun even as the black thread and the white are woven together.

And when the black thread breaks, the weaver shall look into the whole cloth, and he shall examine the loom also.

If any of you would bring judgment the unfaithful wife,

Let him also weight the heart of her husband in scales, and measure his soul with measurements.

And let him who would lash the offender look unto the spirit of the offended.

And if any of you would punish in the name of righteousness and lay the ax unto the evil tree, let him see to its roots;

And verily he will find the roots of the good and the bad, the fruitful and the fruitless, all entwined together in the silent heart of the earth.

And you judges who would be just,

What judgment pronounce you upon him who though honest in the flesh yet is a thief in spirit?

What penalty lay you upon him who slays in the flesh yet is himself slain in the spirit?

And how prosecute you him who in action is a deceiver and an oppressor,

Yet who also is aggrieved and outraged?

And how shall you punish those whose remorse is already greater than their misdeeds?

Is not remorse the justice which is administered by that very law which you would fain serve?

Yet you cannot lay remorse upon the innocent nor lift it from the heart of the guilty.

Unbidden shall it call in the night, that men may wake and gaze upon themselves.

And you who would understand justice, how shall you unless you look upon all deeds in the fullness of light?

Only then shall you know that the erect and the fallen are but one man standing in twilight between the night of his pigmy-self and the day of his god-self,

And that the corner-stone of the temple is not higher than the lowest stone in its foundation.

Về Tội Ác và Hình Phạt

Rồi một phán quan của thành phố bước tới thưa: Xin dạy cho chúng tôi về Tội Ác và Hình Phạt.

Và người đáp:

Khi linh hồn các người phiêu du theo gió,

Thì các người, lẻ loi và buông lung, phạm điều chẳng phải với những kẻ khác và do đó với chính mình.

Và vì lỗi đã phạm ấy các người phải gõ và đợi chờ giây lâu chẳng ai ngó ngàng trước cửa những kẻ được phước lành.

Thần ngã các người tựa đại dương;

Muôn đời còn tinh khiết,

Và tựa vòm trời nó chỉ nâng những gì tháp cánh.

Thần ngã các người còn tựa vầng thái dương;

Chẳng biết đến ngõ ngách chuột bọ, cũng chẳng tìm trong hang hốc rắn.

Nhưng thần ngã ấy chẳng ở một mình trong tâm thể các người.

Phần lớn trong các người còn là người, và phần lớn trong các người chưa hẳn đã là người.

Nhưng là một tên chim chích vô hình dạng, mộng du trong sương mù tìm kiếm sự thức tỉnh của chính mình.

Và giờ đây về con người trong các người ta lên tiếng nói.

Vì chính hắn chứ không phải thần ngã các người, cũng không phải tên chim chích trong sương mù, mới là kẻ biết tội ác và hình phạt của tội ác.

Luôn luôn ta nghe các người nói về một kẻ phạm lỗi như thể hắn không phải là một kẻ trong các người mà là một kẻ xa lạ đối với các người, một kẻ len lỏi vào thế giới các người.

Nhưng ta bảo rằng ngay kẻ thánh thiện và kẻ công chính cũng không thể vươn lên quá mức cao nhất trong mỗi người,

Cũng thế kẻ tàn độc và yếu đuối cũng chẳng thể sa xuống thấp hơn mức thấp nhất cũng có sẵn trong các người nữa.

Và như một phiến lá đơn chẳng nhuộm vàng nếu không có sự thầm hiểu của toàn cây,

Cũng thế kẻ lỗi lầm chẳng thể lầm lỗi nếu không có ý muốn thầm kín của tất cả các người.

Tựa một đám rước các người cùng hướng về thần ngã mình.
Các người là đưoờng đi và là kẻ đi đường.

Và khi một người trong bọn quỵ xuống hắn đã ngã hộ kẻ đi sau, một lời cảnh cáo trước hòn đá nhô.

Phải, và hắn còn ngã hộ những kẻ đi trước nữa, là những người chân dù bước nhanh và vững vàng hơn, lại chẳng dọn hòn đá nhấp nhô.

Còn điều này nữa dẫu lời nói đè nặng lòng các người:

Kẻ bị sát hại chẳng phải không có trách nhiệm đối với người giết mình,

Và kẻ bị cướp chẳng phải không đáng trách khi bị cướp,

Kẻ công chính chẳng vô tội trước hành vi của kẻ xấu xa,

Và người trắng tay, tay lại không sạch trước việc làm của kẻ phạm tội,

Phải, kẻ tội lỗi thường là nạn nhân của kẻ bị xúc phạm,

Và thường hơn nữa kẻ bị kết án lại là kẻ mang gánh nặng cho kẻ vô tội và không bị mắng nhiếc.

Các người không thể tách rời người công chính ra khỏi kẻ bất chính, người lương thiện ra khỏi kẻ ác độc;

Bởi họ đứng cùng nhau trước ánh mặt trời như sợi đen và sợi trắng dệt chung trong một tấm vải.

Và khi những sợi đen đứt, người thợ dệt phải xem cả tấm vải và soát lại cả khung cửi nữa.

Nếu kẻ nào trong các ngươi muốn đem xét xử người vợ chẳng chung tình,

Thì hãy để kẻ ấy đem cân trái tim người chồng, và đo lường tâm hồn y nữa.

Và để ai muốn đánh mắng kẻ sỉ nhục người hãy nhìn vào linh hồn kẻ bị sỉ nhục.

Và nếu kẻ nào trong các ngươi muốn nhân danh công chính để trừng phạt và bổ rìu vào cây ác, hãy nhìn gốc rễ cây;

Quả thật hắn sẽ thấy rễ của thiện và ác, rễ cây sai trái và cây đưng, quấn quít vào nhau trong lòng đất lặng câm,

Và hỡi những phán quan, những kẻ phải công chính,

Các người sẽ tuyên án gì cho người dầu lương thiện trong thân xác nhưng trộm cắp trong tinh thần?

Các người sẽ đặt hình phạt nào cho kẻ giết người trong thân xác nhưng lại chính là người bị giết trong tinh thần?

Và các người truy tố thế nào kẻ là một tên lường gạt và áp bức trong hành động,

Nhưng cũng chính là kẻ bị đời làm cho khổ đau và sỉ nhục đến điều?

Và các người sẽ trừng phạt thế nào những người mà lòng hối hận đã lớn hơn cả lỗi lầm?

Há không phải hối hận là công lý bắt nguồn từ chính luật lệ các người sẵn lòng phục vụ đó sao?

Tuy nhiên các người chẳng thể đặt niềm hối hận lên kẻ vô tội cũng chẳng thể nhắc nó ra khỏi lòng người tội lỗi,

Không bắt buộc nó sẽ lên tiếng trong đêm và người ta tỉnh thức đăm đăm nhìn mình.

Và các người, những kẻ hiểu chân lý, các người làm sao hiểu nếu không nhìn mọi hành vi trong ánh sáng chan hòa?

Chỉ khi đó các người mới hiểu rằng kẻ đứng vững và kẻ quỵ ngã chỉ là một người đứng trong hoàng hôn giữa đêm của bản ngã chim chích và ngày của thần ngã.

Và hiểu rằng phiến đá trụ đền thờ không cao hơn viên đá thấp nhất dưới móng.

On Laws

Then a lawyer said, "But what of our Laws, master?"

And he answered:

You delight in laying down laws,

Yet you delight more in breaking them.

Like children playing by the ocean who build sand-towers with constancy and then destroy them with laughter.

But while you build your sand-towers the ocean brings more sand to the shore,

And when you destroy them, the ocean laughs with you.

Verily the ocean laughs always with the innocent.

But what of those to whom life is not an ocean, and man-made laws are not sand-towers,

But to whom life is a rock, and the law a chisel with which they would carve it in their own likeness?

What of the cripple who hates dancers?

What of the ox who loves his yoke and deems the elk and deer of the forest stray and vagrant things?

What of the old serpent who cannot shed his skin, and calls all others naked and shameless?

And of him who comes early to the wedding-feast, and when over-fed and tired goes his way saying that all feasts are violation and all feasters law-breakers?

What shall I say of these save that they too stand in the sunlight, but with their backs to the sun?

They see only their shadows, and their shadows are their laws.

And what is the sun to them but a caster of shadows?

And what is it to acknowledge the laws but to stoop down and trace their shadows upon the earth?

But you who walk facing the sun, what images drawn on the earth can hold you?

You who travel with the wind, what weathervane shall direct your course?

What man's law shall bind you if you break your yoke but upon no man's prison door?

What laws shall you fear if you dance but stumble against no man's iron chains?

And who is he that shall bring you to judgment if you tear off your garment yet leave it in no man's path?

People of Orphalese, you can muffle the drum, and you can loosen the strings of the lyre, but who shall command the skylark not to sing?

Về Luật Lệ

Rồi một luật sư nói: Nhưng còn luật lệ của chúng tôi thì sao, thưa thầy?

Và người đáp:

Các người thích thú đặt ra luật lệ,

Nhưng các người còn thích thú hơn khi phá chúng,

Như con trẻ chơi cạnh đại dương xây những lâu đài cát với nhẫn nại để rồi phá
nát với tiếng cười,

Nhưng trong khi các người xây lâu đài cát thì, đại dương bồi thêm cát vào bờ,

Và khi các người phá chúng đại dương cười với các người,

Quả thật đại dương luôn luôn cười cùng kẻ hồn nhiên vô tội.

Nhưng với những kẻ mà đời chẳng phải là một đại dương, và những luật lệ con người đặt ra chẳng phải là những lâu đài cát,

Mà đối với họ đời là một tảng đá, và luật lệ là một cái đục họ dùng để đẽo khắc
theo hình tượng mình thì sao?

Và với kẻ tàn tật thù hận những người nhảy múa?

Và với con bò yêu ách của mình và cho hươu nai trong rừng là những con thú lạc bầy lang thang?

Và với con rắn già không thể lột da, cho mọi con rắn khác là trần truồng và vô sỉ?

Và còn với kẻ đến sớm dự tiệc cưới, khi đã no say mỏi mệt ra về, nói rắng mọi yến tiệc đều phạm pháp và mọi kẻ dự tiệc đều là những kẻ phá hoại luật?

Ta biết nói gì cùng những kẻ đó ngoại trừ họ cũng đứng trong nắng, nhưng quay lưng lại với mặt trời?

Họ chỉ thấy bóng họ và bóng họ là luật lệ của họ,

Mặt trời đối với họ là gì nếu không phải chỉ là vật phóng ra bóng tối?

Và thừa nhận luật lệ là gì nếu không phải chỉ là cúi mình và vạch bóng hình mình trên mặt đất?

Nhưng các người, những kẻ bước tới đối diện mặt trời, có hình in trên đất nào lại giữ nổi các người không?

Các người, những kẻ phiêu du cùng gió, có chong chóng xem chiều nào hướng dẫn nổi lối người đi?

Có luật do người đặt ra nào ràng buộc được các người nếu các người đập vỡ ách mình nhưng không trên cửa tù người?

Có luật lệ nào các người sợ nếu các người nhảy múa nhưng không đụng chạm xích sắt người?

Và ai sẽ đem các người ra xét xử nếu các người xé bỏ quần áo mình nhưng không vương trên lối đi người khác?

Hỡi dân thành Orphalese, các người có thể bịt trống không cho kêu, và các người có thể làm trùng dây đàn thất huyền, nhưng ai có thể cấm con chim sơn ca không được hót?

On Freedom

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.

Về Tụ’ Do

Và một diễn giả lên tiếng: Xin hãy nói với chúng tôi về Tự Do.

Và người đáp:

Ở cổng thành và bên lò sưởi ta thấy các người quỳ gối và thờ phụng tự do của chính mình,

Như thể những nô lệ tự hạ mình trước bạo chúa và ca ngợi hắn, dù hắn giết họ.

Phải, trong rừng, tại đền thờ và trong bóng cung thành, ta đã từng thấy những kẻ tự do nhất trong bọn các người đeo tự do mình như một cái ách và một cái còng.

Và tim ta ngầm rỉ máu trong ta; vì các người chỉ có thể tư do khi ngay cả nỗi khát khao tìm kiếm tự do cũng trở thành yên cương đối với các người, và khi các người ngừng nói tới tự do như một mục tiêu và như một viên thành.

Các người sẽ thực sự tự do khi ngày không còn là một nỗi âu lo, cũng như đêm không còn thiếu thốn và phiền muộn.

Nhưng tốt hơn khi những điều ấy trói đời mình, các người vẫn vươn lên cao hơn chúng, trần truồng và không buộc ràng.

Làm sao các người vươn lên khỏi ngày và đêm mình trừ khi đập vỡ xiềng xích mà chính trong buổi bình minh của hiểu biết các người đã quấn chặt quanh giờ ngọ của mình?

Thật ra cái các người gọi là tự do chính là giây chắc nhất trong những xiềng xích ấy, dẫu những khoen của nó lấp lánh dưới nắng và làm lóa mắt các người.

Và đó chẳng phải những mảnh của chính bản thân các người phải liệng đi hầu trở nên tự do ư?

Nếu đó là một luật bất công phải hủy bỏ, luật ấy do chính bàn tay các người đã tự ghi lên vầng trán.

Các người chẳng thể tẩy xóa luật ấy bằng cách đốt sách luật của các người hay rửa sạch trán những phán quan mình, dầu các người có đổ cả đại dương lên họ.

Nếu đó là một bạo chúa phải truất phế, trước hết hãy phá hủy ngai vàng của hắn dựng trong các người.

Vì làm sao một kẻ bạo chúa có thể cai trị người tự do, người kiêu hãnh, nếu chẳng phải vì bạo quyền trong chính tự do và ô nhục trong chính lòng kiêu hãnh của họ?

Và nếu đó là mối âu lo phải bỏ đi, âu lo đó do các người đã tự chọn cho mình hơn do ai cưỡng đặt lên cho,

Và nếu đó là mối sợ hãi phải đánh tan, chỗ ngự trị của sợ hãi đó ở trong lòng các người chứ chẳng phải trong tay kẻ sợ.

Quả thật, mọi sự di động trong con người các người với vòng ôm vĩnh viễn nửa vời, điều khát khao và kinh sợ, điều ghê tởm và trìu mến, điều các người theo đuổi và điều các người muốn đào thoát.

Những điều này di động trong các người như ánh sáng và bóng tối đi thành từng đôi quấn quít.

Và khi bóng tối nhạt nhòa rồi tan biến, ánh sáng còn nán lại sẽ trở thành bóng tối cho một ánh sáng khác.

Cũng vậy, tự do các người khi tuột khỏi những chiếc còng, sẽ trở thành còng xích của một tự do lớn lao hơn.

On Reason & Passion

And the priestess spoke again and said:

"Speak to us of Reason and Passion."

And he answered saying:

Your soul is oftentimes a battlefield, upon which your reason and your judgment wage war against passion and your appetite.

Would that I could be the peacemaker in your soul, that I might turn the discord and the rivalry of your elements into oneness and melody.

But how shall I, unless you yourselves be also the peacemakers, nay, the lovers of all your elements?

Your reason and your passion are the rudder and the sails of your seafaring soul.

If either your sails or our rudder be broken, you can but toss and drift, or else be held at a standstill in mid-seas.

For reason, ruling alone, is a force confining; and passion, unattended, is a flame that burns to its own destruction.

Therefore let your soul exalt your reason to the height of passion; that it may sing;

And let it direct your passion with reason, that your passion may live through its own daily resurrection, and like the phoenix rise above its own ashes.

I would have you consider your judgment and your appetite even as you would two loved guests in your house.

Surely you would not honour one guest above the other; for he who is more mindful of one loses the love and the faith of both.

Among the hills, when you sit in the cool shade of the white poplars, sharing the peace and serenity of distant fields and meadows - then let your heart say in silence, "God rests in reason."

And when the storm comes, and the mighty wind shakes the forest, and thunder and lightning proclaim the majesty of the sky, - then let your heart say in awe, "God moves in passion."

And since you are a breath In God's sphere, and a leaf in God's forest, you too should rest in reason and move in passion.

Về Lý Trí và Đam Mê

Và người nữ tư tế lại cất tiếng nói: Xin hãy dạy chúng tôi về Lý Trí và Đam Mê.

Và người nói:

Tâm hồn các người thường là một bãi chiến trường, trên đó lý trí và phán đoán mở cuộc giao tranh cùng đam mê và khát vọng.

Phải chi ta là kẻ hòa giải trong tâm hồn các người, thì ta sẽ có thể đổi bất hòa và đối kháng giữa những yếu tố thành nhất thể và hòa điệu.

Nhưng làm sao ta có thể, trừ khi chính các người cũng là những kẻ hòa giải, hay đúng hơn, những người yêu của mọi yếu tố mình?

Lý trí và đam mê là bánh lái và những cánh buồm cho tâm hồn vượt trùng dương của các người.

Nếu những cánh buồm hay bánh lái rách nát, các người chỉ có thể lắc lư hay trôi dạt, hay đứng im giữa biển khơi.

Vì lý trí, độc trị, là một quyền năng hạn chế; và đam mê, không được cai quản, là một ngọn lửa tự hỏa thiêu.

Vậy hãy để tâm hồn các người xiển dương lý trí tới đỉnh cao của đam mê, để có thể lên tiếng hát;

Và hãy để nó hướng dẫn đam mê các người bằng lý trí, khiến đam mê đó có thể trường tồn qua sự phục sinh thường nhật của chính mình, tựa con phượng hoàng trỗi dậy trên đám tro tàn của nó.

Ta muốn các người coi phán đoán và khát vọng các người như hai thượng khách trong nhà.

Chắc chắn các người sẽ không tôn kính người khách này hơn người kia, vì ai lưu tâm đến một người sẽ mất tình yêu và lòng tin của cả hai.

Giữa núi đồi, khi các người ngồi trong bóng mát những cây bạch dương, chung hưởng êm đềm và thanh thản với những đồng ruộng xa xa – hãy để lòng mình nói trong thầm lặng: * Thượng Đế an nghỉ trong lý trí.*

Và khi giông bão tới, cuồng phong lay động rừng cây, sấm chớp tuyên dương oai nghi của trời, - hãy để lòng các người nói trong kinh sợ * Thượng Đế chuyển động trong đam mê.*

Và vì các người là một hơi thở trong tinh cầu Thượng Đế, một chiếc lá trong rừng Ngài, các người nữa cũng sẽ an nghỉ trong lý trí và chuyển động trong đam mê.

On Pain

And a woman spoke, saying, "Tell us of Pain."

And he said:

Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.

Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that its heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain.

And could you keep your heart in wonder at the daily miracles of your life, your pain would not seem less wondrous than your joy;

And you would accept the seasons of your heart, even as you have always accepted the seasons that pass over your fields.

And you would watch with serenity through the winters of your grief.

Much of your pain is self-chosen.

It is the bitter potion by which the physician within you heals your sick self.

Therefore trust the physician, and drink his remedy in silence and tranquility:

For his hand, though heavy and hard, is guided by the tender hand of the Unseen,

And the cup he brings, though it burn your lips, has been fashioned of the clay which the Potter has moistened with His own sacred tears.

Về Đớn Đau

Và một người đàn bà thưa: Xin hãy nói với chúng con về nỗi Đớn Đau.

Và người đáp:

Đau đớn là sự đập vỡ lớp vỏ bao bọc hiểu biết của các người.

Như hạt phải vỡ để nhân được phơi ra ngoài nắng, do đó các người cũng phải biết tới đau đớn.

Và nếu các người có thể duy trì lòng kinh ngạc trước những phép màu thường nhật của đời mình, đau đớn sẽ không kém vẻ kỳ diệu so với hân hoan;

Và các ngưòi sẽ chấp nhận những mùa của tâm hồn các người như các người vẫn hằng chấp nhận các mùa qua trên đồng mình.

Và các người sẽ thanh thản ngắm suốt những mùa Đông của phiền não mình.

Phần lớn những nỗi đau đớn của các người do tự chọn.

Đó là phương thuốc đắng mà vị lương y trong các người trị khỏi tự ngã đau yếu của các người.

Do đó hãy tin cậy vị lương y, và uống thuốc của ông ta trong lặng lẽ và điềm tĩnh.

Vì tay ông ta dẫu nặng nề và cứng rắn, đã được hướng dẫn bởi bàn tay dịu dàng của Đấng Vô Hình.

Và chén ông ta mang tới, dẫu làm bỏng môi các người, đã được làm bằng đất sét mà Tạo Hóa đã thấm ướt bằng chính những giọt lệ thiêng của Ngài.

On Self-Knowledge

And a man said, "Speak to us of Self-Knowledge."

And he answered, saying:

Your hearts know in silence the secrets of the days and the nights.

But your ears thirst for the sound of your heart's knowledge.

You would know in words that which you have always know in thought.

You would touch with your fingers the naked body of your dreams.

And it is well you should.

The hidden well-spring of your soul must needs rise and run murmuring to the sea;

And the treasure of your infinite depths would be revealed to your eyes.

But let there be no scales to weigh your unknown treasure;

And seek not the depths of your knowledge with staff or sounding line.

For self is a sea boundless and measureless.

Say not, "I have found the truth," but rather, "I have found a truth."

Say not, "I have found the path of the soul." Say rather, "I have met the soul walking upon my path."

For the soul walks upon all paths.

The soul walks not upon a line, neither does it grow like a reed.

The soul unfolds itself, like a lotus of countless petals.

Về Tụ’ Thú’c

Và một người đàn ông nói: Xin hãy dạy chúng tôi về lòng tự tri.

Và người đáp:

Tâm hồn các người thầm hiểu những bí ẩn của ngày và đêm.

Nhưng tai các người khát khao thanh âm của tâm thức.

Các người muốn biết bằng ngôn từ những điều mình vẫn luôn luôn biết trong tâm tưởng.

Các người muốn sờ mó bằng tay thân xác trần truồng của những giấc mơ mình.

Và điều đó nên lắm thay!

Nguồn nước ẩn dạt dào của tâm hồn các người cần phải dâng cao và róc rách chảy ra khơi;

Và kho tàng của chiều sâu vô cùng tận của các người phải nên lộ ra trước mắt
các người.

Nhưng chớ dùng cân nào đo lường kho tàng chưa biết của mình;

Và chớ tìm đáy sâu kiến thức các người bằng gậy gộc hay dây dọi đấy.

Vì tự ngã là một đại dương vô biên và vô lượng.

Đừng nói *Tôi đã tìm thấy chân lý* mà nên bảo: * Tôi đã tìm ra một sự thật*

Đừng nói * Tôi đã tìm ra nẻo linh hồn* mà nên bảo:

Tôi đã gặp linh hồn đi trên đường tôi.

Vì linh hồn đi trên khắp nẻo đường.

Linh hồn chẳng đi trên một đường thẳng, cũng chẳng mọc như một cây sậy.

Linh hồn tự phô ra, như một đóa sen vô lượng cánh.

On Teaching

Then said a teacher, "Speak to us of Teaching."

And he said:

No man can reveal to you aught but that which already lies half asleep in the dawning of our knowledge.

The teacher who walks in the shadow of the temple, among his followers, gives not of his wisdom but rather of his faith and his lovingness.

If he is indeed wise he does not bid you enter the house of wisdom, but rather leads you to the threshold of your own mind.

The astronomer may speak to you of his understanding of space, but he cannot give you his understanding.

The musician may sing to you of the rhythm which is in all space, but he cannot give you the ear which arrests the rhythm nor the voice that echoes it.

And he who is versed in the science of numbers can tell of the regions of weight and measure, but he cannot conduct you thither.

For the vision of one man lends not its wings to another man.

And even as each one of you stands alone in God's knowledge, so must each one of you be alone in his knowledge of God and in his understanding of the earth.

Về Sụ’ Dạy Dỗ

Rồi một nhà giáo thưa: Xin người hãy nói với tôi về Giáo Huấn

Và người nói:

Không người nào có thể phát lộ cho các người điều gì ngoài những điều đã nửa thức nửa ngủ trong bình minh của tri thức các người.

Vị tôn sư đi trong bóng miếu đường, giữa đám môn đồ, chỉ ban cho lòng tin và yêu thương hơn là sự khôn ngoan của người.

Nếu thực khôn ngoan, người sẽ không buộc các người bước vào tòa nhà của minh triết người, mà dẫn các người tới thềm của chính tâm trí các người.

Nhà thiên văn học có thể nói với các người sự hiểu biết về không gian của ông ta, nhưng không thể cho các người hiểu biết ấy.

Người nhạc sĩ có thể hát cho các người tiết tấu tràn ngập không gian nhưng không thể cho các người tai cầm giữ cũng như giọng điệu vọng lại tiết tấu ấy.

Và người thạo khoa số học có thể nói với các người về những lãnh vực của trọng lượng và đo lường, nhưng không thể dẫn các người tới đó.

Và thị kiến người này không thể cho người khác mượn đôi cánh mình.

Và vì mỗi người trong các người đứng cô độc trong tri thức của Thượng Đế, nên mỗi người cũng phải cô đơn trong tri thức của mình về Thượng Đế và trong hiểu biết của người về trần thế.

On Friendship

And a youth said, "Speak to us of Friendship."

Your friend is your needs answered.

He is your field which you sow with love and reap with thanksgiving.

And he is your board and your fireside.

For you come to him with your hunger, and you seek him for peace.

When your friend speaks his mind you fear not the "nay" in your own mind, nor do you withhold the "ay."

And when he is silent your heart ceases not to listen to his heart;

For without words, in friendship, all thoughts, all desires, all expectations are born and shared, with joy that is unacclaimed.

When you part from your friend, you grieve not;

For that which you love most in him may be clearer in his absence, as the mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain.

And let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.

For love that seeks aught but the disclosure of its own mystery is not love but a net cast forth: and only the unprofitable is caught.

And let your best be for your friend.

If he must know the ebb of your tide, let him know its flood also.

For what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill?

Seek him always with hours to live.

For it is his to fill your need, but not your emptiness.

And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures.

For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.

Về Tình Bằng Hữu

Một thanh niên thưa: Xin hãy nói với chúng tôi về tình Bằng Hữu.

Và người đáp:

Người bạn là những thiếu thốn của các người đáp ứng.

Hắn là cánh đồng các người gieo hạt với tình yêu và gặt hái với lòng tri ân.

Hắn là bàn ăn và là bếp lửa của các người.

Vì các người đến với hắn với cơn đói khát và kiếm tìm nơi hắn sự bình yên.

Khi bạn nói lên tâm hồn hắn, các người chẳng ngại tiếng *không* trong hồn mình, cũng chẳng khước từ tiếng *có*.

Và khi hắn lặng thinh, lòng các người không ngừng lắng theo lòng hắn;

Vì trong tình bằng hữu, không cần lời, mọi tư tưởng, mọi ước vọng, mọi cầu mong đều nẩy sinh và chia sẻ, với niềm hân hoan không tuyên bố.

Khi xa bạn các người đừng phiền muộn;

Vì điều các người yêu mến nhất nơi bạn sẽ tỏ lộ hơn khi hắn vắng mặt, như trái núi tỏ lộ hơn với người leo núi khi nhìn từ bình nguyên.

Vì đừng để có mục đích nào khác trong tình bằng hữu ngoài sự khơi sâu tinh thần mình.

Vì tình yêu chỉ lo tìm phơi bày niềm bí ẩn của chính nó, sẽ chẳng phải là tình yêu mà là một mẻ lười quăng ra: và sẽ chỉ những thứ vô dụng mới bị vướng mắc vào mà thôi.

Hãy dành những gì tốt đẹp nhất của các người cho bạn.

Nếu hắn phải biết nước ròng các người, cũng cho hắn rõ cả triều nước dâng.

Vì bạn là gì mà các người tìm đến hắn để giết thì giờ?

Hãy luôn tìm tới sống những giờ phút cùng hắn.

Vì chính hắn sẽ làm đầy những thiếu thốn, nhưng không làm đầy sự trống rỗng của các người.

Trong ngọt ngào của tình bằng hữu hãy có những tiếng cười, và chia sẻ những thú vui.

Vì trong giọt sương của những sự vật nhỏ, trái tim tìm thấy bình minh và trở thành tươi mát.

On Talking

And then a scholar said, "Speak of Talking."

And he answered, saying:

You talk when you cease to be at peace with your thoughts;

And when you can no longer dwell in the solitude of your heart you live in your lips, and sound is a diversion and a pastime.

And in much of your talking, thinking is half murdered.

For thought is a bird of space, that in a cage of words many indeed unfold its wings but cannot fly.

There are those among you who seek the talkative through fear of being alone.

The silence of aloneness reveals to their eyes their naked selves and they would escape.

And there are those who talk, and without knowledge or forethought reveal a truth which they themselves do not understand.

And there are those who have the truth within them, but they tell it not in words.

In the bosom of such as these the spirit dwells in rhythmic silence.

When you meet your friend on the roadside or in the market place, let the spirit in you move your lips and direct your tongue.

Let the voice within your voice speak to the ear of his ear;

For his soul will keep the truth of your heart as the taste of the wine is remembered

When the colour is forgotten and the vessel is no more.

Về Trò Chuyện

Một học giả thưa: Xin hãy nói về Trò Chuyện

Và Người đáp:

Các người nói khi không còn bình yên với những tư tưởng mình.

Khi không còn có thể thường trụ lâu hơn nữa trong cõi tịch liêu của lòng mình, các người sống trên đôi môi, và âm thanh là một thú tiêu khiển và một trò giải trí.

Phần lớn trong cuộc chuyện trò, suy tư bị ám sát nửa phần.

Vì tư tưởng là một con chim không gian, dẫu trong chiếc lồng chữ nghĩa quả có thể xòe đôi cánh nhưng làm sao bay.

Có những kẻ trong các người tìm tới kẻ ba hoa vì sợ cô đơn.

Sự im lặng của cô đơn bộc lộ bản ngã trần truồng của họ, và họ muốn lẩn trốn.

Có những kẻ trong khi nói, không ngờ cũng không dự tưởng, đã phát giác một sự thật mà chính họ cũng không hiểu thấu.

Lại có những kẻ mang sự thật trong mình nhưng không nói sự thật đó thành lời.

Trong những kẻ ấy, linh hồn thường trụ trong lặng lẽ nhịp nhàng.

Khi gặp bạn bè bên vệ đường hay giữa chợ, hãy để linh hồn các ngươi chuyển động lưỡi và điều khiển môi.

Hãy để tiếng thầm trong các người nói với tai của hắn.

Và tâm hồn hắn sẽ cất giữ sự thật của lòng các người như hương vị rượu nho được hoài niệm.

Khi sắc màu đã phôi pha trong quên lãng và bình đựng đã không còn.

On Time

And an astronomer said, "Master, what of Time?"

And he answered:

You would measure time the measureless and the immeasurable.

You would adjust your conduct and even direct the course of your spirit according to hours and seasons.

Of time you would make a stream upon whose bank you would sit and watch its flowing.

Yet the timeless in you is aware of life's timelessness,

And knows that yesterday is but today's memory and tomorrow is today's dream.

And that that which sings and contemplates in you is still dwelling within the bounds of that first moment which scattered the stars into space.

Who among you does not feel that his power to love is boundless?

And yet who does not feel that very love, though boundless, encompassed within the centre of his being, and moving not form love thought to love thought, nor from love deeds to other love deeds?

And is not time even as love is, undivided and placeless?
But if in you thought you must measure time into seasons, let each season encircle all the other seasons,

And let today embrace the past with remembrance and the future with longing.

Về Thò’i Gian

Có một nhà thiên văn nói: Thưa Thầy, còn Thời Gian thì thế nào?

Và người đáp:

Các người muốn đo thời gian, cái vô hạn và bất khả đo lường.

Các người muốn thích ứng hành vi và hướng dẫn đường lối tinh thần mình theo giờ phút và theo các mùa.

Các người muốn tạo thời gian thành một giòng nước để trên bờ ấy các người ngồi ngắm nước trôi xuôi.

Nhưng cái vô thời trong các người ý thức được cái vô thời của đời sống.

Và hiểu rằng ngày hôm qua chỉ là hoài niệm của hôm nay và ngày mai là giấc mơ của hôm nay.

Và cái ca hát chiêm ngắm trong các người vẫn còn nằm giữa giới hạn của lúc đầu tiên giải những vì sao trong không gian.

Ai trong các người không cảm thấy rằng năng lực yêu đương của mình là vô hạn?

Mà lại không cảm thấy chính tình yêu đó, dẫu vô hạn vẫn gói trọn trong tâm hiện thể mình, không chuyển từ ái tưởng yêu đương này sang ý tưởng khác, cũng không chuyển từ ái sự này sang ái tự khác?

Và há chẳng phải thời gian cũng như tình yêu, đều không thể chia cắt và không có bến bờ?

Nhưng nếu trong tư tưởng các ngươi phải đo thời gian thành mùa, hãy để mỗi mùa bao bọc những mùa khác,

Và hãy để hôm nay ôm choàng quá khứ với hoài mong và tương lai với khát khao.

On Good & Evil

And one of the elders of the city said, "Speak to us of Good and Evil."

And he answered:

Of the good in you I can speak, but not of the evil.

For what is evil but good tortured by its own hunger and thirst?

Verily when good is hungry it seeks food even in dark caves, and when it thirsts, it drinks even of dead waters.

You are good when you are one with yourself.

Yet when you are not one with yourself you are not evil.

For a divided house is not a den of thieves; it is only a divided house.

And a ship without rudder may wander aimlessly among perilous isles yet sink not to the bottom.

You are good when you strive to give of yourself.

Yet you are not evil when you seek gain for yourself.

For when you strive for gain you are but a root that clings to the earth and sucks at her breast.

Surely the fruit cannot say to the root, "Be like me, ripe and full and ever giving of your abundance."

For to the fruit giving is a need, as receiving is a need to the root.

You are good when you are fully awake in your speech,

Yet you are not evil when you sleep while your tongue staggers without purpose.

And even stumbling speech may strengthen a weak tongue.

You are good when you walk to your goal firmly and with bold steps.

Yet you are not evil when you go thither limping.

Even those who limp go not backward.

But you who are strong and swift, see that you do not limp before the lame, deeming it kindness.

You are good in countless ways, and you are not evil when you are not good,

You are only loitering and sluggard.

Pity that the stags cannot teach swiftness to the turtles.

In your longing for your giant self lies your goodness: and that longing is in all of you.

But in some of you that longing is a torrent rushing with might to the sea, carrying the secrets of the hillsides and the songs of the forest.

And in others it is a flat stream that loses itself in angles and bends and lingers before it reaches the shore.

But let not him who longs much say to him who longs little, "Wherefore are you slow and halting?"

For the truly good ask not the naked, "Where is your garment?" nor the houseless, "What has befallen your house?"

Về Thiện Ác

Và một trong những vị trưởng lão của thành phố thưa:

Xin hãy nói với chúng tôi về Thiện Ác.

Và người đáp:

Về điều thiện trong các người, ta có thể nói được nhưng về điều ác thì không.

Vì ác là gì nếu không phải là điều thiện bị hành hạ bởi chính đói khát của nó.

Quả thật khi đói điều thiện tìm thực phẩm ngay cả trong những hang hốc tối tăm, và khi khát nó uống cả nước ao tù.

Các người thiện khi là một với bản thân.

Nhưng khi chẳng là một với bản thân các người không ác.

Vì một nhà bị chia rẽ không là một ổ cướp; mà chỉ là một nhà bị chia rẽ.

Và một con tàu không bánh lái có thể lang thang vô định giữa những hòn đảo hiểm nguy tuy nhiên không chìm xuống đáy.

Các người thiện khi các người cố gắng dâng hiến bản thân.

Tuy nhiên các người không ác khi kiếm lợi cho bản thân.

Bởi vì khi cố gắng kiếm chác lợi lộc, các người chỉ là một gốc rễ bám vào bú vú lòng đất.

Chắc chắn trái cây không thể nói với rễ: * Hãy như ta, chín mọng mãi mãi và cho đi sự dồi dào của ngươi.*

Vì với trái cây cho là một điều thiết yếu cũng như nhận là một điều thiết yếu đối với gốc rễ.

Các người thiện khi hoàn toàn ý thức trong lời nói.

Tuy nhiên các người không ác khi ngủ trong lúc lưỡi mấy máy không chủ định.

Vì ngay lời nói ngập ngừng cũng làm lưỡi yếu đuối được mạnh lên.

Các người thiện khi vững vàng tiến tới mục đích mình bằng những bước chân mạnh bạo.

Tuy nhiên các người không ác khi khập khiễng lết lê tới đó.

Ngay cả những kẻ khập khiễng cũng đi giật lùi.

Nhưng các người là những kẻ mạnh và lanh lẹ, hãy để ý chớ đi khập khiễng trước kẻ què, tưởng thế là tử tế.

Các người thiện bằng muôn ngàn lối, và chẳng ác khi không thiện.

Các người chỉ mới lang thang và giải đãi thôi.

Tội nghiệp thay loài hươu không thể dạy sự mau lẹ cho rùa.

Trong niềm khao khát bản ngã vĩ đại các người đã có sẵn thiện tâm; và nỗi khao khát ấy ở trong toàn thể các người.

Nhưng ở trong vài người niềm khao khát đó như một giòng thác ào ạt chảy ra biển, mang theo những bí ẩn của sườn đồi và những ca khúc của rừng cây.

Và trong những kẻ khác nó chỉ là một lạch nước cạn chảy quanh co lạc lối và lần lữa mãi trước khi ra tới bờ biển khơi.

Nhưng đừng để kẻ khát khao nhiều nói với kẻ khát khao ít, * Cớ sao anh chậm chạp và ngập ngừng làm vậy?*

Vì kẻ thiện đích thực không hỏi người trần truồng: *Quần áo anh đâu?* Cũng không hỏi kẻ không nhà: * Nhà anh có chuyện gì vậy?*

On Prayer

Then a priestess said, "Speak to us of Prayer."

And he answered, saying:

You pray in your distress and in your need; would that you might pray also in the fullness of your joy and in your days of abundance.

For what is prayer but the expansion of yourself into the living ether?

And if it is for your comfort to pour your darkness into space, it is also for your delight to pour forth the dawning of your heart.

And if you cannot but weep when your soul summons you to prayer, she should spur you again and yet again, though weeping, until you shall come laughing.

When you pray you rise to meet in the air those who are praying at that very hour, and whom save in prayer you may not meet.

Therefore let your visit to that temple invisible be for naught but ecstasy and sweet communion.

For if you should enter the temple for no other purpose than asking you shall not receive.

And if you should enter into it to humble yourself you shall not be lifted:

Or even if you should enter into it to beg for the good of others you shall not be heard.

It is enough that you enter the temple invisible.

I cannot teach you how to pray in words.

God listens not to your words save when He Himself utters them through your lips.

And I cannot teach you the prayer of the seas and the forests and the mountains.

But you who are born of the mountains and the forests and the seas can find their prayer in your heart,

And if you but listen in the stillness of the night you shall hear them saying in silence,

"Our God, who art our winged self, it is thy will in us that willeth.

It is thy desire in us that desireth.

It is thy urge in us that would turn our nights, which are thine, into days which are thine also.

We cannot ask thee for aught, for thou knowest our needs before they are born in us:

Thou art our need; and in giving us more of thyself thou givest us all."

Về Cầu Nguyện

Rồi một nữ tư tế thưa: Xin hãy nói với chúng con về Cầu Nguyện.

Và Người đáp:

Các người cầu nguyện trong khi nguy khốn và thiếu thốn; phải chi các người cũng có thể cầu nguyện trong khi hân hoan tràn trề và trong những ngày dư dả.

Vì cầu nguyện là gì nếu không phải là sự trào dâng bản ngã các người vào tầng thanh khí sinh động?

Và nếu để được thoải mái các người trút tăm tối mình vào không gian thì cũng trút vào đấy bình minh của lòng mình.

Và nếu các người chỉ có thể nức nở khi linh hồn mời gọi các người cầu nguyện, nó sẽ phải thúc giục hoài các ngươi, dù đang nức nở, cho tới khi các người phải đến với tiếng cười.

Khi cầu nguyện, các người vươn lên để gặp trên không trung những kẻ cũng đang cầu nguyện vào giây phút ấy, những kẻ các người chẳng thể gặp gỡ nếu không nhờ cầu nguyện.

Vì vậy hãy khiến cuộc viếng thăm đền thờ vô hình của các người không là gì ngoài sự xuất thần và giao cảm dịu dàng.
Vì nếu vào đền với không mục đích nào ngoài cầu xin, các người sẽ chẳng nhận được.

Và nếu vào đền để tự hạ mình, các người sẽ chẳng được nâng lên;

Ngay dù vào đền để xin xỏ điều tốt lành cho những kẻ khác, các người cũng sẽ chẳng được nghe.

Các người vào đền thờ vô hình là đủ rồi.

Ta chẳng thể dạy các người cầu nguyện bằng lời.

Thuợng đế chẳng lắng nghe lời các người trừ khi chính Ngài thốt lên những lời ấy qua môi miệng các người.

Và ta chẳng thể dạy các người lời cầu nguyện của đại dương, rừng rậm và núi đồi.

Nhưng các người sinh ra từ núi rừng sông biển có thể tìm thấy lời cầu nguyện của chúng ở trong lòng mình.

Và nếu các người chỉ cần lắng nghe trong im vắng của đêm thâu các người sẽ thấy chúng nói trong thầm lặng.

* Thượng Đế chúng tôi. Ngài là tự ngã chúng tôi tháp cánh, chính ý muốn của Ngài trong tôi đã muốn.

Chính ước vọng Ngài trong chúng tôi đã ước.

Chính hối Ngài trong chúng ta đã biến đêm tối chúng tôi, đồng thời là đêm của Ngài, thành ngày cũng là chính của Ngài.

Chúng ta không thể xin Ngài điều gì, vì Ngài biết những thiếu thốn ấy trước khi chúng nẩy sinh trong chúng tôi.

Ngài là điều chúng tôi thiếu; và khi ban thêm cho chúng tôi chính Ngài, Ngài đã cho chúng tôi tất cả.*

On Pleasure

Then a hermit, who visited the city once a year, came forth and said, "Speak to us of Pleasure."

And he answered, saying:

Pleasure is a freedom song,

But it is not freedom.

It is the blossoming of your desires,

But it is not their fruit.

It is a depth calling unto a height,

But it is not the deep nor the high.

It is the caged taking wing,

But it is not space encompassed.

Ay, in very truth, pleasure is a freedom-song.

And I fain would have you sing it with fullness of heart; yet I would not have you lose your hearts in the singing.

Some of your youth seek pleasure as if it were all, and they are judged and rebuked.

I would not judge nor rebuke them. I would have them seek.
For they shall find pleasure, but not her alone:

Seven are her sisters, and the least of them is more beautiful than pleasure.

Have you not heard of the man who was digging in the earth for roots and found a treasure?

And some of your elders remember pleasures with regret like wrongs committed in drunkenness.

But regret is the beclouding of the mind and not its chastisement.

They should remember their pleasures with gratitude, as they would the harvest of a summer.

Yet if it comforts them to regret, let them be comforted.

And there are among you those who are neither young to seek nor old to remember;

And in their fear of seeking and remembering they shun all pleasures, lest they neglect the spirit or offend against it.
But even in their foregoing is their pleasure.

And thus they too find a treasure though they dig for roots with quivering hands.

But tell me, who is he that can offend the spirit?

Shall the nightingale offend the stillness of the night, or the firefly the stars?

And shall your flame or your smoke burden the wind?

Think you the spirit is a still pool which you can trouble with a staff?

Oftentimes in denying yourself pleasure you do but store the desire in the recesses of your being.

Who knows but that which seems omitted today, waits for tomorrow?

Even your body knows its heritage and its rightful need and will not be deceived. And your body is the harp of your soul,

And it is yours to bring forth sweet music from it or confused sounds.

And now you ask in your heart, "How shall we distinguish that which is good in pleasure from that which is not good?"

Go to your fields and your gardens, and you shall learn that it is the pleasure of the bee to gather honey of the flower,

But it is also the pleasure of the flower to yield its honey to the bee.

For to the bee a flower is a fountain of life,

And to the flower a bee is a messenger of love,

And to both, bee and flower, the giving and the receiving of pleasure is a need and an ecstasy.

People of Orphalese, be in your pleasures like the flowers and the bees.

Về Lạc Thú

Khi ấy có một nhà tu khổ hạnh mỗi năm ghé thành phố một lần, bước tới thưa:

Xin hãy nói với chúng tôi về Lạc Thú.

Và Người đáp:

Lạc Thú là một ca khúc tự do,

Nhưng nó không phải là tự do.

Nó là sự đâm bông ước những ước vọng các người.

Nhưng nó không phải là trái những ước vọng ấy.

Nó là một chiều sâu lên tiếng gọi một chiều cao,

Nhưng nó không phải là chiều sâu hay chiều cao,

Nó là chim lồng tháp cánh tung bay.

Nhưng nó chẳng phải là không gian tù túng.

Phải, quả thực, lạc thú là một ca khúc tự do.

Và ta hẳn muốn các ngươi hát khúc ca ấy với lòng tràn trề, tuy nhiên ta không muốn các người mất lòng mình trong lúc hát.

Một số thanh niên của các người tìm kiếm lạc thú như thể đó là tất cả, và họ bị phê phán và khiển trách.

Ta chẳng phê phán cũng chẳng khiển trách họ. Ta muốn để họ tìm kiếm.

Vì họ sẽ thấy lạc thú, nhưng không riếng mình nó;

Nó có bảy chị em và người yếu kém nhất trong bọn còn đẹp hơn cả Lạc Thú.

Các người chưa từng nghe nói đến một người xới đất tìm rễ và tìm thấy kho báu đó sao?

Và một vài vị trưởng lão trong các người nhớ đến lạc thú với ăn năn như những lỗi lầm phạm phải khi say.

Nhưng ăn năn làm u ám tâm hồn chứ không hành phạt nó.

Họ phải nhớ đến lạc thú của mình với lòng biết ơn, như đối với vụ gặt hè.

Nhưng nếu ăn năn giúp họ thoải mái, thì hãy cứ để họ được thoải mái.

Có những kẻ trong các người không trẻ để tìm kiếm, cũng không già để mà hồi tưởng;

Và trong nỗi sợ hãi tìm kiếm hay hồi tưởng, họ né tránh mọi lạc thú, e bỏ bê hay xúc phạm tinh thần.

Nhưng ngay sự kiêng cữ ấy cũng là một lạc thú cho họ.

Và như thế họ cũng tìm thấy kho báu dù đào tìm gốc rễ với đôi tay run rẩy.

Nhưng hãy nói cho ta hay, ai là kẻ có thể xúc phạm nổi tinh thần?

Há chim họa mi có thể xúc phạm niềm im vắng của đêm, hay đom đóm xúc phạm những vì sao?

Và lửa hay khói các người đè nặng cơn gió thoảng?

Các người tưởng tâm hồn là một cái ao tù các người có thể khuấy động với một cây gậy ư?

Thường thường trong khi tự khước từ những lạc thú, các người chỉ tích lũy thêm khát vọng vào chỗ sâu kín của hữu thể mình.

Ai biết rằng điều dường như bị loại trừ hôm nay, chờ đợi ngày mai?

Ngay thân xác các người cũng biết gia tài cùng nhu cầu chính đáng của nó và sẽ không bị lừa gạt.

Thân thể là cây đàn thụ cầm của các người,

Và chính các người sẽ tạo nên điệu nhạc êm đềm hay những âm thanh hỗn loạn bằng cây đàn ấy.

Và bây giờ các người thầm hỏi lòng: * Làm sao chúng ta phân biệt được cái gì tốt với cái gì không tốt trong lạc thú?*

Hãy ra đồng và vườn mình, các người sẽ hiểu lạc thú của hoa là hiến mật cho ong.

Với ong, hoa là một giòng suối đời,

Với hoa, ong là sứ giả của tình yêu,

Và với cả hai, ong và hoa sự cho và nhận lạc thú là một nhu cầu và là một sự xuất thần ngây ngất.

Hỡi dân thành Orphalese, hãy đắm mình trong lạc thú các người như ong với hoa kia.

On Beauty

And a poet said, "Speak to us of Beauty."

Where shall you seek beauty, and how shall you find her unless she herself be your way and your guide?

And how shall you speak of her except she be the weaver of your speech?

The aggrieved and the injured say, "Beauty is kind and gentle.

Like a young mother half-shy of her own glory she walks among us."

And the passionate say, "Nay, beauty is a thing of might and dread.

Like the tempest she shakes the earth beneath us and the sky above us."

The tired and the weary say, "beauty is of soft whisperings. She speaks in our spirit.

Her voice yields to our silences like a faint light that quivers in fear of the shadow."

But the restless say, "We have heard her shouting among the mountains,

And with her cries came the sound of hoofs, and the beating of wings and the roaring of lions."

At night the watchmen of the city say, "Beauty shall rise with the dawn from the east."

And at noontide the toilers and the wayfarers say, "we have seen her leaning over the earth from the windows of the sunset."

In winter say the snow-bound, "She shall come with the spring leaping upon the hills."

And in the summer heat the reapers say, "We have seen her dancing with the autumn leaves, and we saw a drift of snow in her hair."

All these things have you said of beauty.

Yet in truth you spoke not of her but of needs unsatisfied,
And beauty is not a need but an ecstasy.

It is not a mouth thirsting nor an empty hand stretched forth,
But rather a heart enflamed and a soul enchanted.

It is not the image you would see nor the song you would hear,

But rather an image you see though you close your eyes and a song you hear though you shut your ears.

It is not the sap within the furrowed bark, nor a wing attached to a claw,

But rather a garden for ever in bloom and a flock of angels for ever in flight.

People of Orphalese, beauty is life when life unveils her holy face.

But you are life and you are the veil.

Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror.

But you are eternity and your are the mirror.

Về Cái Đẹp

Và một thi sĩ thưa: Xin hãy nói về cái Đẹp.

Và Người đáp:

Các người sẽ kiếm cái Đẹp ở đâu, và làm sao các người có thể tìm nàng trừ phi chính nàng là đường đi và kẻ hướng dẫn các người?

Và làm sao các người có thể nói về nàng trừ phi nàng là kẻ dệt nên lời nói các người?

Kẻ sầu não và kẻ bị xúc phạm nói: * Cái Đẹp tử tế và ôn nhu.

Như một bà mẹ trẻ nửa thẹn thùng về vinh quang của chính mình, bước đi giũa chúng ta.*

Và kẻ đam mê nói: * Không, cái Đẹp là một điều mãnh liệt và khủng khiếp.

Như giông tố nàng lay động mặt đất phía dưới chúng ta và bầu trời bên trên chúng ta.*

Kẻ mệt mỏi và nhọc nhằn nói: *Cái Đẹp là những lời thì thầm êm ái. Nàng nói trong linh hồn chúng ta.

Tiếng nàng chìm trong im lặng chúng ta tựa một tia sáng yếu ớt run rẩy sợ hãi bóng tối.*

Nhưng những kẻ hiếu động lại bảo:* Chúng ta từng nghe tiếng nàng thét vang giữa sơn khê.

Cùng tiếng thét của nàng vẳng tiếng vó ngựa, tiếng vỗ cánh và tiếng sư tử rống.*

Ban đêm tuần đinh trong thành nói:* Cái Đẹp sẽ mọc lên với bình minh tự phương Đông.*

Và buổi trưa, những kẻ lao động và những khách bộ hành nói:* Chúng ta thấy nàng từ cửa sổ hoàng hôn nghiêng mình trên mặt đất.*

Về mùa đông những kẻ bị tuyết vây phủ bảo:* Nàng sẽ đến cùng mùa Xuân nhẩy múa trên đồi.*

Trong hơi nóng của mùa Hè, những người thợ gặt nói:* Chúng ta đã thấy nàng khiêu vũ với lá thu, và chúng ta thấy một chùm bông tuyết trên mái tóc nàng.*

Đó là tất cả những điều các người thường nói về cái Đẹp.

Nhưng thực ra các người không nói về nàng mà chỉ về những nhu cầu thỏa nguyện,

Và cái Đẹp chẳng phải một nhu cầu mà là một sự ngất ngây.

Nó chẳng phải là một cái miệng khát khao hay bàn tay trống không chìa tới trước.

Mà đúng hơn một trái tim rực lửa, một tâm hồn đắm say.

Nó chẳng phải một hình ảnh các người có thể thấy, cũng chẳng là một khúc ca các người có thể nghe,

Mà đúng hơn là một hình ảnh các người thấy dẫu có nhắm mắt, một khúc ca các người nghe dẫu có bịt tai.
Nó chẳng phải nhựa trong lớp vỏ cây bị rạch, cũng chẳng phải một chiếc cánh buộc vào móng vuốt.

Mà đúng hơn là một mảnh vườn mãi mãi trổ bông và một đám thiên thần mãi còn bay lượn.

Hỡi dân thành Orphalese, cái Đẹp là đời sống vén lớp mạng che khuôn mặt thiêng liêng của nàng.

Nhưng các người là đời sống và các người là lớp mạng.

Cái Đẹp là vĩnh cửu đăm đăm soi mình trong gương.

Nhưng các người là vĩnh cửu và các người là tấm gương soi.

On Religion

And an old priest said, "Speak to us of Religion."

And he said:

Have I spoken this day of aught else?

Is not religion all deeds and all reflection,

And that which is neither deed nor reflection, but a wonder and a surprise ever springing in the soul, even while the hands hew the stone or tend the loom?

Who can separate his faith from his actions, or his belief from his occupations?

Who can spread his hours before him, saying, "This for God and this for myself;

This for my soul, and this other for my body?"

All your hours are wings that beat through space from self to self.

He who wears his morality but as his best garment were better naked.

The wind and the sun will tear no holes in his skin.

And he who defines his conduct by ethics imprisons his song-bird in a cage.

The freest song comes not through bars and wires.

And he to whom worshipping is a window, to open but also to shut, has not yet visited the house of his soul whose windows are from dawn to dawn.

Your daily life is your temple and your religion.

Whenever you enter into it take with you your all.

Take the plough and the forge and the mallet and the lute,

The things you have fashioned in necessity or for delight.

For in reverie you cannot rise above your achievements nor fall lower than your failures.

And take with you all men:

For in adoration you cannot fly higher than their hopes nor humble yourself lower than their despair.

And if you would know God be not therefore a solver of riddles.

Rather look about you and you shall see Him playing with your children.

And look into space; you shall see Him walking in the cloud, outstretching His arms in the lightning and descending in rain.

You shall see Him smiling in flowers, then rising and waving His hands in trees.

Về Tôn Giáo

Và một thầy tư tế già nói: Xin hãy nói với chúng tôi về Tôn Giáo

Và người nói:

Hôm nay ta có nói điều gì khác điều đó chăng?

Há chẳng phải là tôn giáo mọi hành vi, mọi suy tư?

Và cũng chẳng phải hành vi, chẳng phải suy tư, mà là một điều kỳ diệu, một kinh ngạc mãi mãi nẩy sinh trong tâm hồn, ngay lúc đôi tay đẽo đá hay dệt cửi đức?

Ai có thể tách tim mình ra khỏi những hành động, hay tín ngưỡng mình ra khỏi những công việc?

Ai có thể trải giờ giấc mình trước mặt nói: * Giờ này cho Thượng Đế, giờ này cho ta; giờ này cho linh hồn, và giờ kia cho thể xác.*

Mọi giờ giấc các người đều là những đôi cánh vỗ qua không gian từ tự ngã này đến tự ngã khác.

Kẻ mặc đức hạnh mình chỉ như bộ y phục đẹp nhất, tốt hơn hãy trần truồng.

Nắng gió sẽ không xoi lỗ trong da thịt hắn.

Và kẻ phân định hạnh kiểm mình bằng đạo lý giam con chim hót trong lồng.

Khúc hát tự do nhất không qua tới chấn song và thép gai.

Và kẻ coi thờ phụng như một cửa sổ để mở nhưng cũng để đóng, chưa đến thăm ngôi nhà của linh hồn mình, nơi các cửa sổ mở từ bình minh này đến bình minh kia.

Đời sống hàng ngày là đền thờ và tôn giáo của các người.

Mỗi khi vào đó hãy đem theo mọi thứ của mình.

Hãy đem theo cái cày và lò rèn, cái vồ và cây đàn tỳ bà.

Những thứ ngươi đã tạo nên theo nhu yếu hay vì hân hoan.

Vì trong mơ mộng các người không thể vươn cao quá những thành quả mình cũng không thể sa thấp hơn những thất bại mình.

Và hãy dẫn mọi người cùng tới với các ngươi:

Vì trong sùng bái các người không thể bay cao hơn những hy vọng họ, cũng
không thể hạ mình thấp hơn nỗi tuyệt vọng họ.

Và nếu các người hiểu Thượng Đế không là kẻ giải đáp những bí ẩn.

Tốt hơn hãy nhìn quanh mình và các người sẽ thấy Ngài đang chơi đùa cùng con cái các người.

Và nhìn vào không trung; các người sẽ thấy Ngài đi trong mây, giang tay trong lằn chớp, và giáng xuống trong mưa.

Các người sẽ thấy Ngài cười trong những đóa hoa, đoạn đứng dậy và vẫy tay trong cây lá.

On Death

Than Almitra spoke, saying, "We would ask now of Death."

And he said:

You would know the secret of death.

But how shall you find it unless you seek it in the heart of life?

The owl whose night-bound eyes are blind unto the day cannot unveil the mystery of light.

If you would indeed behold the spirit of death, open your heart wide unto the body of life.

For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one.

In the depth of your hopes and desires lies your silent knowledge of the beyond;

And like seeds dreaming beneath the snow your heart dreams of spring.

Trust the dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.

Your fear of death is but the trembling of the shepherd when he stands before the king whose hand is to be laid upon him in honour.

Is the sheered not joyful beneath his trembling, that he shall wear the mark of the king?

Yet is he not more mindful of his trembling?

For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun?

And what is to cease breathing, but to free the breath from its restless tides, that it may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered?

Only when you drink form the river of silence shall you indeed sing.

And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb.

And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.

Về Sụ’ Chết

Thế rồi Almitra thưa: Bây giờ chúng con xin hỏi Người về Sự Chết.

Và Người nói:

Các người muốn biết niềm bí ẩn của Sự Chết.

Nhưng làm sao các người tìm thấy nó trừ khi tìm kiếm trong lòng Đời?

Con cú mắt sáng trong đêm lại mù ban ngày không thể vén sự huyền bí của ánh sáng.

Nếu các người muốn ngắm tinh thần của cái chết, hãy mở rộng lòng mình ra với thân thể Đời.

Vì sống và chết là một, cũng như sông với biển là một vậy.

Trong đáy sâu của những hy vọng và ước muốn các người đã tiềm tàng hiểu biết thầm lặng về cõi bên kia;

Và tựa những hạt mầm nằm mơ dưới tuyết lòng các người nhớ đến mùa Xuân.

Hãy tin vào những giấc mơ, vì trong mơ ẩn cổng vào ngàn thu.

Nỗi sợ chết của các người chỉ là sự run rẩy của kẻ chăn chiên khi đứng trước vị vua sắp đặt tay lên hắn để phong thần.

Há kẻ chăn chiên không hoan hỉ ngầm trong run rẩy, rằng hắn sắp được mang dấu hiệu của nhà vua?

Tuy nhiên chẳng phải vì thế mà hắn càng ý thức rõ sự run rẩy của mình hơn sao?

Và Chết là gì nếu không là đứng trần truồng trong gió và chảy tan trong nắng?

Và ngừng thở là gì, hay chỉ là giải thoát hơi thở khỏi ngọn triều mài miệt, để nó
có thể bay lên, trải rộng và kiếm tìm Thượng Đế trong bao la phơi phới?

Chỉ khi nào uống nước từ giòng sông im lặng các người mới thực sự hát ca.

Và khi đã lên đến đỉnh níu rồi lúc đó các người mới bắt đầu trèo.

Và khi lòng đất đòi tứ chi, lúc đó các người mới thực sự nhảy múa.

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."

Bây giờ trời đã ngả về chiều.

Và Almitra người nữ tiên tri nói:* Lành thay cho ngày hôm nay, cho nơi này và cho hồn người đã lên tiếng nói.*

Và người đáp: * Ta nói đó ư? Chẳng phải ta cũng là người nghe ru?*

Và Người bước xuống những bực thềm của đền thờ, tất cả dân chúng đều theo Người. Người lên tàu và đứng trên boong.

Đối diện dân chúng lần nữa, Người cất cao giọng nói:

Hỡi dân thành Orphalese, gió bắt ta phải rời các người.

Ta chẳng hấp tấp như gió nhưng cũng phải ra đi.

Chúng ta, những kẻ phiêu đãng, mãi mãi kiếm tìm con đường quanh hiu hơn, chẳng bao giờ bắt đầu một ngày nơi mà ta đã kết thúc ngày trước; và chẳng bình minh nào gặp chúng ta nơi hoàng hôn đã bỏ mình.

Ngay cả khi đất ngủ chúng ta cũng tiêu dao.

Chúng ta là những hạt cỏ may khi chín mùi và lòng tràn đầy thì chúng ta buông mình để gió giãi tung.

Ngắn ngủi thay những ngày ta ở giữa các người, còn ngắn hơn nữa những lời ta vừa thốt.

Nhưng nếu lời ta phai lạt dần trong tai các người, và tình yêu ta tan biến trong ký ức các người, thì ta sẽ trở lại.

Và với trái tim tràn trề hơn, với đôi môi thuận theo tinh thần hơn, ta sẽ nói.

Phải, ta sẽ về cùng hải triều;

Và dẫu cái chết có che giấu ta, niềm im lặng lớn hơn có vây phủ ta, ta cũng sẽ kiếm tìm thấu hiểu của các người.

Và ta chẳng kiếm tìm trong vô vọng.

Nếu những gì ta vừa nói đúng là sự thực, sự thực ấy sẽ tự bộc lộ bằng một giọng nói rõ ràng hơn, bằng những lời gần với tư tưởng các người hơn.

Ta sẽ đi cùng gió, hỡi dân thành Orphalese, nhưng chẳng bước xuống nỗi trống không.

Nếu hôm nay chẳng rót đầy nhu cầu các người và tình yêu ta, hãy coi nó như một lời ước hẹn tới một ngày nào.

Nhu cầu con người đổi thay, nhưng tình yêu không thay đổi, và nỗi mong ước tình yêu sẽ thoả mãn những nhu cầu mình cũng vậy.

Vậy hãy hiểu rằng, ta sẽ trở về từ cõi tịch liêu hơn.

Màn sương bồng bềnh buổi bình minh, chỉ vương lại sương móc trên cánh đồng, sẽ bốc lên hợp thành mây rồi rơi xuống thành mưa.

Ta cũng đã chẳng khác sương.

Trong lặng lẽ đêm hôm ta bước xuống phường phố các người, linh hồn ta bước vào nhà các người.

Nhịp tim các người nhảy trong tim ta, hơi thở các người phả trên mặt ta, và ta biết tất cả các ngươi.

Phải, ta biết nỗi vui buồn các ngươi, trong giấc mộng các người là mộng mơ ta.

Ta thường ở giữa các người như một hồ nước ở giữa núi non thăm thẳm.

Ta soi bóng những đỉnh cao trong các người và những sườn đồi, cả những đám tư tưởng và ước vọng các người lướt ngang qua.

Và đến với yên lặng ta là chuỗi cười của con cái các người trong suối và những khát khao của trai tráng các người trong sông.

Khi tới đáy sâu ta, suối và sông vẫn chưa ngừng ca hát.

Nhưng còn dịu dàng hơn những tiếng cười, còn cao cả hơn những ước vọng đến
với ta.

Là niềm vô biên trong các người.

Là đại ngã mà trong đó tất cả các người chỉ là những tế bào và những đường gân trong khúc ca đại ngã, mọi lời các người hát ca chỉ là nhịp đập không âm thanh.

Chính trong lòng đại ngã mà các người bao la.

Và ngắm nhìn đại ngã, ta thấy và yêu mến các người.

Vì có không gian nào tình yêu có thể vươn tới lại không ở trong khoảng bao la ấy?

Có viễn tượng đợi chờ, tự mãn nào có thể vượt trên đường bay ấy?

Tựa như một cây sồi vĩ đại đơm hoa trái là đại ngã các người.

Sức mạnh cây gắn các người vào trái đất, hương thơm cây nâng các người lên không, và trong sự bền bỉ của cây, các người bất tử.

Các người từng nghe nói rằng, dù giống như một sợi xích, các người yếu như
mắt xích yếu nhất.

Đó mới là nửa sự thật. Các người còn mạnh như mắt xích mạnh nhất.

Thẩm định các người qua hành vi nhỏ nhặt nhất là đánh giá quyền năng của đại dương qua sự mong manh của bọt biển.

Phán đoán các người qua những thất bại là bắt lỗi các mùa sao quá đổi thay.

Phải, các người như đại dương.

Dẫu nhiều tầu chở khẳm đợi con nước lớn tại bến các người, nhưng như đại dương, các người không thể dục triều nước dâng.

Và các người cũng tựa như các mùa.

Dẫu trong mùa Đông các người khước từ mùa Xuân.

Nhưng mùa Xuân, nghỉ ngơi trong các người, e ấp mỉm cười và chẳng phật lòng.

Chớ tưởng ta nói những điều này để các người bảo nhau:

* Người ca tụng chúng ta hay lắm. Người chỉ thấy những điều tốt nơi chúng ta thôi.*

Ta chỉ nói bằng những lời các người thầm hiểu trong tâm can.

Và hiểu biết bằng ngôn từ là gì hay chỉ là bóng hình của hiểu biết vô ngôn?

Tư tưởng các người và lời ta nói chỉ là những đợt sóng từ một ký ức niêm kín ghi dấu những ngày qua của chúng ta.

Của những ngày xa xưa khi đất chưa biết chúng ta, cũng chưa biết chính nàng.

Và của những đêm khi đất vặn mình cuồng loạn.

Những kẻ thông thái đến và cho các người khôn ngoan của họ. Ta đến để lấy đi khôn ngoan của các người.

Hãy xem ta đã tìm thấy điều còn cao viễn hơn cả khôn ngoan.

Đó là ngọn lửa thiêng trong các người thiên thu tích tụ thêm chính nó.

Trong khi các người không để ý thấy nó nới rộng, lại phàn nàn ngày tháng mình sao chóng lụn tàn.

Đó là đời sống kiếm tìm đời sống trong những thân thể sợ hãi mộ huyệt.

Không có mộ huyệt nào ở đây cả.

Núi và đồng bằng này là một chiếc nôi, một phiến đá lót.

Mỗi khi các người đi ngang cánh đồng nơi mai táng tổ tiên mình, hãy ngắm kỹ chốn ấy, và sẽ thấy chính mình cùng con cái mình đang nắm tay nhau nhảy múa.

Thật vậy, các người thường đùa vui mà chẳng biết.

Những kẻ khác đã đến cùng các người, những lời vàng son họ hứa với tín
ngưỡng các người chỉ khiến các người cho họ sang giàu, quyền năng và quang
vinh.

Ta chẳng hứa dù một lời, vậy mà các người đối với ta có phần rộng rãi hơn.

Các người đã cho ta nỗi khát khao đời sống sâu xa hơn.

Chắc chắn không có quà tặng người nào lớn hơn điều biến mọi mục đích hắn thành đôi môi khô và tất cả đời sống thành một nguồn nước rạt rào.

Và trong điều này có danh dự cùng phần thưởng ta.

Rằng mỗi khi đến nguồn uống ta đều thấy giòng nước linh động ấy cũng khát khao.

Và nó uống ta khi ta uống nó.

Vài kẻ trong bọn ngươi cho rằng ta kiêu sa và quá ngượng ngùng để nhận tặng
phẩm.

Quả ta quá kiêu sa và ngượng ngùng để nhận tiền công, nhưng với tặng phẩm thì không như thế.

Dù ta đã từng ăn dâu dại trên đồi hoang khi chắc chắn các người muốn mời ta nhập tiệc.

Và ngủ tại cổng đền khi các người hẳn sẵn sàng cho ta nương náu.

Nhưng há chẳng phải lòng âu yếm quan hoài của các người đến ngày đêm ta đã khiến thức ăn ta trở thành ngọt ngào trong miệng, và khoác lên giấc ngủ ta những mộng ảo đó sao ?

Vì điều này ta chúc phúc cho các người nhiều nhất.

Các người cho rất nhiều mà chẳng hề biết rằng mình đã cho.

Thực vậy, đức hạnh đăm đăm soi mình trong gương sẽ hóa đá.

Và một hành vi tốt tự gọi mình bằng những tên dịu dàng sẽ trở thành cội nguồn của tai ương.

Vài người trong bọn người cho ta là cách biệt, và say sưa với chính nỗi cô đơn của ta.

Các ngươi từng nói : * Người hội họp với cây rừng, chứ không với con người.

Người ngồi một mình trên đồi và ngó xuống thành phố của chúng ta.*

Quả thực ta từng leo đồi và đi giữa những nơi xa khuất.

Làm sao ta thấy được các người nếu không nhìn từ một nơi rất cao, hay từ một khoảng rất xa ?

Và làm sao người ở thật gần nếu người không ở thật xa?

Và những kẻ khác trong bọn người gọi ta, không bằng lời, họ nói :

* Hỡi khách lạ, người xa cách, kẻ yêu những chiều cao chẳng thể vươn tới, cớ sao người ở trên những đỉnh vòi vọi nơi chim ó làm tổ ?

Cớ sao người kiếm tìm cái không thể đạt ?

Người muốn đánh bẫy giông tố nào trong lưới mình ?

Và người săn loài chim mơ hồ nào trên trời cao đó ?

Hãy tới đây làm một kẻ trong tôi.

Hãy bước xuống và làm nguôi cơn đói người bằng bánh chúng tôi, làm dịu cơn khát người bằng rượu chúng tôi.*

Trong cô đơn của tâm hồn họ đã thốt nên điều ấy ;

Nhưng nếu nỗi cô đơn ấy sâu xa hơn, hẳn họ sẽ hiểu ta chỉ tìm bí ẩn của niềm hân hoan và nỗi đau thương của các người.

Và ta chỉ săn tìm đại ngã các người bước đi trên bầu trời mà thôi.

Nhưng người săn đuổi đồng thời cũng là kẻ bị săn ;

Vì vô số những mũi tên rời cung ta chỉ để tìm chính ngực ta.

Và cái bay cũng chính là cái bò.

Vì khi cánh ta giương trong nắng bóng nó trên mặt đất là một con rùa.

Và ta kẻ tin tưởng cũng là kẻ hoài nghi ;

Vì ta thường đặt ngón tay vào chính vết thương mình để có được niềm tin lớn hơn trong các người và sự hiểu biết lớn hơn về các người.

Và với niềm tin cùng sự hiểu biết đó ta lên tiếng.

Các người không bị giam trong thân xác mình, cũng không bị quản thúc trong nhà hay trên cánh đồng.

Cái đích thực là các người ngự trên núi và tiêu dao cùng gió.

Nó chẳng là một vật bò ra nắng tìm hơi ấm hay đào lỗ trong bóng tối âm u kiếm an toàn.

Mà là một vật tự do, một tinh thần vòng tay ôm mặt đất và di động trên thinh không.

Nếu những lời này mơ hồ, chớ tìm cách làm chúng sáng tỏ hơn.

Mơ hồ và hỗn độn là khởi đầu mọi vật nào phải chung cuộc chúng.

Và ta hẳn muốn các người nhớ đến ta như một khởi đầu.

Đời sống, và mọi sinh vật đều được hình thành giữa mù sương chứ không phải trong pha lê trong vắt.
Và ai biết được pha lê chỉ là sương mù băng rã ?

Ta muốn các người nhớ điều này khi nhớ đến ta :

Rằng cái dường như yếu đuối lạc lõng nhất trong các người lại là một điều mãnh liệt, khẳng định nhất.

Há chẳng phải hơi thở đã dựng thẳng và làm cứng cát xương cốt các người sao?

Và há chẳng phải giấc mộng không ai trong các người nhớ đã từng mơ, đã dựng nên thành phố các người và tạo thành mọi thứ trong đó sao ?

Phải chi các người thấy nhịp lên xuống của hơn thở ấy, hẳn đã thôi nhìn mọi thứ khác.

Và nếu các người có thể nghe tiếng thầm thì của những giấc mơ kia, hẳn không còn nghe âm thanh nào khác nữa.

Nhưng các người không thấy cũng không nghe, và thế lại càng hay.

Nhưng các người không thấy cũng không nghe, và thế lại càng hay.

Tấm mạng che mặt các người sẽ được vén lên bời bàn tay đã thêu nên nó.

Và lớp đất sét bít tai các người sẽ bị chọc thủng bởi những ngón tay đã nhào ra nó.

Và các người sẽ thấy.

Và các người sẽ nghe.

Nhưng chớ thở than đã bị mù, cũng đừng tiếc hận đã bị điếc.

Vì trong ngày ấy các người sẽ hiểu mục đích thầm kín của mọi vật.

Và sẽ chúc phúc cho bóng tối như các người chúc lành cho ánh sáng.

Sau khi đã thốt lên những lời này người nhìn quanh mình, và thấy viên hoa tiêu lên tàu mình đứng cạnh bánh lái, khi chăm chú nhìn những cánh buồm căng, lúc đăm đăm ngóng ra khơi.

Người nói :

Kiên nhẫn thay, thật kiên nhẫn thay viên thuyền trưởng tàu ta.

Gió đã nổi, những cánh buồm nao nức;

Cả bánh lái cũng đòi hướng đi.

Vậy mà viên thuyền trưởng lặng lẽ đợi chờ sự im lặng của ta.

Và đây những thủy thủ ta, những người từng nghe đại dương hợp xướng, cũng đã kiên nhẫn lắng nghe ta.

Giờ đây họ không phải đợi thêm nữa.

Ta đã sẵn sàng rồi.

Sông đã ra tới bể, và thêm một lần nữa bà mẹ bát ngát lại ghì chặt con trai của mình vào lòng.

Từ biệt các người, hỡi dân thành Orphalese.

Ngày hôm nay đã hết.

Nó đang khép trên chúng ta như hoa súng trên ngày mai của chính nó.

Những gì ban cho chúng ta nơi đây chúng ta sẽ giữ lấy.

Nếu chưa đủ, chúng ta phải gặp nhau lần nữa và cùng chìa tay trước kẻ cho.

Chớ quên rằng ta sẽ trở lại với các người nhé.

Một lần nữa, khát vọng ta sẽ gom cát bụi và bọt bể cho một thân xác khác.

Một lát nữa, một lát nghỉ ngơi trong gió, rồi một người nữ khác sẽ sinh ta.

Từ biệt các người và tuổi trẻ ta đã sống cùng các người.

Mới hôm qua chúng ta còn gặp gỡ trong mơ.

Các người đã hát cho ta nghe trong cô đơn, và ta đã lấy khát vọng các người xây thành một tháp ở trên trời.

Nhưng bây giờ giấc ngủ chúng ta đã chạy trốn, giấc mơ đã tàn, trời không còn là
bình minh.

Giữa ngọ đang ở trên chúng ta, và cơn buồn ngủ đã tròn ngày, chúng ta phải chia tay.

Nếu trong hoàng hôn của ký ức, chúng ta còn gặp nhau lần nữa, thì sẽ lại nói cùng nhau và các người sẽ hát cho ta khúc ca thẳm sâu hơn.

Nếu trong giấc mơ khác, tay chúng ta còn gặp nhau, chúng ta sẽ xây lại một tháp nữa trên trời.

Nói thế rồi người ra hiệu cho thủy thủ đoàn, họ lập tức nhổ neo, đẩy tàu khỏi chỗ neo, và hướng về phương đông.

Một tiếng kêu than trong đám dân chúng như thốt lên tự một lòng, nổi lên trong chiều tà và lướt ra khơi như một tiếng kèn vĩ đại.

Chỉ có Almitra là lặng thinh, đăm đăm dõi nhìn con tàu cho tới khi nó mất hút trong khói sóng.

Và khi mọi người đã tản mát, nàng còn đứng đấy một mình trên bờ đê, thầm nhớ lời người :

* Một lát nữa, một lát nghỉ ngơi trong gió, rồi một người nữ khác sẽ sinh ta.*

NGỌC-THANH Calligraphy

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THE PROPHET by KAHLIL GIBRAN (English)_KẺ TIÊN TRI bản dịch HỒNG HÀ ( Vietnamese )

The Prophet

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