現在已是黃昏了。
於是那女預言者愛爾美差說：願這一日，這地方，和你講說的心靈都蒙福佑。
他回答說，說那話的是我麼？我不也是一個聽者麼？
他走下殿階，一切的人都跟著他，他上了船，站在艙面。
轉面向著大眾，他提高了聲音說：
阿法利斯的民眾呵，風命令我離開你們了。
我雖不像風那樣地迅急，我也必須去了。
我們這些漂泊者，永遠地尋求更寂寞的道路，我們不在安歇的時地啟程，朝陽與落日也不在同一地方看見我們。
大地在睡眠中時，我們仍在行路。
我們是那堅牢植物的種子，在我們的心成熟豐滿的時候，就交給大風紛紛吹散。
我在你們中間的日子是非常短促的，而我所說的話是更短了。
但等到我的聲音在你們的耳中模糊，我的愛在你們的記憶中消滅的時候，我要重來。我要以更豐滿的心，更愛靈感的嘴唇說話。
是的，我要隨著潮水歸來，雖然死要遮蔽我，更大的沉默要包圍我，我卻仍要尋求你們的瞭解。
而且我這尋求不是徒然的。
假如我所說的都是真理，這真理要在更清澈的聲音中，更明白的言語裡顯示出來。
阿法利斯的民眾呵，我將與風同去，卻不是墜入虛空；
假如這一天不是你們的需要和我的愛的滿足，那就讓這個算是一個應許，直到踐言的一天。
人的「需要」會變換，但他的愛是不變的，他的「愛必滿足需要」的願望，也是不變的。
所以你要知道，我將在更大的沉默中歸來。
那在曉光中消散，只留下露水的田間的煙霧，要上升凝聚在雲中，化雨下降。
我也不是不像這煙霧。
在夜的寂靜中，我曾在你們的街市上行走，我的心魂曾進入你們的院宅。
你們的心跳曾在我的心中，你們的呼吸曾在我的臉上，我都認識你們。
是的，我知道你們的喜樂與哀痛。在你們的睡眠中，你們的夢就是我的夢。
我在你們中間常像山間的湖水。
我照見了你們的高峰與危崖，以及你們思想和願望的徘徊的雲影。
你們的孩子的歡笑，和你們的青年的想望，都溪泉似的流到我的寂靜之中。
當它流入我心之深處的時候，這溪泉仍是不停地歌唱。
但還有比歡笑還甜柔，比想望還偉大的東西流到。
那是你們身中的「無窮性」；
你們在這巨人裡面，都不過是血脈與筋腱，
在他的吟誦中，你們的歌音只不過是無聲的顫動。
只因為在這巨人裡，你們才偉大。
我因為關心他，才關心你們，憐愛你們。
因為若不是在這闊大的空間裡，愛能達到多遠呢？
有什麼幻象、什麼期望、什麼臆斷能夠無礙地高翔呢？
在你們本性中的巨人，如同一株緣滿蘋花的大橡樹。
他的神力把你纏繫在地上，他的香氣把你超升入高空，在他的永存之中，你永不死。
你們曾聽說過，像一條鎖鏈，你們是脆弱的鏈環中最脆弱的一環。
但這不完全是真的。你們也是堅牢的鏈環中最堅牢的一環。
用你最小的事功來衡量你，如同用柔弱的泡沫來核計大海的威權。
用你的失敗來論斷你，就是怨責四季之常變。
是呵，你們是像大海。
那重載的船舶，停在你的岸邊待潮。你們雖像大海，也不能催促你的潮水。
你們也像四季。
雖然你們在冬天的時候，拒絕了春日。
你們的春日，和你們一同靜息，它在睡中微笑，並不怨嗔。
不要想我說這話是要使你們彼此說：「他誇獎得好，他只看見我們的好處。」
我不過用言語說出你們意念中所知道的事情。
言語的知識不只是無言的知識的影子麼？
你們的意念和我的言語，都是從封緘的記憶裡來的波浪，這記憶是保存下來的我們的昨日，也是大地還不認識我們也不認識她自己，正在混沌中受造的太古的白日和黑夜的記錄。
哲人們曾來過，將他們的智慧給你們。我來卻是領取你們的智慧：
要知道我找到了比智慧更偉大的東西。
那就是你們心裡愈聚愈旺的火焰似的心靈。
你卻不關心它的發展，只哀悼你歲月的凋殘。
那是生命在宇宙的大生命中尋求擴大，而軀殼卻在恐懼墳墓。
這裡沒有墳墓。
這些山嶺和平原只是搖籃和墊腳石，
無論何時你從祖宗墳墓上走過，你若留意，你就會看見你們自己和子女們在那裡攜手跳舞。
真的，你們常在不知不覺中作樂。
別人曾來到這裡，為了他們在你們信仰上的黃金般的應許，你們所付與的只是財富、權力與光榮。
我所給予的還不及應許，而你們待我卻更慷慨。
你們將生命的更深的渴求給予了我。
真的，對那把一切目的變作枯唇，把一切生命變作泉水的人，沒有比這個更大的禮物了。
這便是我的榮譽和報酬——
當我到泉邊飲水的時候，我覺得那流水也在渴著；
我飲水的時候，水也飲我。
你們中有人責備我對於領受禮物上太狷傲、太羞怯了。
在領受勞金上我是太驕傲了，在領受禮物上卻不如此。
雖然在你們請我赴席的時候，我卻在山中採食漿果。
在你們款留我的時候，我卻在廟宇的廊下睡眠。
但豈不是你們對我的日夜的關懷，使我的飲食有味，使我的魂夢甜美麼？
為此我正要祝福你們：
「你們給予了許多，卻不知道你們已經給予。
真的，慈悲自己看鏡的時候，變成石像。
「善行」自賜嘉名的時候，變成了咒詛的根源。」
你們中有人說我高蹈，與我自己的『孤獨』對飲。
你們也說過：「他和山林談論卻不和人說話。
「他獨自坐在山巔，俯視我們的城市。」
我確會攀登高山，孤行遠地。
但除了在更高更遠之處，我怎能看見你們呢？
除了相遠之外，人們怎能相近呢？
還有人在無言中對我呼喚，他們說：「異鄉人，異鄉人，『至高』的愛慕者，為什麼你住在那鷹鳥作巢的山峰上呢？
為什麼你要追求那不能達到的事物呢？
在你的窩巢中，你要網羅甚樣的風雨，
要捕取天空中哪一種虛幻的飛鳥呢？
加入我們罷。
你下來用我們的麵包充飢，用我們的醇酒解渴罷。」
在他們靈魂的靜默中，他們說了這些話；但是他們若再靜默些，他們就知道我所要網羅的，只是你們的歡樂和哀痛的奧秘。
我所要捕取的，只是你們在天空中飛行的「大我」。
但是獵者也曾是獵品。
因為從我弓上射出的箭兒，有許多只是瞄向我自己的心胸的。
並且那飛翔者也曾是爬行者；
因為我的翅翼在日下展開的時候，在地上的影兒是一個龜鱉。
我是信仰者也曾是懷疑者；
因為我常常用手指撫觸自己的傷痕，使我對你們有更大的信仰和認識。
憑著這信仰和認識，我說：
你們不是幽閉在軀殼之內，也不是禁錮在房舍與田野之中。
你們的「真我」是住在雲間，與風同游。
你們不是在日中匍匐取暖，在黑暗裡鑽穴求安的一隻動物，卻是一件自由的物事，一個包涵大地在以太中運行的魂靈。
如果這是模稜的言語，就不必尋求把這些話弄明白。
模糊和混沌是萬物的起始，卻不是終結。
我願意你們把我當作個起始。
生命，和一切有生，都隱藏在煙霧裡，不在水晶中。
誰知道水晶就是凝固的雲霧呢？
在憶念我的時候，我願你們記著這個：
你們心中最軟弱、最迷亂的，就是那最堅決、最剛強的。
不是你的呼吸使你的骨骼豎立堅強麼？
不是一個你覺得從未做過的夢，建造了你的城市，形成了城中的一切麼？
你如能看見你呼吸的潮汐，你就看不見別的一切。
你如能聽見那夢想的微語，你就聽不見別的聲音。
你看不見，也聽不見，這卻是好的。
那蒙在你眼上的輕紗，也要被包紮這紗的手揭去；
那塞在你耳中的泥土，也要被那填塞這泥土的手指戳穿。
你將要看見。
你將要聽見。
你也不為曾經聾聵而悲悔。
因為在那時候，你要知道萬物的潛隱的目的，你要祝福黑暗，如同祝福光明一樣。
他說完這些話，望著四周，他看見他船上的舵工憑舵而立，凝視著那脹滿的風帆，又望著無際的天末。
他說：
耐心的，我的船主是太耐心的了。
大風吹著，帆篷也煩躁了；
■ 記憶是相會的一種形式，忘記是自由的一種形式。
■ 信仰是心中的綠洲，思想的駱駝隊是永遠走不到的。
連船舵也急要啟程；
我的船主卻靜候著我說完話。
我的水手們，聽見了那更大的海的嘯歌，他們也耐心地聽著我。
現在他們不能再等待了。
我預備好了。
山泉已流入大海，那偉大的母親又把他的兒子抱在胸前。
別了，阿法利斯的民眾呵。
這一天完結了。
他在我們心上閉合，如同一朵蓮花在她自己的「明日」上合閉。
在這裡所付與我們的，我們要保藏起來。
如果這還不夠，我們還必須重聚，齊向那給予者伸手。
不要忘了我還要回到你們這裡來。
一會兒的工夫，我的願望又要聚些泥土，形成另一個軀殼。
一會兒的工夫，在風中休息片刻，另一個婦人又要孕懷著我，我向你們，和我曾在你們中度過的青春告別了。
不過是昨天，我們曾在夢中相見。
在我的孤寂中，你們曾對我歌唱。為了你們的渴慕，我曾在空中建立了一座高塔。
但現在我們的睡眠已經飛走，我們的夢想已經過去，也不是破曉的時候了。
中天的日影正照著我們，我們的半醒已變成了完滿的白日，我們必須分手了。
如果在記憶的朦朧中，我們再要會見，我們再在一起談論，你們也要對我唱更深沉的歌曲。
如果在另一個夢中，我們要再握手，我們要在空中再建一座高塔。
說著話，他向水手們揮手作勢，他們立刻拔起錨兒，放開船兒，向東駛行。
從人民口裡發出的同心的悲號，在塵沙中飛揚，在海面上奔越，如同號角的聲響。
只有愛爾美差靜默著，凝望著，直至那船漸漸消失在煙霧之中。
大眾都星散了，她仍獨自站在海岸上，在她的心中憶念著他所說的：
「一會兒的工夫，在風中休息片刻，另一個婦人又要孕懷著我。」
28
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.
Man's needs change, but not his love, nor his desire that his love should satisfy his needs.
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 contusion,
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 lite.
Surely there is no greater gilt 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 hoard,
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, "Ile 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 it 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."
■ 思想是天空中的鳥，在語言的籠裡，也許會展翼，卻不會飛翔。
■ 友誼永遠是一個甜蜜的責任，從來不是一種機會。
■ 當你的朋友向你傾吐胸臆的時候，你不要怕說出心中的「否」也不要瞞住你心中的「可」。當他靜默的時候，你的心仍要傾聽他的心；因為在友誼裡，不用言語，一切的思想，一切的願望，一切的希冀，都在無聲的喜樂中發生而共享了。
■ 我寧可做人類中有夢想和有完成夢想的願望的、最渺小的人，而不願做一個最偉大的、無夢想、無願望的人。
■ 有限的愛情要求佔有對方，而無限的愛情則只要求愛的本身。