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."

告别

　　已经是夜了。

　　女预言家艾尔梅特拉说，今日，此地，和你所倾诉的心灵，都有福了。

　　他答道："难道我只是一个倾诉者？我不也是一个倾听者么？"

　　他步下圣殿的台阶，人们跟随着他。他登上他的航船，立于甲板

　　上。

　　他再次面对人们，提高嗓音说道：

　　"奥法利斯城的人们！风在催促我离开你们。

　　"尽管我不像风这般急切，但我不得不登程了。

　　"我们是些不停地寻找更孤寂道路的流浪者，我们的一天并不在

　　另一天结束时开始；朝阳也不会在暮日离开我们的地方找到我们。

　　"甚至当大地沉睡时，我们也在赶路。

　　"我们是具有生命力的种子，当我们的心孩成熟充实时，就被献

　　给风，飘散四方。"

　　我在你们中间度过的日子十分短暂，我向你们倾吐的话语则更短。

　　不过，倘若我的声音从你们耳边远逝，我的爱在你们心中消失，那我还会再来，

　　我将以一颗更充实的心动和更灵性的唇说话。

　　是的，我将踏浪而来，

　　也许死亡会将我隐藏，更深的沉默会将我覆盖，但我将再次寻求你们的理解。

　　而我的寻找不会是徒劳的。

　　如果我讲到的是真理，那么真理会用更清晰和更亲近你们心灵的话语表达自己。

　　奥法利斯城的人们啊！我将与风同去，但不会陷入虚空；

　　如果今天不是满足你们需要和成全我的爱的日子，那么让它成为某一天能够实现的希望吧。

　　人的需要或许会改变，但他的爱不会变，他想以爱满足需要的愿望也不会变。

　　你们应当知道，我将从更深的静寂中归来。

　　黎明散去的雾留给大地的露水，升腾凝聚为云，又化作甘霖降落。

　　我与雾没有什么不同。

　　我曾在寂静的夜晚盘踞于你们的街头，我的灵魂飘入你们的房舍。

　　你们的心跳在我的胸中，你们的气息拂过我的面庞，我认识了你们所有的人。

　　是的，我体会你们的欢乐与痛苦，你们睡眠中的梦也是我的梦。

　　多少次，我像山谷中的湖泊置身你们当中。

　　我如明镜，映出你们的山峰，你们弯曲的斜坡，甚至徘徊于你们心头的思绪与欲望。

　　溪水中你们孩子的笑声，河流中你们青年的渴望，都飘入了我的心田。

　　当他们来到我心深处，溪水与河流仍不停止歌唱。

　　但有比笑声更甜美、比渴望更深切的东西，也进入了我的心田。

　　这就是你们身上的无穷性；

　　这是一个巨人，你们不过是他体内的细胞和肌腱；

　　他是一位歌者，你们的歌唱在他不过是无声的颤抖。

　　在巨人的体内你们才宏阔浩瀚，

　　我通过注视他，注视你们，热爱你们。

　　爱所能达到的地方哪处不属于这片素的领地？

　　怎样的洞察力，怎样的期许，怎样的假设能飞越那领空？

　　这巨人如覆满苹果花的巨大橡树矗立在你们体内，

　　他的力量将你们缚于大地，他的芬芳将你们托至空中，在他的不朽里你们永生。

　　你们常常听说，你们像最薄弱的链环一样脆弱。

　　此言半对。因为你们也像最坚固的链环一样坚强。

　　用你们的微行评价你们，就是以泡沫的脆弱推测大海的雄伟。

　　以你们的失败评判你们，就是责怪季节更替为反复无常。

　　的确，你们像大海，

　　尽管载重的航船停靠在你们的岸边等待涨潮，但就像大海，你们

　　不急于弄潮。

　　你们也像四季，

　　尽管在冬季你们弃绝了春天，

　　但眼于你们心中的春天，在睡梦中微笑，不以为然。

　　不要以为我谈论这些是为了让你们彼此说出"他盛赞我们。他

　　只看到我们的优长"。

　　我用言语告诉你们的，正是你们自己意识所领悟的。

　　难道言语的知识不正是无形知识的影子么？

　　你们的意识和我的语言，是从我们封闭的记忆中涌出的浪潮，那记忆记录了我们的往昔，

　　记录了那些遥远的白昼，那时，大地不知道我们，也不了解她自己，

　　也记录了那些黑夜，当时大地在混沌困惑中辗转不安。

　　智者前来是给你们带来智慧，而我前来是求取你们的智慧：

　　因为我发现了超越智慧之物。

　　那便是在你们身上不断凝聚燃烧的精神，

　　而你们不曾留意它的发展，只为你们岁月的流逝悲悼哀叹。

　　这是生命在恐惧坟墓的肉体中追求生命。

　　这里没有坟墓。

　　这群山和平原是摇篮，是溪中垫脚的石头。

　　每当你们走过埋葬祖先的地方，请仔细观看，你们会看到你们自己和你们的孩子们手牵着手跳舞。

　　的确，你们常常不知不觉创造了欢乐。

　　也有其他人造访你们，为了他们对你们信仰的黄金般的许诺，你们付出了财富、权力和荣耀。

　　我给予你们的抵不上一个许诺，可你们对我更加慷慨。

　　你们给了我对生命更深沉的渴望。

　　真的，对一个人来说，世上最好的赠礼莫过于将他的一切希冀化为焦唇，将一切生命化为甘泉。

　　这里有我的荣耀和回报，----

　　每当我来到泉边饮水，我发现那生命之流也在干渴；

　　我饮它时，它亦饮我。

　　你们中有些人认为我高做或过于羞怯而不愿接受馈赠。

　　我的确太骄傲而不愿接受酬报，但不是礼物。

　　虽然你们请我坐在你们餐桌旁时，我却以山间的萄果为食，

　　虽然你们邀我留宿时，我却睡卧于圣殿的门廊．

　　然而，不正是你们对我日与夜的护爱，使食物甜在我的口中，使美景京绕于我的梦境？

　　为此我祝福你们：

　　你们的给予如此之多，而你们却不知晓。

　　的确，对镜自赏的慈悯，会变成顽石，

　　用种种美名自夸的善行，会化作诅咒之源。

　　你们中有些人以为我冷漠自闭，陶醉于自己的孤独，

　　你们说："他与林中的树木攀谈，却不理会人类。

　　"他独坐山顶俯视我们的城市。"

　　的确，我曾登上高山峻岭，走过偏僻之地。

　　但若不从更高更远处，我又怎能看见你们？

　　若从本相远，人又怎能相近？

　　你们中的另一些人对我说，但不是通过语言，他们说：

　　"怪人啊，怪人！爱慕无法企及的高度的人，你为什么要栖息在鹰隼都不筑巢的峰顶？

　　"你为什么总追求那不可能得到的东西？

　　"你想网罗的是怎样的风暴？

　　"你在空中捕捉的又是哪种臆想中的飞鸟？

　　"下来做我们中的一员吧。

　　"下来用我们的面包充饥，用我们的葡萄酒解渴吧。"

　　他们在灵魂的孤寂中这样说；

　　不过，他们倘若有更深的孤寂，便会了解我追寻的只是你们欢乐

　　与痛苦的秘密，

　　我捕捉的只是你们在空中飞行的大我。

　　但捕猎者也是猎物；

　　因为我许多离弦的箭只为寻找我自己的胸膛。

　　飞翔者也是爬行者；

　　因为当我的翅膀在阳光下伸展，投在地面上的阴影便是龟鳖。

　　而我这个笃信者也是怀疑者；

　　因为我曾常常用手指触摸自己的伤口，这样我会更加信任和了解你们。

　　凭借这信任和了解，我说，

　　你们不被躯壳束缚，也不受屋宇或地界羁囚。

　　你们的真我居于高山之巅，与风道游四方。

　　它不是一只起日求暖、掘洞求安的动物，

　　而是一个自由自在、包容世界、在空中翱翔的精魂。

　　如果这些话股俄含混，也不要试图澄清它们。

　　膝跪代表一切事物之始，而非其终。

　　而我愿让你们在记忆中视我为一个开端。

　　生命，乃至一切有生者，均在雾中，而非水晶中孕育而成。

　　但有谁知道那水晶只是衰亡的雾？

　　我希望你们忆起我时能记住：

　　你们内中看上去最孱弱和最惶惑的，正是最强劲和最坚执的。

　　难道不是你们的呼吸支撑了你们的骨架，使之坚强？

　　难道不是你们谁都不记得的梦建起了你们的城堡，营造了里面的一切？

　　如果你们见到过那呼吸的潮汐，你们就会对其他一切事物视而不见；

　　如果你们听到过那梦中的低语，你们就会对其他一切声响听而不闻。

　　但你们既不看，也不听，这样也好。

　　因为遮盖你们眼帘的面纱，将由编织它的手掀起，

　　堵塞你们耳道的泥巴，将由揉捏它的手指穿透。

　　因而你们将看到，

　　你们将听到。

　　不过你们不应因曾经盲目或耳聋而痛悔。

　　因为在那些日子里，你们会了解万物隐匿的目的，

　　从而祝福黑暗，就像祝福光明一般。

　　说完这些话，他环顾四周，看到自己航船的舵手立于舵旁，凝视着张满的帆，继而眺望着远方。

　　他于是说道：

　　耐心等待着，我的船长还在耐心等待着。

　　风已起，帆躁动；

　　即使锚也在请求启航；

　　但我的船长还在静候着我的沉寂。

　　我这些听过法海更宏伟合唱的海员们，也在耐心地听我诉说。

　　现在他们不用再等待了。

　　我已做好准备。

　　溪流已奔入海洋，伟大的母亲再次将她的儿子揽入怀抱。

　　别了，奥法利斯城的人们！

　　这一天已经结束。

　　它在我们心上闭合，就像莲花休闭于自己的明天。

　　我们要保存这里施与我们的一切，

　　如果不够，那我们必须再次相聚，一起向馈赠者伸出手臂。

　　不要忘记，我将会回到你们的身边。

　　再过一会儿，我的愿望就要为另一个躯体聚集微尘与泡沫。

　　再过一会儿，在风中小想片刻，另一位女子就会孕育我。

　　别了，你们！别了，我在你们中度过的青春时光！

　　就在昨日我们还曾在梦中相会。

　　你们在我的孤寂中为我歌唱，而我，在空中为你们的渴望建起一座楼阁。

　　而现在，我们的睡眠已经逃逸，我们的梦境已经结束，且已非黎明时分。

　　日已当空，我们的混沌已到了完满的白昼，我们必须分离了。

　　假如在记忆的股股中我们再次相聚，我们将畅谈，而你们将会为我唱一曲更深情的歌。

　　假如我们的双手在另一个梦中相握，我们将会在空中搭建另一座楼阁。

　　说话间，他向水手示意，他们立刻拔锚启航，离开泊位，向东方驶去。

　　哭声从人群中响起，就像从同一颗心中迸发出来，融入暮色，如喇叭呜咽，在海面上回荡。

　　只有艾尔梅特拉沉默着，目光追随着航船，直到它消失在雾中。

　　当人们全都散去，她仍独自立于海堤上，在心中回味着他的话语，

　　"再过一会儿，在风中小想片刻，另一位女子就会孕育我。"

　　
关键字:先知
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