On Children -- "The Prophet," Kahlil Gibran

記下了這段充滿智慧的文字...

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 arrows that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.
-- Kahlil Gibran, "The Prophet"

你的孩子並不是你的。
他們是生命對自身的渴慕所生的子女。
他們經由你來到這世界，卻不是你所造生。
他們與你相伴，但他們並不屬於你。
你可以給他們你的愛，卻不能給他們你的思想；因為他們擁有自己的思想。
你或許能圈囿他們的身體，卻無法限制他們的靈魂。
因為他們的靈魂居住在明日之屋，甚至在夢中你也無法前去探訪。
你可以盡力去模仿他們，但是不要指望他們和你相像，
因為生命不會倒流，也不會駐足在昨日。
你是弓，而你的孩子是從弦上射發的生命之箭。
箭手瞄向無窮遠的標靶，以祂的神力將你拉滿，將箭急馳遠射。
你應在射手的掌中彎滿，而感到歡欣；
因為，一如祂愛飛去的箭矢，祂也愛掌中沉穩的弓。
-- 紀伯倫《先知》