And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said, Speak to us of Children.

你的孩子不属于你

And he said:

他们是生命的渴望

是生命自己的儿女

Your children are not your children.

经由你生 与你相伴

They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.

却有自己独立的轨迹

They come through you but not from you,

给他们爱而不是你的意志

And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

孩子有自己的见地

给他一个栖身的家

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,

不要把他的精神关闭

For they have their own thoughts.

他们的灵魂属于明日世界

You may house their bodies but not their souls,

你无从闯入 梦中寻访也将被拒

For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.

让自己变得像个孩子

不要让孩子成为你的复制

You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.

昨天已经过去

For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

生命向前奔涌

You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.

无法回头 川流不息

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.