言别（第3/6页）

现在他们不能再等待了。

我预备好了。

山泉已流入大海，那伟大的母亲又把他的儿子抱在胸前。

别了，阿法利斯的民众呵。

这一天完结了。

他在我们心上闭合，如同一朵莲花在她自己的“明日”上合闭。

在这里所付与我们的，我们要保藏起来。

如果这还不够，我们还必须重聚，齐向那给予者伸手。

不要忘了我还要回到你们这里来。

一会儿的工夫，我的愿望又要聚些泥土，形成另一个躯壳。

一会儿的工夫，在风中休息片刻，另一个妇人又要孕怀着我，我向你们，和我曾在你们中度过的青春告别了。

不过是昨天，我们曾在梦中相见。

在我的孤寂中，你们曾对我歌唱。为了你们的渴慕，我曾在空中建立了一座高塔。

但现在我们的睡眠已经飞走，我们的梦想已经过去，也不是破晓的时候了。

中天的日影正照着我们，我们的半醒已变成了完满的白日，我们必须分手了。

如果在记忆的朦胧中，我们再要会见，我们再在一起谈论，你们也要对我唱更深沉的歌曲。

如果在另一个梦中，我们要再握手，我们要在空中再建一座高塔。

说着话，他向水手们挥手作势，他们立刻拔起锚儿，放开船儿，向东驶行。

从人民口里发出的同心的悲号，在尘沙中飞扬，在海面上奔越，如同号角的声响。

只有爱尔美差静默着，凝望着，直至那船渐渐消失在烟雾之中。

大众都星散了，她仍独自站在海岸上，在她的心中忆念着他所说的：

“一会儿的工夫，在风中休息片刻，另一个妇人又要孕怀着我。”

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,