(上) 漫步新竹交通大学校园

 

黎巴嫩诗人纪伯伦在"先知"中的段落"孩子"写著关于亲子的论述 :

你的孩子不是你的孩子，他们是生命自己的孩子。

他们透过你来到这个世界，他们却不属于你。

尽管他们在你们身边，却并不属于你们。

你可以给他们你的爱，却不能给他们你的思想，因为他们有他们自己的思想。

你可以提供他们身体的住屋，却不能替他们的灵魂找房子，

因为他们的灵魂住在明日之屋，那是你即使在梦中也无法到达的地方。

你可以努力像他们一样，但是千万不要使他们像你一样，

因为生命是无法倒行的，更不能被昨日的你所耽搁。

 

你们是弓，你们的孩子是被射出的生命的箭矢。

 

那射者瞄准无限之旅上的目标，用力将你弯曲，以使他的箭迅捷远飞。

 

让你欣然在射者的手中弯曲吧；

 

因为他既爱飞驰的箭，也爱稳健的弓。

 

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"