卡裏·紀伯倫/Kahlil Gibran
Pleasure is a freedom song, but it is not freedom. It is the blossoming of your desires;but it is not their fruit;it is a depth calling unto a height, but it is not the deep nor the high;it is the caged taking wing, but it is not space encompassed. Ay, in very truth, pleasure is a freedom song. And I fain would have you sing it with fullness of heart;yet I would not have you lose your hearts in the singing.
Some of your youth seek pleasure as if it was all, and they are judged and rebuked. I would not judge nor rebuke them. I would have them seek, for they shall find pleasure, but not her alone;seven are her sisters, and the least of them is more beautiful than pleasure. Have you not heard of the man who was digging in the earth for roots and found a treasure?
And some of your elders remember pleasures with regret like wrongs committed in drunkenness. But regret is the beclouding of the mind and not its chastisement. They should remember their pleasures with gratitude, as they would the harvest of a summer. Yet if it comforts them to regret, let them be comforted.
And there are among you those who are neither young to seek nor old to remember;and in their fear of seeking and remembering they shun all pleasures, lest they neglect the spirit or offend against it.
But even in their foregoing is their pleasure.
And thus they too find a treasure though they dig for roots with quivering hands.
But tell me, who is he that can offend the spirit?
Shall the nightingale offend the stillness of the night, or the firefly the stars?And shall your flame or your smoke burden the wind?
Thank you the spirit is a still pool which you can trouble with a staff?Oftentimes in denying yourself pleasure you do but store the desire in the recesses of your being.
Who knows but that which seem omitted today, waits for tomorrow?Even your body knows its heritage and its rightful need and will not be deceived.