于是有个每年进城一次的隐士，走上前来说：给我们谈逸乐。
他回答说：逸乐是一阕自由的歌，
却不是自由。
是你的愿望开出的花朵，
却不是结下的果实。
是从深处到高处的招呼，
却不是深，也不是高。
是关闭在笼中的翅翼，
却不是被围绕住的太空。
噫，实话说，逸乐只是一阕自由的歌。
我愿意你们全心全意地歌唱，我却不愿你们在歌唱中迷恋。
你们中间有些年轻的人，寻求逸乐，似乎这便是世上的一切。他们已被裁判、被谴责了。
我不要裁判、谴责他们，我要他们去寻求。
因为他们必会找到逸乐，但不止找到她一个人；
她有七个姊妹，最小的比逸乐还娇媚。
你们没听见过有人因为要挖掘树根却发现了宝藏么？
你们中间有些老人，想起逸乐时总带些懊悔，如同想起醉中所犯的过失。
然而，懊悔只是心灵的蒙蔽，而不是心灵的惩罚。
你们想起逸乐时应当带着感谢，如同秋收对于夏季的感谢。但是假如懊悔能予他们以安慰，就让他们得到安慰吧。
你们中间有的不是寻求的青年人，也不是追忆的老年人；
在他们的畏惧寻求与追忆之中，他们远离一切的逸乐，他们深恐疏远了或触犯了心灵。
然而，他们的放弃就是逸乐了。
这样，他们虽用震颤的手挖掘树根，他们也找到宝藏了。
告诉我，谁能触犯心灵呢？
夜莺能触犯静默么，萤火能触犯星辰么？
你们的火焰和烟气能使风感到负载么？
■ 希望是半个生命，淡漠是半个死亡。
■ 生命的气息在阳关中，生命把握在风中。
你们认为心灵是一池止水，你能用竿子去搅拨它么？
常常在你拒绝逸乐的时候，你只是把欲望收藏在你心身的隐处。
谁知道在今日似乎避免了的事情，到明日不会再浮现呢？
连你的身体都知道他的遗传和正当的需要而不肯被欺骗。你的身体是你灵魂的琴，
无论他发出甜柔的音乐或嘈杂的声响，那都是你的。
现在你们在心中自问：“我们如何辨别逸乐中的善与不善呢？”
到你的田野和花园里去，你就知道在花中采蜜是蜜蜂的娱乐；但是，将蜜汁送给蜜蜂也是花的娱乐。
因为对于蜜蜂，花是它生命的泉源；
对于花，蜜蜂是它恋爱的使者；
对于蜂和花，两下里，娱乐的授受是一种需要与欢乐。
阿法利斯的民众呵，在娱乐中你们应当像花朵与蜜蜂。
24
On Pleasure
Then a hermit, who visited the city once a year, came forth and said, "Speak to us of Pleasure."
And he answered, saying:
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 were 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?
Think 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 seems omitted today, waits for tomorrow?
Even your body knows its heritage and its rightful need and will not be deceived.
And your body is the harp of your soul,
And it is yours to bring forth sweet music from it or confused sounds.
And now you ask in your heart, "How shall we distinguish that which is good in pleasure from that which is not good?"
Go to your fields and your gardens, and you shall learn that it is the pleasure of the bee to gather honey of the flower,
But it is also the pleasure of the flower to yield its honey to the bee.
For to the bee a flower is a fountain of life,
And to the flower a bee is a messenger of love,
And to both, bee and flower, the giving and the receiving of pleasure is a need and an ecstasy.
People of Orphalese, be in your pleasures like the flowers and the bees.