作者：［黎巴嫩］卡里·纪伯伦（Kahlil Gidran，1883—1931）
选自《先知（The Prophet）》（译者：林志豪）
城里一位法官站上前说：请给我们讲讲罪与罚。
他回答说：
当你们的灵魂随风飘摇时，独行而大意的你极易对人对己犯错。
由于所犯过错，你们必须去敲扇承受福运之门，饱受冷落地稍等片刻。
你们的神性仿佛大海，
永远不会被亵渎。
又如天空，它仅仅容纳伸展双翼者高飞。
你们的神性甚至如同太阳，
不了解鼹鼠的来往途径，也不搜寻蛇的洞穴。
但你们的神性不是单独居住在你们身上——
在你们身上多数是人性，还有许多非人性，
而是一个未成形的侏儒，
在迷雾中梦游，找寻自己的清醒。
我现在想说说你们身上的人性，
因为熟识罪与罚的只有它，不是你们的神性，也不是迷雾中的侏儒。
我常常听你们谈起犯了某个错误的人，好像他不是你们中的一员，而是一个闯入了你们世界的陌生人。
然而我要说，即使是神圣正直之人，也不可能超越你们每个人心中的至善，同样，即使是邪恶软弱之人，也不可能低于你们心中的至恶。
宛如一片孤叶，未经大树的默许就不能枯黄，
那犯罪之人，未经你们全体的暗许就不能为非作歹。
你们就像一列向着人类“神性面”迈进的队伍，
你们是坦途，也是路人。
若其中一个人跌倒，他是为后面一个人跌倒，让他们小心避开绊脚的石头。
他也是为了前面的人跌倒，他们步伐虽然迅捷稳健，然而却没有移走绊脚石。
还有，这话或许让你们听上去心情沉重：
被害者对其被害难逃其咎，
被劫者对其被劫难逃其责。
正直者对其邪恶行径也不是毫无干系的，
无辜者对暴虐之徒的罪行也不是清清白白的。
是的，犯罪者通常是被害者的替罪羔羊，
更为常见的是，
负罪者担负了无罪和免于谴责之人的重担。
你们不能区分正邪善恶，
因为他它们在阳光下共存，仿佛黑线与白线混织在一起。
黑线一旦断开，织工就应检查整块布，也应看看机杼。
倘若你们谁要把一位不忠的妻子送上法庭，
请他也用天平测测他丈夫的心，用尺去量量他的灵魂。
让那欲鞭苔犯罪者的人深入那受害者的灵魂。
倘若你们谁要以正义为名，砍伐一株邪恶之树，请他瞧瞧那树的根基；他必将发现善根与恶根、产果的根与不孕的根全部纠结在大地静谧的心中。
你们这些欲主持公正的法官，
对于那表面老实而包藏祸心的人，你们将怎样宣判呢？
对于那伤人身体而精神受伤的人，你们将怎样处罚呢？
对于那欺诈压迫他人而又受虐和受害的人，你们将怎样起诉呢？
对于那些忏悔多于过失的人，你们又怎样惩罚？
难道你们信奉的法律所要伸张的正义不是使人忏悔吗？
但是，你们无法将忏悔加诸无辜者头上也无法将它从罪犯的心中取出。
在午夜它不请自来，发出呼唤：人们会清醒，审视自身。
而你们这些将了解公正的人，如果不在青天白日下明察秋毫，又怎会了解公正呢？
只有那时你们才会明白，那站立的与倒下的不过是同一个人，他身为侏儒的阴暗面与身为神性的阳光面融合于一身。
你们会明白：庙宇的边石并不比那地基中的石头高贵。
Then one of the judges of the city stood forth and said, speak to us of Crime and Punishment.
And he answered saying:
It is when your spirit goes wandering upon the wind,
That you, alone and unguarded, commit a wrong unto others and therefore unto yourself.
And for that wrong committed must you knock and wait a while unheeded at the gate of the blessed.
Like the ocean is your god-self;
It remains for ever undefiled.
And like the ether it lifts but the winged.
Even like the sun is your god-self;
It knows not the ways of the mole nor seeks it the holes of the serpent.
But your god-self does not dwell alonein your being—
Much in you is still man, and much in you is not yet man,
But a shapeless pigmy that walks asleep in the mist searching for its own awakening.
And of the man in you would I now speak.
For it is he and not your god-self nor the pigmy in the mist, that knows crime and the punishment of crime.
Oftentimes have I heard you speak of one who commits a wrong as though he were not one of you, but a stranger unto you and an intruder upon your world.
But I say that even as the holy and the righteous cannot rise beyond the highest which is in each one of you,
So the wicked and the weak cannot fall lower than the lowest which is in you also.
And as a single leaf turns not yellow but with the silent knowledge of the whole tree,
So the wrong-doer cannot do wrong without the hidden will of your all.
Like a pricession you walk together towards your god-self.
You are the way and the wayfarers.
And when one of you falls down he falls for those hehind him, a caution against the stumbling stone.
Ay, and he falls for those ahead of him, who though faster and surerof foot, yet removed not the stumbling stone.
And this also, though the word lie heavy upon your hearts:
The murdered is not unaccountable for his own murder,
And the robbed is not blameless in being robbed.
The righteous is not innocent of the deeds of the wicked,
And the white-handed is not clean in the doings of the felon.
Yea, the guilty is oftentimes the victim of the injured,
And still more often the condemned is the burdenbearer for the guiltless and unblamed.
You cannot separate the just from the unjust and the good from the wicked;
For they stand together before the face of the sun even as the black thread and the white are woven together.
And when the black thread breaks, the weaver shall look into the whole cloth, abd he shall examine the loom also.
If any of you would bring judgment the unfaithful wife,
Let him also weight the heart of her husbandin scales, and measure his soul with measurements.
And let him who would lash the offender look unto the spirit of the offended.
And if any of you would punish in the name of righteousness and lay the ax unto the evil tree, let him see to its roots;
And verily he will find the roots of the good and the bad, the fruitful and the fruitless, all entwined together in the silent heart of the earth.
And you judges who would be just,
What judgment pronounce you upon him who though honest in the flesh yet is a thief in spirit?
What penalty lay you upon him who slays in the flesh yet is himself slain in the spirit?
And how prosecute you him who in action is a deceiver and an oppress or, yet who also is aggrieved and outraged?
And how shall you punish those whose remorse is already greater than their misdeeds?
Is not remorse the justice which is administered by that very law which you would fain serve?
Yet you cannot lay remorse upon the innocent nor lift it from the heart of the guilty.
Unbidden shall it call in the night, that men may wake and gaze upon themselves.
And you who would understand justice, how shall you umless you look upon all deeds in the fullness of light?
Only then shall you know that the erect and the fallen are but one man standing in twilight between the night of his pigmy-self and the day of his god-self,
And that the corner-stone of the temple is not higher than the lowest stone in its foundation.