衣服

于是一个织工说，请给我们谈衣服。

他回答说：

你们的衣服掩盖了许多的美，却遮不住丑恶。

你们虽可在衣服里找到隐秘的自由，却也找到了橛饰与羁勒了。

我恨不得你们多用皮肤而少用衣服去迎接太阳和风。

因为生命的气息是在阳光中，生命的把握是在风里。

你们中有人说：“那纺织衣服给我们穿的是北风。”

我也说：对的，是北风，

但他的机杼是可羞的，那使筋肌软弱的是他的线缕。

当他的工作完毕时，他在林中喧笑。

不要忘却，羞怯只是遮挡不洁的眼目的盾牌。

在不洁完全没有了的时候，羞怯不是仅仅是心上的桎梏与束缚么？

也别忘了大地是欢喜和你的赤脚接触，风是希望和你的头发游戏的。

10

On Clothes

And the weaver said, "Speak to us of Clothes."

And he answered:

Your clothes conceal much of your beauty, yet they hide not the unbeautiful.

And though you seek in garments the freedom of privacy you may find in them a harness and a chain.

Would that you could meet the sun and the wind with more of your skin and less of your raiment,

For the breath of life is in the sunlight and the hand of life is in the wind.

Some of you say, "It is the north wind who has woven the clothes to wear."

But shame was his loom, and the softening of the sinews was his thread.

And when his work was done he laughed in the forest.

Forget not that modesty is for a shield against the eye of the unclean.

And when the unclean shall be no more, what were modesty but a fetter and a fouling of the mind?

And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.