买卖

于是一个商人说，请给我们谈买卖。

他回答说：

大地贡献果实给你们，如果你们只晓得怎样独取，你们就不应当领受了。在交易着大地的礼物时，你们将感到丰裕而满足。

然而若不是用爱和公平来交易，则必有人流为饕餮，有人流为饿殍。

当在市场上，你们这些海上、田中和葡萄园里的工人，遇见了织工、陶工和采集香料的——

就当祈求大地的主神，临到你们中间，来圣化天秤，以及那较量价值的核算。

不要容许游手好闲的人来参加你们的买卖，他们会以言语来换取你们的劳力。

你们要对这种人说：

“同我们到田间，或者跟我们的兄弟到海上去撒网；

“因为海与陆地，对你们也和对我们一样地慈惠。”

倘若那吹箫的和歌舞的人来了，你们也应当买他们的礼物。

因为他们也是果实和乳香的采集者，他们带来的物事，虽系梦幻，却是你们灵魂上的衣食。

在你们离开市场以前，要看着没有人空手回去。

因为大地的主神，不到你们每人的需要全都满足了以后，他不能在风中宁静地睡眠。

11

On Buying & Selling

And a merchant said, "Speak to us of Buying and Selling."

And he answered and said:

To you the earth yields her fruit, and you shall not want if you but know how to fill your hands.

It is in exchanging the gifts of the earth that you shall find abundance and be satisfied.

Yet unless the exchange be in love and kindly justice, it will but lead some to greed and others to hunger.

When in the market place you toilers of the sea and fields and vineyards meet the weavers and the potters and the gatherers of spices,-

Invoke then the master spirit of the earth, to come into your midst and sanctify the scales and the reckoning that weighs value against value.

And suffer not the barren-handed to take part in your transactions, who would sell their words for your labour.

To such men you should say,

"Come with us to the field, or go with our brothers to the sea and cast your net;

For the land and the sea shall be bountiful to you even as to us."

And if there come the singers and the dancers and the flute players, - buy of their gifts also.

For they too are gatherers of fruit and frankincense, and that which they bring, though fashioned of dreams, is raiment and food for your soul.

And before you leave the marketplace, see that no one has gone his way with empty hands.

For the master spirit of the earth shall not sleep peacefully upon the wind till the needs of the least of you are satisfied.