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.

衣服

　　一位织工说，请给我们谈谈衣服。

　　他答道：

　　你们的衣服遮掩了你们许多的美，却不能遮盖住丑。

　　尽管你们借衣服寻求隐私的自由，但你们找到的却是羁绊和束

　　缚。

　　但愿你们用自己的肌肤而不是衣服去迎接阳光和清风，

　　因为阳光中有生命的气息，而风中有生命之手。

　　你们中一些人说："是北风织造了我们所穿的衣服。"

　　我说，是的，的确是北风，

　　但它以羞怯为织机，以纤弱的肌腱为纱线。

　　它一旦完成工作，便会在林中大笑。

　　不要忘记，羞怯原是抵挡不洁目光的盾牌。

　　若无邪狎，那羞怯除了是精神上的束缚和污垢外还能是什么？

　　也不要忘记，大地乐于感觉体赤裸的双脚，风儿渴望与你的头发嬉戏。

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