On Laws

Then a lawyer said, "But what of our Laws, master?"

And he answered:

You delight in laying down laws,

Yet you delight more in breaking them.

Like children playing by the ocean who build sand-towers with constancy and then destroy them with laughter.

But while you build your sand-towers the ocean brings more sand to the shore,

And when you destroy them, the ocean laughs with you.

Verily the ocean laughs always with the innocent.

But what of those to whom life is not an ocean, and man-made laws are not sand-towers,

But to whom life is a rock, and the law a chisel with which they would carve it in their own likeness?

What of the cripple who hates dancers?

What of the ox who loves his yoke and deems the elk and deer of the forest stray and vagrant things?

What of the old serpent who cannot shed his skin, and calls all others naked and shameless?

And of him who comes early to the wedding-feast, and when over-fed and tired goes his way saying that all feasts are violation and all feasters law-breakers?

What shall I say of these save that they too stand in the sunlight, but with their backs to the sun?

They see only their shadows, and their shadows are their laws.

And what is the sun to them but a caster of shadows?

And what is it to acknowledge the laws but to stoop down and trace their shadows upon the earth?

But you who walk facing the sun, what images drawn on the earth can hold you?

You who travel with the wind, what weathervane shall direct your course?

What man's law shall bind you if you break your yoke but upon no man's prison door?

What laws shall you fear if you dance but stumble against no man's iron chains?

And who is he that shall bring you to judgment if you tear off your garment yet leave it in no man's path?

People of Orphalese, you can muffle the drum, and you can loosen the strings of the lyre, but who shall command the skylark not to sing?

法律

　　然后，一位律师说，但我们的法律是怎样的呢，大师？

　　他答道：

　　你们乐于立法，

　　但更乐于破坏它们。

　　如同海边玩耍的孩子，孜孜不倦地搭建沙塔，再笑着将它们破坏。

　　不过当你们搭建沙塔时，大海又将更多的沙子带到海滩，

　　而你们摧毁沙塔时，大海又与你们同笑。

　　的确，大海总是同天真无知的人一起嬉戏。

　　但对那些生活不是海洋，人为的法律并非沙塔的人又如何呢？

　　对于那些以生活为岩石，以法律为刻刀，以自身为原型，在石上雕凿的人又如何呢？

　　对嫉恨舞者的残疾呢？

　　对喜欢挽轭，视林中康鹿为迷途流浪者的公牛呢？

　　对无法蜕皮而称他人的赤裸为不知羞耻的老蛇呢？

　　对那些早早来到婚宴，饱足疲倦后宣称一切宴会都是对法律的亵渎，所有赴宴者都是犯法者的人呢？

　　对于这等人，除了说他们站在太阳下却背对太阳外，我还能说他们些什么呢？

　　他们只看到自己的影子，这影子就是他们的法律。

　　对他们来说，太阳除了投影者外还是什么呢？

　　莫非承认法律只是屈背俯首者追随自己的投在地上的影子？

　　假如你们面向太阳行进，投射在大地上的阴影怎能将你们羁绊？

　　如果你们御风而行，什么样的风向标能为你们指示方向？

　　如果你们不在他人串门前打碎枷锁，人为的法律怎能将你们束缚？

　　如果你们跳舞而不碰撞任何人的铁链，有什么法律会令你们害怕呢？

　　如果你们扯下衣衫，却不丢弃在任何人的路上，谁又会把你们带上法庭呢？

　　奥法利斯城的人们啊，你们可以掩住鼓声，松弛琴弦，但谁又能够下令禁止云雀歌唱？

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