Then a ploughman said, “Speak to us of Work.”

And he answered, saying:
You work that you may keep pace with
the earth and the soul of the earth.
For to be idle is to become a stranger unto the seasons,
and to step out of life’s procession,
that marches in majesty and proud submission towards the infinite.
于是一个农夫说：请给我们谈谈工作。
他回答说：
你工作为了要与大地和大地的精神一同前进。
因为惰逸使你成为四季的陌生人，
一个生命的落伍者，
生命的行进是庄严的、自豪的臣服，向着无限迈进。

When you work you are a flute through whose heart
the whispering of the hours turns to music.
Which of you would be a reed, dumb and silent,
when all else sings together in unison?
在你工作的时候，你是一管笛，
从你心中吹出时光的微语，变成音乐。
你们谁肯做一根芦管，在万物合唱的时候，
你独痴呆无声呢？

Always you have been told that work is a curse and labour a misfortune.
But I say to you that when you work you fulfil a part of earth’s furthest dream,assigned to you when that dream was born,
And in keeping yourself with labour you are in truth loving life,
And to love life through labour is to be intimate with life’s inmost secret.
你们常听人说，工作是祸殃，劳力是不幸。
我却对你们说，你们工作的时候，你们完成了大地的深远的梦之一部，
他指示你那梦是何时开头，
而在你劳力不息的时候，你确在爱了生命。
从工作里爱了生命，就是通彻了生命最深的秘密。

But if you in your pain call birth an affliction
and the support of the flesh a curse written upon your brow,
then I answer that naught but the sweat of your brow shall wash away that which is written.
倘然在你的辛苦里，将有身之苦恼和养身之诅咒，
写上你的眉间，则我将回答你，
只有你眉间的汗，能将它们清洗。

You have been told also that life is darkness,
and in your weariness you echo what was said by the weary.
And I say that life is indeed darkness save when there is urge,
And all urge is blind save when there is knowledge,
And all knowledge is vain save when there is work,
And all work is empty save when there is LOVE;
And when you work with love you bind yourself to yourself,
and to one another, and to God.
你们也听见人说，生命是黑暗的，
在你疲瘁之中，你附和了那疲瘁的人所说的话。
我说生命的确是黑暗的，除非是有了激励；
一切的激励都是盲目的，除非是有了知识；
一切的知识都是徒然的，除非是有了工作；
一切的工作都是虚空的，除非是有了爱；
当你怀着爱工作的时候，你便与自己、与他人、与上天合而为一。

And what is it to work with love?
It is to weave the cloth with threads drawn from your heart,
even as if your beloved were to wear that cloth.
怎样才是怀着爱工作呢？
从你的心中抽丝，织成布帛，仿佛你爱的人要来穿此衣裳。
It is to build a house with affection,
even as if your beloved were to dwell in that house.
是用慈爱建造一幢房子，
仿佛你爱的人就要居住其中；

It is to sow seeds with tenderness and reap the harvest with joy,
even as if your beloved were to eat the fruit.
是用柔情播种，带着欢乐收获，
仿佛你爱的人就要品尝这果实；

It is to charge all things you fashion with a breath of your own spirit,
And to know that all the blessed dead
are standing about you and watching.
是用你自己灵魂的气息，来充满你所创造的一切。
要知道一切受福的古人，正站在你身旁注视着。

Often have I heard you say, as if speaking in sleep,
“He who works in marble, and finds the shape of his own soul in the stone, is nobler than he who ploughs the soil.
And he who seizes the rainbow to lay it on a cloth in the likeness of man, is more than he who makes the sandals for our feet.”
我常听见你们仿佛在梦中说：
“那在大理石上工作并找到他自己灵魂轮廓的人，
比耕地的人高贵多了。
那捉住彩虹，传神地画在布帛上的人，
比织履的人强多了。”

But I say, not in sleep but in the over wakefulness of noontide, that the wind speaks not more sweetly to the giant oaks than to the least of all the blades of grass;
And he alone is great who turns the voice of the wind into a song made sweeter by his own loving.
我却要说：不在梦中，而在正午极情醒的时候，
风对大橡树说话的小的草叶所说的更甜柔；
只有那用他的爱心，把风声变成甜柔的歌曲的人，
是伟大的。

Work is love made visible.
And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste,
it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.
工作就是爱的显现。
假如你不能怀着爱工作，而只觉厌烦，
那你不如放弃工作，坐在庙堂门边，
接受那些快乐工作的人们的施舍吧。

For if you bake bread with indifference,
you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half man’s hunger.
And if you grudge the crushing of the grapes, your grudge distils a poison in the wine.
And if you sing though as angels, and love not the singing, you muffle man’s ears to the voices of the day and the voices of the night.

因为，
假如你心不在焉地烤面包，你烘出的苦面包就只能让人半饱。
假如你勉为其难地榨葡萄，你的忿懑就在葡萄酒中滴入了毒液。
假如你宛若天使般地唱歌，却并不热爱歌唱，你便堵住了人们聆听昼夜之声的双耳。

Namaste with Love
Always
Mark