十月文艺出版社双语版《先知》，英文部分完整地看了，中文部分看了一些，这里细细碎碎地记录一点感想。
整体的感受是清透流丽，包括语言和诗的意象。这样的英文是易读易品的，流畅明晰的文字，铺开一些隽美的比兴，说理于是如此娓娓地深入你心。轻盈的文字引导你轻松愉悦地随着他的思路去思索、辩证、认同或反驳。带一点古风的问答形式和类比句式，简洁古朴中孕育出一种行云流水的美。摘录一点点感受一下：
关于灵魂：
Say not, "I have found the path of the soul." Say rather, "I have met the soul walking upon my path."
For the soul walks upon all paths.
The soul unfolds itself, like a lotus of countless petals.（这句好美）
关于痛苦：
Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.
Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that its heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain.
关于时间
Of Time you would make a stream upon whose bank you would sit and watch is flowing.
关于爱与关系（很喜欢这段阐述）：
Love one another but make not a bond of love:
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf.
Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone,
Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.
Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping.
For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.
And stand together, yet not too near together:
For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.
纪伯伦在书中透过先知之口，讨论了生命的方方面面，核心的思想大略是善与美，以及万物归一的理念。这当中虽然弥漫着比较浓重的宗教色彩，但似乎又超越了任何一种特定的宗教。很多看法在我们今天看来不失现代甚至是前卫的。比如《饮食》篇中谈到，就如同我们屠食动物蔬果一样，我们自身也终将被屠食，途经食物与我们，生命完成循环的歌唱。"By the same power that slays you, I too am slain; and I too shall be consumed. For the law that delivered you into my hand shall deliver me into a mightier hand." 每个人对这个“法则”的理解或许不同，也许是生物化学的角度，也许是神学的角度，但重要的是，自然地去遵循这一法则并心怀感恩。比如《孩子》篇中谈到，你的孩子和你在一起，但他们并不属于你；你能给他们爱，却不能给他们思想；你可以尽力去仿效他们，但不要试图让他们像你一样。又比如《爱》篇中对于爱的理解和阐述：去爱，哪怕它翼中利剑把你伤害；哪怕它既能给你加冕，也能送你上十字架。"Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself. Love possesses not nor would it be possessed; For love is sufficient unto love." 而对于爱的本质和目的，纪伯伦是这样回答的："All these things shall love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart, and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life's heart."
《先知》中对很多议题的讨论充满了思辨哲理。比如关于施与受、悲与喜、罪与罚、善与恶、理性与激情等。不是既定的对立，而是相存相生、相容相化。这里面似乎更多地体现了一些东方哲学思想的影响。比如关于善恶："For what is evil but good tortured by its own hunger and thirst?" 恶是什么呢？不就是善被自己的饥渴折磨而成？关于死亡：“If you would indeed behold the spirit of death, open your heart wide unto the body of life. For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one." 如果你们真想瞻仰死亡之魂，就对生命之体敞开心怀吧！因为生死本一体，犹如江河与大海本为一体一样。关于自由："Verily all things move within your being in constant half embrace, the desired and the dreaded, the repugnant and the cherished, the pursued and that which you would escape." 万物总是互抱着，于你内在运行：欲望与恐惧， 厌恶与喜爱，追寻与躲避。
贯穿于所有篇章中的，是一种泛博爱的宗教观：万物出于神亦归于神，神性和人性同时存在于每一个人的身上。例如《祈祷》一文中："Our God, who art our winged self, it is thy will in us that willeth. It is thy desire in us that desireth. It is thy urge in us that would turn our nights, which are thine, into days which are thine also."神啊，你就是长了羽翼的我们。是你在我们心中的意念，在意念。是你在我们心中的欲望，在欲望。是你在我们心中的冲动，将我们的黑夜—也就是你的黑夜，变成白昼—那也是你的白昼。 -又例如《理性与激情》一篇的结尾："And since you are a breath in God's sphere, and a leaf in God's forest, you too should rest in reason and move in passion."既然你是上帝天体中的一息，上帝森林中的一叶，你也该在理性中安息，在激情中前行。对于有宗教信仰特别是基督教信仰的读者来说自然很容易认同这样的思想体系，而对于无神论者来说，我觉得可以把它理解为万物的一体性。宇宙的奥义存在于每一个哪怕微小至极的事物当中。即便一滴水，也包含着千万年演化的信息。世间万物由分子原子组成，而每一个分子原子的运行，无不遵循着宇宙的法则。
