Your children are not your children.

They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.

They come through you but not from you,

And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.

你的兒女并不是你的兒女

他們是生命自身憧憬的兒女

他們借助你來到這世界，卻非自你而來

并且，盡管他們在你身旁，卻并不屬于你

You may give them your love but not your thought

For they have their own thoughts.

You may house their bodies but not their soul

For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,

Which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.

You may strive to be like them,

But seek not to make them like you,

For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday

你可以給予他們的是你的愛，卻不是你的思想

因為他們有自己的思想

你可以庇護的是他們的身體，卻不是他們的靈魂

因為他們的靈魂棲息于明日

那是你做夢也無法到達的地方

你可以拼盡力氣變得和他們一樣

卻不可以讓他們變得和你一樣

因為生命不會后退，也不會逗留在昨日

You are the bows from which your children

As living arrows are sent forth.

The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,

And He bends you with His might,

That His arrows may go swift and far.

Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness;

For even as He loves the arrow that flies

So He loves also the bow that is stable.

你是弓，兒女是從你那射出的

朝氣蓬勃的箭

弓箭手望著無盡的前路上那箭靶

他用盡力氣將你拉開

使他的箭可以射得又快又遠

懷著愉快的心情在弓箭手的手中彎曲吧

因為他愛這飛翔著的箭

也愛那無比穩定的弓