I've opened the curtain of my east window here, and I sit now in a holy theater before a sky-blue stage. A little cloud above the neighbor's trees resembles Jimmy Durante's1 nose for a while, then becomes amorphous2 as it slips on north. Other clouds follow, big and little and tiny on their march toward whereness. Wisps3 of them lead or droop4 because there must always be leading and drooping.
The trees seem to laugh at the clouds while yet reaching for them with swaying branches. Trees must think that they are real, rooted, somebody, and that perhaps the clouds are only tickled5 water which sometimes blocks their sun. But trees are clouds, too, of green leaves—clouds that only move a little. Trees grow and change and disappear like their airborne6 cousins.
And what am I but a cloud of thoughts and feelings and aspirations7? Don't I put out tentative8 mists here and there? Don't I occasionally appear to other people as a ridiculous9 shape of thoughts without my intending to? Don't I drift toward the north when I feel the breezes of love and the warmth of compassion?
If clouds are beings, and beings are clouds, are we not all well advised to drift, to feel the wind tucking10 us in here and plucking11 us out there? Are we such rock-hard bodily lumps12 as we imagine?
Drift, let me. Sing to the sky, will I. One in many, are we. Let us breathe the breeze and find therein13 our roots in the spirit.
I close the curtain now, feeling broader, fresher. The act is over. Applause is sweeping through the trees.
拉开了房间东边窗子的窗帘，自己仿佛置身在一个神圣的剧场，天蓝的舞台展现在面前。有好一阵儿，邻居家树丛上飘着一小朵云，形状像极了杰米·杜兰特的大鼻子。但云朵随后往北飘移，大鼻子也就散了形。周围的云，大的、小的、丁点儿的都随之飘向不知什么地方。缕缕白云或前行，或散去，因为它们只能前行或是散去。
树轻摆着树枝，像在嘲笑云朵。树肯定在想自己才是实实在在、稳稳扎根的大人物，而云朵不过是欢聚的水珠，只会偶尔挡住太阳的光辉。其实树也是一种云，是绿叶做的云，是不怎么动的云。树也会成长、变化、老去，就跟它们空中的亲戚一样。
我不也是一朵云吗？一朵有着思想、感情和抱负的云。我不是也到处做尝试，制造一个个雾团吗？我的想法不也常不经意地在旁人面前变成了异想天开的形状吗？在感受到爱的微风和怜悯的温暖时，我不也像一朵朝北游走的浮云吗？
若浮云如人，人亦如浮云，我们是否都该好好考虑飘游？让风的力量把我们卷到这儿，又把我们吹走？我们真的就如自己想象中那样坚如磐石吗？
让我飘吧！我要向天高歌。我们不过是，人海里的过客。让我们呼吸微风的气息，寻找我们精神的根。
现在我拉拢窗帘，感觉心胸更开阔，头脑更清醒。帷幕降下，树丛间掌声雷动。
1. 吉米·杜兰特，20世纪美国著名艺人
2. amorphous adj. 无定形的
3. wisp n. 小束，小把
4. droop v. 变低，减少
5. tickled adj. 高兴的，开心的
6. airborne adj. 空气中的
7. aspiration n. 热望，渴望
8. tentative adj. 试探性的
9. ridiculous adj. 荒谬可笑的
10. tuck v. 卷起
11. pluck v. 拔起
12. lump n. 块
13. therein adv. 在那里