My friends introduced me to this poem few years ago, when we're still in junior high and I loved the poem and the poet, Khalil Gibran. That big event yesterday (which gave my mom a meltdown) reminded me of this poem and I tried to google it but I didn't find the exact same translation like the one on my junior high yearbook.

Anakmu bukan milikmu (Khalil Gibran)

Anakmu bukan milikmu
Mereka putra-putri Sang Hidup yang rindu pada diri sendiri
Lewat engkau mereka lahir
Namun bukan dari engkau
Mereka ada padamu, tapi bukan hakmu

Berikan mereka kasih sayangmu,
tapi jangan sodorkan bentuk pemikiranmu
Sebab pada mereka ada alam pikiran sendiri

Patut kau berikan rumah untuk raganya
tapi tidak untuk jiwanya
Sebab jiwa mereka adalah penghuni rumah masa depan
yang tidak dapat kau kunjungi sekalipun dalam mimpi

Kau boleh berusaha menyerupai mereka
namun jangan membuat mereka menyerupaimu
Sebab kehidupan tidak pernah berjalan mundur
pun tidak tenggelam bersama masa lalu

Kaulah busur dan anak-anakmulah anak panah yang meluncur
Sang Pemanah maha tau sasaran bidikan keabadian
Dia merentangkanmu dengan kekuasan-Nya
hingga anak panah itu melesat
jauh serta tepat

Meliuklah dengan sukacita dalam
rentang Sang Pemanah
sebab Dia mengasihi anak panah yang melesat laksana kilat
sebagaimana pula dikasihinya busur yang mantap

translated from "On Children" as a part from The Prophet

On Children
Kahlil Gibran

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.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
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.

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 our 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.