THE PROPHET - KAHLIL GIBRAN

Kahlil Gibran was born in 1883 in Lebanon and died in New York in 1931. His family emigrated to the United States in 1895. In his early teens, the artistry of Gibran's drawings caught the eye of his teachers and he was introduced to the avant-garde Boston artist, photographer, and publisher Fred Holland Day, who encouraged and supported Gibran in his creative endeavors. A publisher used some of Gibran's drawings for book covers in 1898, and Gibran held his first art exhibition in 1904 in Boston. In 1908, Gibran went to study art with Auguste Rodin in Paris for two years, and he later studied art in Boston. While most of Gibran's early writing was in Arabic, most of his work published after 1918 was in English. Gibran's best-known work is The Prophet, a book composed of 28 poetic essays.

On Marriage

BY KAHLIL GIBRAN

Then Almitra spoke again and said, And

what of Marriage, master?

     And he answered saying:

     You were born together, and together you

shall be forevermore.

     You shall be together when the white

wings of death scatter your days.

     Aye, you shall be together even in the

silent memory of God.

     But let there be spaces in your togetherness,

     And let the winds of the heavens dance

between you.

 

     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.

The Prophet p. 7

Kahlil Gibran, The prophet, with an introduction by Christian Baker, Words Worth Classics of Word Literature,   Herthfordshire, 1986, p. 7. 

JPS, 21 Februari 2025. 

On Teaching

BY KAHLIL GIBRAN

Then said a teacher, Speak to us of Teach-

ing.

    And he said:

    No man can reveal to you aught but that

which already lies half asleep in the dawn-

ing of your knowledge.

    The teacher who walks in the shadow of

the temple, among his followers, gives not

of his wisdom but rather of his faith and

his lovingness.

    If he is indeed wise he does not bid you

enter the house of his wisdom, but rather

leads you to the threshold of your own

mind.

   The astronomer may speak to you of his

understanding of space, but he cannot give

you his understanding.

   The musician may sing to you of the

rhythm which is in all space, but he cannot

give you the ear which arrests the rhythm

nor the voice that echoes it.

   And he who is versed in the science of

numbers can tell of the regions of weight

and measure, but he cannot conduct you

thither.

   For the vision of one man lends not its

wings to another man.

   And even as each one of you stands alone

in God’s knowledge, so must each one of

you be alone in his knowledge of God and

in his understanding of the earth.

Kahlil Gibran, The prophet, with an introduction by Christian Baker, Words Worth Classics of Word Literature,   Herthfordshire, 1986, p. 33.