Kahlil Gibran

Known for a book titled "The Prophet" my favorite philosopher and poet has to be Khalil Gibran.

This was my introduction to Kahlil Gibran:

On Houses Kahlil Gibran
Build of your imaginings a bower in the wilderness ere you build a house within the city walls.
For even as you have home-comings in your twilight, so has the wanderer in you, the ever distant and alone.
Your house is your larger body.
It grows in the sun and sleeps in the stillness of the night; and it is not dreamless. Does not your house dream? and dreaming, leave the city for grove or hill-top?

Would that I could gather your houses into my hand, and like a sower scatter them in forest and meadow.
Would the valleys were your streets, and the green paths your alleys, that you might seek one another through vineyards, and come with the fragrance of the earth in your garments.
But these things are not yet to be.

In their fear your forefathers gathered you too near together. And that fear shall endure a little longer. A little longer shall your city walls separate your hearths from your fields.

And tell me, people of OrphaIese, what have you in these houses? And what is it you guard with fastened doors?
Have you peace, the quiet urge that reveals your power?
Have you remembrances, the glimmering arches that span the summits of the mind?
Have you beauty, that leads the heart from things fashioned of wood and stone to the holy mountain?
Tell me, have you these in your houses?
Or have you only comfort, and the lust for comfort, that stealthy thing that enters the house a guest, and then becomes a host and then a master?

Ay, and it becomes a tamer, and with hook and scourge makes puppets of your larger desires.
Though its hands are silken, its heart is of iron.
It lulls you to sleep only to stand by your bed and jeer at the dignity of the flesh.
It makes mock of your sound senses, and lays them in thistledown like fragile vessels.
Verily the lust for comfort murders the passion of the soul, and then walks grinning in the funeral.
But you, children of space, you restless in rest, you shall not be trapped nor tamed.
Your house shall be not an anchor but a mast.
It shall not be a glistening film that covers a wound, but an eyelid that guards the eye.
You shall not fold your wings that you may pass through doors, nor bend your heads that they strike not against a ceiling, nor fear to breathe lest walls should crack and fall down.
You shall not dwell in tombs made by the dead for the living.
And though of magnificence and splendour, your house shall not hold your secret nor shelter your longing.
For that which is boundless in you abides in the mansion of the sky, whose door is the morning mist, and whose windows are the songs and the silences of night.

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Bob on April 28, 2009 at 10:24pm

Gibran said : "My art can find no better resting place than the personality of Jesus. His life is the symbol of Humanity. He shall always be the supreme figure of all ages and in Him we shall always find mystery, passion, love, imagination, tragedy, beauty, romance and truth." He called Christ a "raging tempest," a qualifier which occurs in many of his Arabic literary works. Gibran’s view on Jesus took the shape of his beautiful writing entitled Jesus, the Son of Man (published in 1928, so two years before his death). Some critics considered this book to be so inspired, that it was even better than his famous "The Prophet".

Permalink Reply by AnGella on April 28, 2009 at 10:32pm

Bob said:

Some critics considered this book to be so inspired, that it was even better than his famous "The Prophet".

Oh.... I will have to find this and eat it up!

Permalink Reply by Miranda on May 6, 2009 at 8:17pm

When your friend speaks his mind you fear not the "nay" in your own mind,nor do you withhold the "ay."And when he is silent your heart ceases not to listen to his heart;For without words,in friendship,all thoughts,all desires,all expectations are born and shared,with joy that is unacclaimed.When you part from your friend,you grieve not;For that which you love the most in him may be clearer in his absence,as the mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain..And let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.For love that seeks aught but the disclosure of it's own mystery is not love but a net cast forth:and only the unprofitable is caught.And let your best be for your friend.If he must know the ebb of your tide,let him also know its flood also.For what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill?Seek him always with hours to live.For it is his to fill your need,but not your emptiness.And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter,and sharing of pleasures.For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.

Permalink Reply by Bob on May 6, 2009 at 9:35pm

A friend loveth at all times.
The Bible, Proverbs 17. 17

Permalink Reply by AnGella on June 1, 2009 at 4:19am

Miranda said:

When your friend speaks his mind you fear not the "nay" in your own mind,nor do you withhold the "ay."And when he is silent your heart ceases not to listen to his heart;For without words,in friendship,all thoughts,all desires,all expectations are born and shared,with joy that is unacclaimed.When you part from your friend,you grieve not;For that which you love the most in him may be clearer in his absence,as the mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain..And let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.For love that seeks aught but the disclosure of it's own mystery is not love but a net cast forth:and only the unprofitable is caught.And let your best be for your friend.If he must know the ebb of your tide,let him also know its flood also.For what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill?Seek him always with hours to live.For it is his to fill your need,but not your emptiness.And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter,and sharing of pleasures.For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.

I love it! Who wrote this? Was it Gibran?

Permalink Reply by AnGella on June 1, 2009 at 4:20am

Bob said:

A friend loveth at all times.
The Bible, Proverbs 17. 17

So simple and perfectly true!

Permalink Reply by Vlada Mikahl Schoon on March 13, 2024 at 12:17am

Yup its written by Gibran AnGella,its Titled:- 'On Friendship'

https://poets.org/poem/friendship-1

AnGella said:

Miranda said:
When your friend speaks his mind you fear not the "nay" in your own mind,nor do you withhold the "ay."And when he is silent your heart ceases not to listen to his heart;For without words,in friendship,all thoughts,all desires,all expectations are born and shared,with joy that is unacclaimed.When you part from your friend,you grieve not;For that which you love the most in him may be clearer in his absence,as the mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain..And let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.For love that seeks aught but the disclosure of it's own mystery is not love but a net cast forth:and only the unprofitable is caught.And let your best be for your friend.If he must know the ebb of your tide,let him also know its flood also.For what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill?Seek him always with hours to live.For it is his to fill your need,but not your emptiness.And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter,and sharing of pleasures.For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.

I love it! Who wrote this? Was it Gibran?

Permalink Reply by Vlada Mikahl Schoon on March 13, 2024 at 12:26am

He inspires me in my poetry writing also along with Rumi & Thoth & Jim Morrison ..but did you also know that Kahlil was also a great artist painter as well..here's a few of his pieces below and some more info & some of his writings..

Twenty Drawings 1919

The Triangle

He was called "filthy" because his skin was dark, unintelligent because he could barely speak English. When he arrived in this country, he was placed in a special class for immigrants. But, a few of his teachers saw something in the way he expressed himself, through his drawings, through his view of the world. He would soon master his new language.

His mother had made a difficult decision to take him, his two younger sisters and a half-brother to America, seeking a better life for their family. They settled in Boston's South End, at the time the second-largest Syrian-Lebanese-American community. The family would struggle and the young boy would lose one sister and his half-brother to tuberculosis. His mother would die of cancer.

He would write, “Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.”

He was born in poverty on January 6, 1883 in what is now modern day Lebanon.

He believed in love, he believed in peace, and he believed in understanding.

His name was Kahlil Gibran, and he is primarily known for his book, "The Prophet." The book, published in 1923, would sell tens of millions of copies, making him the third best-selling poet of all time, behind Shakespeare and Laozi.

Published in 108 languages around the world, passages from "The Prophet" are quoted at weddings, in political speeches and at funerals, inspiring influential figures such as John F. Kennedy, Indira Gandhi, Elvis Presley, John Lennon, and David Bowie.

He was very outspoken, attacking hypocrisy and corruption. His books were burned in Beirut, and in America, he would receive death threats.

Gibran was the only member of his family to pursue scholastic education. His sisters were not allowed to enter school, primarily because of Middle Eastern traditions as well as financial difficulties. Gibran, however, was inspired by the strength of the women in his family, especially his mother. After one sister, his mother, and his half-brother died, his other sister, Mariana would support Gibran and herself by working at a dressmaker's shop.

Of his mother, he would write:

"The most beautiful word on the lips of mankind is the word 'Mother,' and the most beautiful call is the call of 'My mother.' It is a word full of hope and love, a sweet and kind word coming from the depths of the heart. The mother is everything – she is our consolation in sorrow, our hope in misery, and our strength in weakness. She is the source of love, mercy, sympathy, and forgiveness."

Gibran would later champion the cause of women’s emancipation and education.

He believed that “Safeguarding the rights of others is the most noble and beautiful end of a human being.”

In a poem to new immigrants, he would write,:-

"I believe you can say to the founders of this great nation. 'Here I am. A youth. A young tree. Whose roots were plucked from the hills of Lebanon. Yet I am deeply rooted here. And I would be fruitful.'"

He would write in "The Prophet":

“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.”