- Mona Verma
- Wednesday, April 28, 2021
The Chicago Post said of The Prophet: “Cadenced and vibrant with feeling, the words of Kahlil Gibran bring to one’s ears the majestic rhythm of Ecclesiastes . . . If there is a man or woman who can read this book without a quiet acceptance of a great man’s philosophy and a singing in the heart as of music born within, that man or woman is indeed dead to life and truth.”
I first saw a copy of “The Prophet” years ago in India when I was a teen. It was a paperback copy, a thin book with wrinkled pages which almost seemed like a pamphlet. My older sister had got it from a friend and she was reading it. I flipped through the pages too, but it did not make too much sense to me as I was a typical self-involved teenager who was not really searching for the meaning of life.
I read the book again in my forties and it deeply impacted me. There are twenty poems on topics such as Love, Marriage, Children, Giving, Joy and Sorrow, Work, Laws, Freedom, Friendship, Teaching, Pain, Crime and Punishment, and much more. Each poem is simple yet sublime with a mystical message.
It is similar to a practical self-help book which also serves as a philosophical guide for living your life. I thought of my older sister and I wanted to tell her that I loved the book and I wanted to ask her what she thought of the poems all those years ago. Sadly, I could not pick up the phone and call her as she passed away in 1995 when she was only twenty five.
The Prophet written by Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931), a sensitive and sagacious Lebanese American writer and poet, has been translated into 100 different languages and has sold millions of copies worldwide. It was first published in 1923 and it has never been out of print.
The story begins with Almustafa- the chosen and beloved prophet who “had waited twelve years in the city of Orphalese for his ship that was to return and bear him back to the isle of his birth” and the day had finally come when he could see his ship “coming with the mist”. He was happy to depart yet sad to leave. Before boarding his ship, he discloses his discourses to the people of Orphalese of all that has been shown to him of “that which is between Life and death”
Some of my favorite lines/poems from this book include:
Then said a rich man, Speak to us of Giving. And he answered:
You give but little when you give of your possessions.
It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.
For what are your possessions but things you keep and guard for fear you may need them tomorrow?
And tomorrow, what shall tomorrow bring to the over prudent dog burying bones in the trackless sand as he follows the pilgrims to the holy city?
And what is fear of need but need itself?
Is not dread of thirst when your well is full, the thirst that is unquenchable?
There are those who give little of the much which they have--and they give it for recognition and their hidden desire makes their gifts unwholesome.
And there are those who have little and give it all.
These are the believers in life and the bounty of life, and their coffer is never empty.
There are those who give with joy, and that joy is their reward.
And there are those who give with pain, and that pain is their baptism.
And there are those who give and know not pain in giving, nor do they seek joy, nor give with mindfulness of virtue;
They give as in yonder valley the myrtle breathes its fragrance into space.
Through the hands of such as these God speaks, and from behind their eyes He smiles upon the earth.
These lines resonated with me. Giving should be from your heart and you should give for the pure joy of giving and not for recognition. There is nothing more sacred than gifting your time and efforts rather than material possessions. There are people who have little and yet their hearts are big, and they give and share with abundance and these people are a glimpse of the divine. The more you give, the more you shall receive and the happier you will be.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Then Almitra spoke again and said, And what of Marriage, master? And he answered saying:
You were born together, and together you shall be forever more.
You shall be together when the white wings of death scatter your days.
Ay, 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.
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 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.
I absolutely loved these lines. So often when we read about love and marriage, we read of two people culminating into one and spending all their time together. It was so refreshing to read about the idea of giving each other space. I have been married for twenty-six years going on twenty-seven and this poem is the best advice I can give anyone for a happy marriage.You need time together and you also need time apart to self-nourish and work on your own individual self.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said, Speak to us of Children. And, he said:
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 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.
The meaning I decipher from these lines is that we do not own our children. They are free spirited souls, and we cannot chain them in servitude. Gibran goes on to write that children need our complete unconditional love and acceptance, but, they do not need to emulate our thoughts. The beautiful metaphysical metaphor that the parents are the bow, the children are the arrows, and God is the archer really appealed to me. Parents should offer stable and secure support, and yet they must be flexible. The arrow will successfully shoot forth into the universe and make its mark only if the bow is willing to bend. The Almighty knows the path of the arrow and its mark on the world. God in his infinite wisdom loves both the parents and their children.
The ending of the book gave me goosebumps. I thought the prophet is going back to his place of birth. The last line of the book says, "A little while, a moment of rest upon the wind, and another woman shall bear me" It dawned on me that the ship is a metaphor for Almustafa's final journey, his death and the transportation of his soul.
If these poems pique your interest do click on the book jacket picture below to find a copy of The Prophet from Richland Library
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------