The Procession
Kahlil Gibran
Language: English
Pages: 20
ISBN: B000JHKL9Y
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
A collection of insightful and powerful writings by one of Eastern philosophy's most prolific thinkers Kahlil Gibran's reflections on the wistful beauty, lofty majesty, and abiding peace of Eastern wisdom revolutionized Arab literature. This collection of dramatic poems uses the dialogue between age and youth as a platform to discuss deep subjects such as freedom, death, and the eternal soul. From "Of Life and Sorrow" to "Of Science and Knowledge," Gibran's vision transcends boundaries of religion and culture, finding beauty and wisdom in the universal struggles of everyday life.
Gibran, a delicate boy with chestnut hair, high forehead and large, wondering eyes—and here one must stop in describing Gibran—for those large, limpid eyes transported from the wonders of Lebanon, now full of the wonders of the New World, arrested the attention of the beholder so that observation seldom went beyond them—was sent to a public school with young Americans from all nations. The family plunged into its work with zest. What matter if they missed the high-ceilinged home, rarified air of
precious wood. Their seamanship made the Phoenicians the world’s foremost traders and civilizers. Their greatest gifts, however, were not cedar, weaves, purple dyes, glass or metal castings (nor even their alphabet and sculptures which they bore to the then untutored Greeks and Romans), but rather the moral and spiritual revelations which their poets, seers, and prophets gave to the world. For was it not in Lebanon that Tammuz was born? Did he not roam these very hills? Did he not descend to the
harm. Lo! in the lion’s lair a scent Which bids the fox’s cubs away, Whether the denizens are there, Or in the forest on foray. And thus it is with certain birds Who, though on wing in the free space Are ever frightened by the hawk, Who, dying, keeps his pride of race. YOUTH Nature tolerates no weakling, Nor permits the wilful sway. When the lions roar their presence Forest does not feel dismay. Man’s will is a floating shadow In the mind that he conceives, And the rights of
* or poplars OF DEATH AND IMMORTALITY SAGE And death on earth, to son of earth Is final, but to him who is Ethereal, it is but the start Of triumph certain to be his. If one embraces dawn in dreams, He is immortal! Should he sleep His long night through, he surely fades Into a sea of slumber deep. For he who closely hugs the ground When wide awake will crawl ’til end. And death, like sea, who braves it light Will cross it. Weighted will descend. YOUTH There is not a
rainbow, Tell me now of joys you’ve tasted. Have you taken to the forest, Shunned the palace for abode? Followed brooklets in their courses, Climbed the rocks along the road? Have you ever bathed in fragrance, Dried yourself in sheets of light? Ever quaff the wine of dawning, From ethereal goblets bright? Have you rested at the sunset, As I have beneath the vine? Laden with suspended clusters, Ripened to golden crystalline? Ever bedded in the herbage, Quilted by a heavenly