The Prophet

by Kahlil Gibran, Tom Griffith (Editor)

Overview

First published in the 1920s, this book attempts to provide the reader with a guide to living. Gibran lets his protagonist, called simply the prophet, deliver homilies on a variety of topics central to daily life: love marriage and children, work and play, possessions, beauty, truth, joy and sorrow and death.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781848704824
Publisher:	Wordsworth Editions, Limited
Publication date:	12/01/2012
Series:	Classics of World Literature
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	80
File size:	562 KB

About the Author

Kahlil Gibran, poet, philosopher, and artist was born in Lebanon, in 1883, and received his primary education in Beruit before emigrating with his parents to Boston in 1895. In 1889 he returned to Lebanon to continue his studies in Arabic before returning to Boston in 1903, around which time he met Mart Haskell, who would become his lifelong benefactor. In 1912, he settled in New York City and devoted himself to writing (both in Arabic and English) and to painting. Gibran died in 1931.

Read an Excerpt

ON LOVE
 
Then said Almitra, Speak to us of Love.
 
And he raised his head and looked upon the peo­ple, and there fell a stillness upon them. And with a great voice he said:
 
When love beckons to you, follow him,
Though his ways are hard and steep.
And when his wings enfold you yield to him,
Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.
And when he speaks to you believe in him,
Though his voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste the garden.
 
 
For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning.
 
Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun,
 
So shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.
 
 
Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto himself.
He threshes you to make you naked.
He sifts you to free you from your husks.
He grinds you to whiteness.
He kneads you until you are pliant;
And then he assigns you to his sacred fire, that you may become sacred bread for God’s sacred feast.
 
 
All these things shall love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart, and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life’s heart.
 
 
But if in your fear you would seek only love’s peace and love’s pleasure,
 
Then it is better for you that you cover your na­kedness and pass out of love’s threshing-floor,
 
Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears.
 
 
• • •
 
 
Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.
 
Love possesses not nor would it be possessed;
 
For love is sufficient unto love.
 
 
When you love you should not say, “God is in my heart,” but rather, “I am in the heart of God.”
 
And think not you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.
 
 
Love has no other desire but to fulfil itself.
But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:
To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.
To know the pain of too much tenderness.
To be wounded by your own understanding of love;
And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;
To rest at the noon hour and meditate love’s ec­stasy;
To return home at eventide with gratitude;
And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.

Table of Contents

The Prophet 1

The Coming of the Ship 3

On Love 11

On Marriage 15

On Children 19

On Giving 23

On Eating and Drinking 27

On Work 29

On Joy and Sorrow 33

On Houses 35

On Clothes 39

On Buying and Selling 41

On Crime and Punishment 45

On Laws 51

On Freedom 55

On Reason and Passion 59

On Pain 61

On Self-Knowledge 65

On Teaching 67

On Friendship 69

On Talking 71

On Time 73

On Good And Evil 75

On Prayer 79

On Pleasure 83

On Beauty 87

On Religion 91

On Death 95

The Farewell 99