Kahlil Gibran - Sand and Foam

8/13/2019 Kahlil Gibran - Sand and Foam

1/21


2/21

nly on!e have I been made mute. It was when a man asked me, %(ho are you)'

The "rst thought of *od was an angel.

The "rst word of *od was a man.

(e were +uttering, wandering, longing !reatures a thousand thousand years

before the sea and the wind in the forest gave us words.

$ow how !an we express the an!ient of days in us with only the sounds of ouryesterdays)

The phinx spoke only on!e, and the phinx said, %A grain of sand is a desert, anda desert is a grain of sand and now let us all be silent again.'

I heard the phinx, but I did not understand.

ong did I lie in the dust of /gypt, silent and unaware of the seasons.

Then the sun gave me birth, and I rose and walked upon the banks of the $ile,

inging with the days and dreaming with the nights.

And now the sun threads upon me with a thousand feet that I may lie again in thedust of /gypt.

But behold a marvel and a riddle0

The very sun that gathered me !annot s!atter me.

till ere!t am I, and sure of foot do I walk upon the banks of the $ile.

1emembran!e is a form of meeting.

Forgetfulness is a form of freedom.

(e measure time a!!ording to the movement of !ountless suns and theymeasure time by little ma!hines in their little po!kets.

$ow tell me, how !ould we ever meet at the same pla!e and the same time)

pa!e is not spa!e between the earth and the sun to one who looks down from

the windows of the 2ilky (ay.

3umanity is a river of light running from the ex-eternity to eternity.

4o not the spirits who dwell in the ether envy man his pain)

n my way to the 3oly 5ity I met another pilgrim and I asked him, %Is this indeedthe way to the 3oly 5ity)'

And he said, %Follow me, and you will rea!h the 3oly 5ity in a day and a night.'


3/21

And I followed him. And we walked many days and many nights, yet we did notrea!h the 3oly 5ity.

And what was to my surprise he be!ame angry with me be!ause he had misledme.

2ake me, oh *od, the prey of the lion, ere &ou make the rabbit my prey.

ne may not rea!h the dawn save by the path of the night.

2y house says to me, %4o not leave me, for here dwells your past.'

And the road says to me, %5ome and follow me, for I am your future.'

And I say to both my house and the road, %I have no past, nor have I a future. If Istay here, there is a going in my staying and if I go there is a staying in my going.nly love and death will !hange all things.'

3ow !an I lose faith in the 6usti!e of life, when the dreams of those who sleepupon feathers are not more beautiful than the dreams of those who sleep uponthe earth) trange, the desire for !ertain pleasures is a part of my pain.

even times have I despised my soul7

The "rst time when I saw her being meek that she might attain height.

The se!ond time when I saw her limping before the !rippled.

The third time when she was given to !hoose between the hard and the easy, andshe !hose the easy.

The fourth time when she !ommitted a wrong, and !omforted herself that othersalso !ommit wrong.

The "fth time when she forbore for weakness, and attributed her patien!e tostrength.

The sixth time when she despised the ugliness of a fa!e, and knew not that it wasone of her own masks.

And the seventh time when she sang a song of praise, and deemed it a virtue.

I am ignorant of absolute truth. But I am humble before my ignoran!e and thereinlies my honour and my reward.

There is a spa!e between man8s imagination and man8s attainment that may onlybe traversed by his longing.

9aradise is there, behind that door, in the next room but I have lost the key.

9erhaps I have only mislaid it.


4/21

&ou are blind and I am deaf and dumb, so let us tou!h hands and understand.

The signi"!an!e of man is not in what he attains, but rather in what he longs toattain.

ome of us are like ink and some like paper.

And if it were not for the bla!kness of some of us, some of us would be dumb

And if it were not for the whiteness of some of us, some of us would be blind.

*ive me an ear and I will give you a voi!e.

ur mind is a sponge our heart is a stream.

Is it not strange that most of us !hoose su!king rather than running)

(hen you long for blessings that you may not name, and when you grieveknowing not the !ause, then indeed you are growing with all things that grow, and

rising toward your greater self.

(hen one is drunk with a vision, he deems his faint expression of it the very wine.

&ou drink wine that you may be intoxi!ated and I drink that it may sober me fromthat other wine.

(hen my !up is empty I resign myself to its emptiness but when it is half full Iresent its half-fullness.

The reality of the other person is not in what he reveals to you, but in what he

!annot reveal to you.

Therefore, if you would understand him, listen not to what he says but rather towhat he does not say.

3alf of what I say is meaningless but I say it so that the other half may rea!h you.

A sense of humour is a sense of proportion.

2y loneliness was born when men praised my talkative faults and blamed mysilent virtues.

(hen ife does not "nd a singer to sing her heart she produ!es a philosopher tospeak her mind.

A truth is to be known always, to be uttered sometimes.

The real in us is silent the a!#uired is talkative.

The voi!e of life in me !annot rea!h the ear of life in you but let us talk that wemay not feel lonely.


5/21


6/21

hould you !are to write ;and only the saints know why you should< you mustneeds have knowledge and art and musi! = the knowledge of the musi! of words,the art of being artless, and the magi! of loving your readers.

They dip their pens in our hearts and think they are inspired.

hould a tree write its autobiography it would not be unlike the history of a ra!e.

If I were to !hoose between the power of writing a poem and the e!stasy of apoem unwritten, I would !hoose the e!stasy. It is better poetry.

But you and all my neighbours agree that I always !hoose badly.

9oetry is not an opinion expressed. It is a song that rises from a bleeding woundor a smiling mouth.

(ords are timeless. &ou should utter them or write them with a knowledge of theirtimelessness.

A poet is a dethroned king sitting among the ashes of his pala!e trying to fashionan image out of the ashes.

9oetry is a deal of 6oy and pain and wonder, with a dash of the di!tionary.

In vain shall a poet seek the mother of the songs of his heart.

n!e I said to a poet, %(e shall not know your worth until you die.'

And he answered saying, %&es, death is always the revealer. And if indeed youwould know my worth it is that I have more in my heart than upon my tongue, and

more in my desire than in my hand.'

If you sing of beauty though alone in the heart of the desert you will have anaudien!e.

9oetry is wisdom that en!hants the heart.

(isdom is poetry that sings in the mind.

If we !ould en!hant man8s heart and at the same time sing in his mind,

Then in truth he would live in the shadow of *od.

Inspiration will always sing inspiration will never explain.

(e often sing lullabies to our !hildren that we ourselves may sleep.

All our words are but !rumbs that fall down from the feast of the mind.

Thinking is always the stumbling stone to poetry.

A great singer is he who sings our silen!es.


7/21


8/21

2en who do not forgive women their little faults will never en6oy their greatvirtues.

ove that does not renew itself every day be!omes a habit and in turn a slavery.

overs embra!e that whi!h is between them rather than ea!h other.

ove and doubt have never been on speaking terms.

ove is a word of light, written by a hand of light, upon a page of light.

Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity.

If you do not understand your friend under all !onditions you will neverunderstand him.

&our most radiant garment is of the other person8s weaving

&ou most savoury meal is that whi!h you eat at the other person8s table

&our most !omfortable bed is in the other person8s house.

$ow tell me, how !an you separate yourself from the other person)

&our mind and my heart will never agree until your mind !eases to live in numbersand my heart in the mist.

(e shall never understand one another until we redu!e the language to sevenwords.

3ow shall my heart be unsealed unless it be broken)

nly great sorrow or great 6oy !an reveal your truth.

If you would be revealed you must either dan!e naked in the sun, or !arry your!ross.

hould nature heed what we say of !ontentment no river would seek the sea, andno winter would turn to pring. hould she heed all we say of thrift, how many ofus would be breathing this air)

&ou see but your shadow when you turn your ba!k to the sun.

&ou are free before the sun of the day, and free before the stars of the night

And you are free when there is no sun and no moon and no star.

&ou are even free when you !lose your eyes upon all there is.

But you are a slave to him whom you love be!ause you love him,

And a slave to him who loves you be!ause he loves you.


9/21

(e are all beggars at the gate of the temple, and ea!h one of us re!eives hisshare of the bounty of the >ing when he enters the temple, and when he goes out.

But we are all 6ealous of one another, whi!h is another way of belittling the >ing.

&ou !annot !onsume beyond your appetite. The other half of the loaf belongs tothe other person, and there should remain a little bread for the !han!e guest.

If it were not for your guests all houses would be graves.

aid a gra!ious wolf to a simple sheep, %(ill you not honour our house with avisit)'

And the sheep answered, %(e would have been honoured to visit your house if itwere not in your stoma!h.'

I stopped my guest on the threshold and said, %$ay, wipe not your feet as youenter, but as you go out.'

*enerosity is not in giving me that whi!h I need more than you do, but it is ingiving me that whi!h you need more than I do.

&ou are indeed !haritable when you give, and while giving, turn your fa!e away sothat you may not see the shyness of the re!eiver.

The di?eren!e between the ri!hest man and the poorest is but a day of hungerand an hour of thirst.

(e often borrow from our tomorrows to pay our debts to our yesterdays.

I too am visited by angels and devils, but I get rid of them.

(hen it is an angel I pray an old prayer, and he is bored

(hen it is a devil I !ommit an old sin, and he passes me by.

After all this is not a bad prison but I do not like this wall between my !ell and thenext prisoner8s !ell

&et I assure you that I do not wish to reproa!h the warder not the Builder of theprison.

Those who give you a serpent when you ask for a "sh, may have nothing butserpents to give. It is then generosity on their part.

Tri!kery su!!eeds sometimes, but it always !ommits sui!ide.

&ou are truly a forgiver when you forgive murderers who never spill blood, thieveswho never steal, and liars who utter no falsehood.

3e who !an put his "nger upon that whi!h divides good from evil is he who !an


10/21

tou!h the very hem of the garment of *od.

If your heart is a vol!ano how shall you expe!t +owers to bloom in your hands)

A strange form of self-indulgen!e0 There are times when I would be wronged and!heated, that I may laugh at the expense of those who think I do not know I ambeing wronged and !heated.

(hat shall I say of him who is the pursuer playing the part of the pursued)

et him who wipes his soiled hands with your garment take your garment. 3e mayneed it again surely you would not.

It is a pity that money-!hangers !annot be good gardeners.

9lease do not whitewash your inherent faults with your a!#uired virtues. I wouldhave the faults they are like mine own.

3ow often have I attributed to myself !rimes I have never !ommitted, so that theother person may feel !omfortable in my presen!e.

/ven the masks of life are masks of deeper mystery.

&ou may 6udge others only a!!ording to your knowledge of yourself.

Tell me now, who among us is guilty and who is unguilty)

The truly 6ust is he who feels half guilty of your misdeeds.

nly an idiot and a genius break man-made laws and they are the nearest to the

heart of *od.

It is only when you are pursued that you be!ome swift.

I have no enemies, *od, but if I am to have an enemy

et his strength be e#ual to mine,

That truth alone may be the vi!tor.

&ou will be #uite friendly with your enemy when you both die.

9erhaps a man may !ommit sui!ide in self-defen!e.

ong ago there lived a 2an who was !ru!i"ed for being too loving and too lovable.

And strange to relate I met him thri!e yesterday.

The "rst time 3e was asking a poli!eman not to take a prostitute to prison these!ond time 3e was drinking wine with an out!ast and the third time 3e washaving a "st-"ght with a promoter inside a !hur!h.


11/21


12/21

(e are all prisoners but some of us are in !ells with windows and some without.

trange that we all defend our wrongs with more vigour than we do our rights.

hould we all !onfess our sins to one another we would all laugh at one anotherfor our la!k of originality.

hould we all reveal our virtues we would also laugh for the same !ause.

An individual is above man-made laws until he !ommits a !rime against man-made !onventions After that he is neither above anyone nor lower than anyone.

*overnment is an agreement between you and myself. &ou and myself are oftenwrong.

5rime is either another name of need or an aspe!t of a disease.

Is there a greater fault than being !ons!ious of the other person8s faults)

If the other person laughs at you, you !an pity him but if you laugh at him youmay never forgive yourself.

If the other person in6ures you, you may forget the in6ury but if you in6ure him youwill always remember.

In truth the other person is your most sensitive self given another body.

3ow heedless you are when you would have men +y with your wings and you!annot even give them a feather.

n!e a man sat at my board and ate my bread and drank my wine and went awaylaughing at me.

Then he !ame again for bread and wine, and I spurned him

And the angels laughed at me.

3ate is a dead thing. (ho of you would be a tomb)

It is the honour of the murdered that he is not the murderer.

The tribune of humanity is in its silent heart, never its talkative mind.

They deem me mad be!ause I will not sell my days for gold

And I deem them mad be!ause they think my days have a pri!e.

They spread before us their ri!hes of gold and silver, of ivory and ebony, and wespread before them our hearts and our spirits

And yet they deem themselves the hosts and us the guests.


13/21

I would not be the least among men with dreams and the desire to ful"l them,rather than the greatest with no dreams and no desires.

The most pitiful among men is he who turns his dreams into silver and gold.

(e are all !limbing toward the summit of our hearts8 desire. hould the other!limber steal your sa!k and your purse and wax fat on the one and heavy on the

other, you should pity him

The !limbing will be harder for his +esh, and the burden will make his way longer.

And should you in your leanness see his +esh pu:ng upward, help him a step itwill add to your swiftness.

&ou !annot 6udge any man beyond your knowledge of him, and how small is yourknowledge.

I would not listen to a !on#ueror prea!hing to the !on#uered.

The truly free man is he who bears the load of the bond slave patiently.

A thousand years ago my neighbour said to me, %I hate life, for it is naught but athing of pain.'

And yesterday I passed by a !emetery and saw life dan!ing upon his grave.

trife in nature is but disorder longing for order.

olitude is a silent storm that breaks down all our dead bran!hes

&et it sends our living roots deeper into the living heart of the living earth.

n!e I spoke of the sea to a brook, and the brook thought me but an imaginativeexaggerator

And on!e I spoke of a brook to the sea, and the sea thought me but a depre!iativedefamer.

3ow narrow is the vision that exalts the busyness of the ant above the singing ofthe grasshopper.

The highest virtue here may be the least in another world.

The deep and the high go to the depth or to the height in a straight line only thespa!ious !an move in !ir!les.

If it were not for our !on!eption of weights and measures we would stand in aweof the "re+y as we do before the sun.

A s!ientist without imagination is a but!her with dull knives and out-worn s!ales.

But what would you, sin!e we are not all vegetarians)


14/21

(hen you sing the hungry hears you with his stoma!h.

4eath is not nearer to the aged than to the new-born neither is life.

If indeed you must be !andid, be !andid beautifully otherwise keep silent, forthere is a man in our neighbourhood who is dying.

2ayhap a funeral among men is a wedding feast among the angels.

A forgotten reality may die and leave in its will seven thousand a!tualities andfa!ts to be spent in its funeral and the building of a tomb.

In truth we talk only to ourselves, but sometimes we talk loud enough that othersmay hear us.

The obvious is that whi!h is never seen until someone expresses it simply.

If the 2ilky (ay were not within me how should I have seen it or known it)

@nless I am a physi!ian among physi!ians they would not believe that I am anastronomer.

9erhaps the sea8s de"nition of a shell is the pearl.

9erhaps time8s de"nition of !oal is the diamond.

Fame is the shadow of passion standing in the light.

A root is a +ower that disdains fame.

There is neither religion nor s!ien!e beyond beauty.

/very great man I have known had something small in his make-up and it wasthat small something whi!h prevented ina!tivity or madness or sui!ide.

The truly great man is he who would master no one, and who would be masteredby none.

I would not believe that a man is medio!re simply be!ause he kills the !riminalsand the prophets.

Toleran!e is love si!k with the si!kness of haughtiness.

(orms will turn but is it not strange that even elephants will yield)

A disagreement may be the shortest !ut between two minds.

I am the +ame and I am the dry bush, and one part of me !onsumes the otherpart.

(e are all seeking the summit of the holy mountain but shall not our road beshorter if we !onsider the past a !hart and not a guide)


15/21

(isdom !eases to be wisdom when it be!omes too proud to weep, too grave tolaugh, and too self-full to seek other than itself.

3ad I "lled myself with all that you know what room should I have for all that youdo not know)

I have learned silen!e from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and

kindness from the unkind yet strange, I am ungrateful to these tea!hers.

A bigot is a stone-leaf orator.

The silen!e of the envious is too noisy.

(hen you rea!h the end of what you should know, you will be at the beginning ofwhat you should sense.

An exaggeration is a truth that has lost its temper.

If you !an see only what light reveals and hear only what sound announ!es,

Then in truth you do not see nor do you hear.

A fa!t is a truth unsexed.

&ou !annot laugh and be unkind at the same time.

The nearest to my heart are a king without a kingdom and a poor man who doesnot know how to beg.

A shy failure is nobler than an immodest su!!ess.

4ig anywhere in the earth and you will "nd a treasure, only you must dig with thefaith of a peasant.

aid a hunted fox followed by twenty horsemen and a pa!k of twenty hounds, %f!ourse they will kill me. But how poor and how stupid they must be. urely itwould not be worth while for twenty foxes riding on twenty asses anda!!ompanied by twenty wolves to !hase and kill one man.'

It is the mind in us that yields to the laws made by us, but never the spirit in us.

A traveller am I and a navigator, and every day I dis!over a new region within my

soul.

A woman protested saying, %f !ourse it was a righteous war. 2y son fell in it.'

I said to ife, %I would hear 4eath speak.'

And ife raised her voi!e a little higher and said, %&ou hear him now.'

(hen you have solved all the mysteries of life you long for death, for it is butanother mystery of life.


16/21

Birth and death are the two noblest expressions of bravery.

2y friend, you and I shall remain strangers unto life,

And unto one another, and ea!h unto himself,

@ntil the day when you shall speak and I shall listen

4eeming your voi!e my own voi!e

And when I shall stand before you

Thinking myself standing before a mirror.

They say to me, %hould you know yourself you would know all men.'

And I say, %nly when I seek all men shall I know myself.'

2an is two men one is awake in darkness, the other is asleep in light.

A hermit is one who renoun!es the world of fragments that he may en6oy theworld wholly and without interruption.

There lies a green "eld between the s!holar and the poet should the s!holar !rossit he be!omes a wise man should the poet !ross it, he be!omes a prophet.

&estereve I saw philosophers in the market-pla!e !arrying their heads in baskets,and !rying aloud, %(isdom0 (isdom for sale0'

9oor philosophers0 They must needs sell their heads to feed their hearts. aid aphilosopher to a street sweeper, %I pity you. &ours is a hard and dirty task.'

And the street sweeper said, %Thank you, sir. But tell me what is your task)'

And the philosopher answered saying, %I study man8s mind, his deeds and hisdesires.'

Then the street sweeper went on with his sweeping and said with a smile, %I pityyou too.'

3e who listens to truth is not less than he who utters truth.

$o man !an draw the line between ne!essities and luxuries. nly the angels !ando that, and the angels are wise and wistful.

9erhaps the angels are our better thought in spa!e.

3e is the true prin!e who "nds his throne in the heart of the dervish.

*enerosity is giving more than you !an, and pride is taking less than you need.

In truth you owe naught to any man. &ou owe all to all men.


17/21

All those who have lived in the past live with us now. urely none of us would bean ungra!ious host.

3e who longs the most lives the longest.

They say to me, %A bird in the hand is worth ten in the bush.'

But I say, %A bird and a feather in the bush is worth more than ten birds in thehand.'

&our seeking after that feather is life with winged feet nay, it is life itself.

There are only two elements here, beauty and truth beauty in the hearts oflovers, and truth in the arms of the tillers of the soil.

*reat beauty !aptures me, but a beauty still greater frees me even from itself.

Beauty shines brighter in the heart of him who longs for it than in the eyes of himwho sees it.

I admire him who reveals his mind to me I honour him who unveils his dreams.But why am I shy, and even a little ashamed before him who serves me)

The gifted were on!e proud in serving prin!es.

$ow they !laim honour in serving paupers.

The angels know that too many pra!ti!al men eat their bread with the sweat ofthe dreamer8s brow.

(it is often a mask. If you !ould tear it you would "nd either a genius irritated or!leverness 6uggling.

The understanding attributes to me understanding and the dull, dullness. I thinkthey are both right.

nly those with se!rets in their hearts !ould divine the se!rets in our hearts.

3e who would share your pleasure but not your pain shall lose the key to one ofthe seven gates of 9aradise.

&es, there is a $irvana it is in leading your sheep to a green pasture, and in

putting your !hild to sleep, and in writing the last line of your poem.

(e !hoose our 6oys and our sorrows long before we experien!e them.

adness is but a wall between two gardens.

(hen either your 6oy or your sorrow be!omes great the world be!omes small.

4esire is half of life indi?eren!e is half of death.


18/21

The bitterest thing in our today8s sorrow is the memory of our yesterday8s 6oy.

They say to me, %&ou must needs !hoose between the pleasures of this world andthe pea!e of the next world.'

And I say to them, %I have !hosen both the delights of this world and the pea!e ofthe next. For I know in my heart that the upreme 9oet wrote but one poem, and

it s!ans perfe!tly, and it also rhymes perfe!tly.'

Faith is an oasis in the heart whi!h will never be rea!hed by the !aravan ofthinking.

(hen you rea!h your height you shall desire but only for desire and you shallhunger, for hunger and you shall thirst for greater thirst.

If you reveal your se!rets to the wind you should not blame the wind for revealingthem to the trees.

The +owers of spring are winter8s dreams related at the breakfast table of theangels.

aid a skunk to a tube-rose, %ee how swiftly I run, while you !annot walk noreven !reep.'

aid the tube-rose to the skunk, %h, most noble swift runner, please run swiftly0'

Turtles !an tell more about roads than hares.

trange that !reatures without ba!kbones have the hardest shells.

The most talkative is the least intelligent, and there is hardly a di?eren!e betweenan orator and an au!tioneer.

Be grateful that you do not have to live down the renown of a father nor thewealth of an un!le.

But above all be grateful that no one will have to live down either your renown oryour wealth.

nly when a 6uggler misses !at!hing his ball does he appeal to me.

The envious praises me unknowingly.

ong were you a dream in your mother8s sleep, and then she woke to give youbirth.

The germ of the ra!e is in your mother8s longing.

2y father and mother desired a !hild and they begot me.

And I wanted a mother and a father and I begot night and the sea.


19/21

ome of our !hildren are our 6usti"!ations and some are but our regrets.

(hen night !omes and you too are dark, lie down and be dark with a will.

And when morning !omes and you are still dark stand up and say to the day witha will, %I am still dark.'

It is stupid to play a role with the night and the day.

They would both laugh at you.

The mountain veiled in mist is not a hill an oak tree in the rain is not a weepingwillow.

Behold here is a paradox the deep and high are nearer to one another than themid-level to either.

(hen I stood a !lear mirror before you, you gaed into me and saw your image.

Then you said, %I love you.'

But in truth you loved yourself in me.

(hen you en6oy loving your neighbour it !eases to be a virtue.

ove whi!h is not always springing is always dying.

&ou !annot have youth and the knowledge of it at the same time

For youth is too busy living to know, and knowledge is too busy seeking itself tolive. &ou may sit at your window wat!hing the passers-by. And wat!hing you maysee a nun walking toward your right hand, and a prostitute toward your left hand.

And you may say in your inno!en!e, %3ow noble is the one and how ignoble is theother.'

But should you !lose your eyes and listen awhile you would hear a voi!ewhispering in the ether, %ne seeks me in prayer, and the other in pain. And inthe spirit of ea!h there is a bower for my spirit.'

n!e every hundred years esus of $aareth meets esus of the 5hristian in agarden among the hills of ebanon. And they talk long and ea!h time esus of

$aareth goes away saying to esus of the 5hristian, %2y friend, I fear we shallnever, never agree.'

2ay *od feed the over-abundant0

A great man has two hearts one bleeds and the other forbears.

hould one tell a lie whi!h does not hurt you nor anyone else, why not say in yourheart that the house of his fa!ts is too small for his fan!ies, and he had to leave it


20/21

for larger spa!e)

Behind every !losed door is a mystery sealed with seven seals.

(aiting is the hoofs of time.

(hat if trouble should be a new window in the /astern wall of your house)

&ou may forget the one with whom you have laughed, but never the one withwhom you have wept.

There must be something strangely sa!red in salt. It is in our tears and in the sea.

ur *od in 3is gra!ious thirst will drink us all, the dewdrop and the tear.

&ou are but a fragment of your giant self, a mouth that seeks bread, and a blindhand that holds the !up for a thirsty mouth.

If you would rise but a !ubit above ra!e and !ountry and self you would indeed

be!ome godlike.

If I were you I would not "nd fault with the sea at low tide.

It is a good ship and our 5aptain is able it is only your stoma!h that is in disorder.

hould you sit upon a !loud you would not see the boundary line between one!ountry and another, nor the boundary stone between a farm and a farm.

It is a pity you !annot sit upon a !loud.

even !enturies ago seven white doves rose from a deep valley +ying to thesnow-white summit of the mountain. ne of the seven men who wat!hed the+ight said, %I see a bla!k spot on the wing of the seventh dove.'

Today the people in that valley tell of seven bla!k doves who +ew to the summitof the snowy mountain.

In the autumn I gathered all my sorrows and buried them in my garden.

And when April returned and spring !ame to wed the earth, there grew in mygarden beautiful +owers unlike all other +owers.

And my neighbours !ame to behold them, and they all said to me, %(hen autumn!omes again, at seeding time, will you not give us of the seeds of these +owersthat we may have them in our gardens)'

It is indeed misery if I stret!h an empty hand to men and re!eive nothing but it ishopelessness if I stret!h a full hand and "nd none to re!eive.

I long for eternity be!ause there I shall meet my unwritten poems and myunpainted pi!tures.


21/21

Art is a step from nature toward the In"nite.

A work of art is a mist !arved into an image.

/ven the hands that make !rowns of thorns are better than idle hands.

ur most sa!red tears never seek our eyes.

/very man is the des!endant of every king and every slave that ever lived.

If the great-grandfather of esus had known what was hidden within him, would henot have stood in awe of himself)

(as the love of udas8 mother of her son less than the love of 2ary for esus)

There are three mira!les of our Brother esus not yet re!orded in the Book7 the"rst that 3e was a man like you and me, the se!ond that 3e had a sense ofhumour, and the third that 3e knew 3e was a !on#ueror though !on#uered.

5ru!i"ed ne, you are !ru!i"ed upon my heart and the nails that pier!e yourhands pier!e the walls of my heart.

And tomorrow when a stranger passes by this *olgotha he will not know that twobled here.

3e will deem it the blood of one man.

&ou may have heard of the Blessed 2ountain.

It is the highest mountain in our world.

hould you rea!h the summit you would have only one desire, and that todes!end and be with those who dwell in the deepest valley.

That is why it is !alled the Blessed 2ountain.

/very thought I have imprisoned in expression I must free by my deeds.

;Text digitalied by (enhuan i on !tober C, DEE.

Kahlil Gibran - Sand and Foam

Documents

Transcript of Kahlil Gibran - Sand and Foam