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The Prophet represents the acme of Kahlil Gibran's achievement. Writing in English, Gibran adopted the tone and cadence of King James I's Bible, fusing his personalised Christian philosophy with a spirit and oriental wisdom that derives from the richly mixed influences of his native Lebanon.His language has a breath-taking beauty. Before returning to his birthplace, Almustafa, the 'prophet', is asked for guidance by the people of Orphalese. His words, redolent with love and understanding, call for universal unity, and affirm Gibran's certainty of the correlated nature of all existence, and of reincarnation. The Prophet has never lost its immediate appeal and has become a ubiquitous touchstone of spiritual literature.… (more)
The Prophet is a book of 26 prose poetry fables written in English by the Lebanese - American poet and writer Kahlil Gibran. It is his best known work. The prophet Al Mustafa has lived in the city of Orphalese for 12 years and is about to board a ship which will carry him home. He is stopped by a group of people, with whom he discusses topics such as life and the human condition. The book is divided into chapters dealing with love, marriage, children, giving, eating and drinking, work, joy and sorrow, houses, clothes, buying and selling, crime and punishment, laws, freedom, reason and passion, pain, self-knowledge, teaching, friendship, talking, time, good and evil, prayer, pleasure, beauty, religion, and death.
What [b:The Prophet|28461875|The Prophet|Kahlil Gibran|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1452067735s/28461875.jpg|2938937] might lack in philosophical rigor or depth, it gains in beauty and feeling. I think it misses the point to say that Gibran's treatment of any of his topics, from justice, to death, to good and evil, are complete in the face of centuries of human thought and contemplation on these inherently human questions. I'd tender the suggestion that the Prophet of Orphalese doesn't need to be right, or even for the reader to agree with most of what he says, to have an impact. Yes, that's a little generic and not the most useful, but the takeaway is that I'm not going to judge the Prophet on its content per se but the experience of reading it and listening to it. I love these pieces because it provides a solid counterpoint to many of our prevailing modes of thinking; its tone and metaphor and imagery force you to go "wait, have I been doing it wrong the whole time?" Often I tell myself no, sometimes I tell myself yes, but either way I think it helped my "soul unfold itself, like a lotus of countless petals". ( )
Turned out that "The Prophet", #3 bestselling poetry of all time according to Wiki, is just a precursor to Paulo Coelho's later exploits in clouding wisdom. Disappointing. And even more I am disappointed in humanity.
I was vaguely aware of this as (I thought) woo-woo spirituality. I was pleased to discover that it is better than that; in particular I thought it rather good on love and personal relationships, and I can see why people who are uncomfortable with any specific religious tradition like to use it for rites of passage, especially weddings.
It’s interesting that all three of the top 1923 books address death as a fundamental part of what they are doing, though I’ll admit that The Prophet is some distance from Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers. The second last chapter is explicitly “On Death”, and in the last chapter the Prophet himself bids farewell to the priestess and departs from the city departs in a heavily laden metaphor.
Gibran is not so sound on social and political issues, where the message of the book is to try and find the serenity to accept the things you cannot change, without much thought to finding the courage to change the things you can, or the wisdom to know the difference. You can’t have everything, I suppose.
But it’s short, and digestible, and nicely illustrated by the author. ( )
I'm sorry that I waited so long to read this and will need to read it again many times. The original illustrations didn't add anything for me so maybe a different edition, also one without so many typographic errors.
Almustafa, the chosen and the beloved, who was a dawn unto his own day, 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.
Quotations
You have been told that, even like a chain, you are as weak as your weakest link. This is but half the truth. You are also as strong as your strongest link. To measure you by your smallest deed is to reckon the power of the ocean by the frailty of its foam.
And ever has it been that love knows not its own depth until the hour of desperation.
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...
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 give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.
And what is fear of need but need itself? Is not dread of thirst when your well is full, the thirst that is unquenchable?
And in winter, when you draw the wine, let there be in your heart a song for each cup. And let there be in the song a remembrance for the autumn days, and for the vineyard, and for the winepress.
Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.
The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.
When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy. When you are sorrowful, look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.
Verily the lust for comfort murders the passion of the soul, and then walks grinning in the funeral.
And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.
Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understand.
Say not, 'I have found the truth,' but rather, 'I have found a truth.'
The soul unfolds itself, like a lotus of countless petals.
No man can reveal to you aught but that which already lies half asleep in the dawning of your knowledge.
You talk when you cease to be at peace with your thoughts; and when you can no longer dwell in the solitude of your heart you live in your lips, and sound is a diversion and a pastime. And in much of your talking, thinking is half murdered.
Yet the timeless in you is aware of life's timelessness, and knows that yesterday is but today's memory and tomorrow is today's dream.
And that which sings and contemplates in you is still dwelling within the bounds of that first moment which scattered the stars into space.
But regret is the beclouding of the mind and not its chastisement.
He who wears his morality but as his best garment were better naked.
Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing. And when you have read the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb. And when the earth shall claim your limbs, than shall you truly dance.
Last words
"A little while, a moment of rest upon the wind, and another woman shall bear me."
The Prophet represents the acme of Kahlil Gibran's achievement. Writing in English, Gibran adopted the tone and cadence of King James I's Bible, fusing his personalised Christian philosophy with a spirit and oriental wisdom that derives from the richly mixed influences of his native Lebanon.His language has a breath-taking beauty. Before returning to his birthplace, Almustafa, the 'prophet', is asked for guidance by the people of Orphalese. His words, redolent with love and understanding, call for universal unity, and affirm Gibran's certainty of the correlated nature of all existence, and of reincarnation. The Prophet has never lost its immediate appeal and has become a ubiquitous touchstone of spiritual literature.
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Kahlil Gibran, born in Lebanon, is well known throughout the Arab world as well as the West for his poetry, art and philosophy. The Prophet, one of Gibran’s most celebrated books, is his first published collection of poems and has been translated into more than twenty languages. This 2001 edition of his book includes 12 of Gibran’s own drawings.
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Wikipedia in English
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The prophet Al Mustafa has lived in the city of Orphalese for 12 years and is about to board a ship which will carry him home. He is stopped by a group of people, with whom he discusses topics such as life and the human condition. The book is divided into chapters dealing with love, marriage, children, giving, eating and drinking, work, joy and sorrow, houses, clothes, buying and selling, crime and punishment, laws, freedom, reason and passion, pain, self-knowledge, teaching, friendship, talking, time, good and evil, prayer, pleasure, beauty, religion, and death.