Latest / Philosophy and Faith / 01 - The Prophet - Kahlil Gibran

Transcript

01 - The Prophet - Kahlil Gibran · Philosophy and Faith

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: The coming of the ship. Al Mustapha, the Chosen and
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: the Beloved, who was a dawn unto his own day,
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: had waited twelve years in the city of Orpheles for
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: his ship that was to return and bear him back
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: to the isle of his birth. And in the twelfth year,
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: on the seventh day of Eolul, the month of reaping,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: he climbed the hill without the city walls, and looked seaward,
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: and he beheld his ship coming with the mist. Then
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: the gates of his heart were flung open, and its
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: joy flew far over the sea. And he closed his
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: eyes and prayed in the silences of his soul. But
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: as he descended the hill, a sadness came upon him,
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: and he thought in his heart, how shall I go
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: in peace and without sorrow? Nay, not without a wound
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: in the spirit? Shall I leave this city? Long were
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: the days of pain I have spent within its walls,
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: and long were the nights of a lonnes And who
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: can depart from his pain and his loneness without regret?
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: Too many fragments of the spirit have I scattered in
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: these streets, And too many are the children of my
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: longing that walk naked among these hills, and I cannot
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: withdraw from them without a burden and an ache. It
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: is not a garment I cast off this day, but
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: a skin that I tear with my own hands. Nor
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: is it a thought I leave behind me, but a
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: heart made sweet with hunger and with thirst. Yet I
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: cannot tarry longer. The sea that calls all things unto
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: her calls me, and I must embark. For to stay
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: though the hours burn in the night is to freeze
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: and crystallize, and be bound in a mold. Fain would
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: I take with me all that is here? But how
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: shall I A voice cannot carry the tongue and the
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: lips that gave it wings? Alone? Must it seek the ether?
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: And alone, and without his nest shall the eagle fly
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: across the sun? Now, when he reached the foot of
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: the hill, he turned again towards the sea, and he
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: saw his ship approaching the harbor, and upon her prow
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: the mariners, the men of his own land, and his
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: soul cried out to them, and he said, sons of
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: my ancient mother, you riders of the tides, how often
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: have you sailed in my dreams? And now you come
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: in my awakening, which is my deeper dream. Ready am
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: I to go? And my eagerness, with sails full set,
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: awaits the wind. Only another breath while I breathe in
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: this still air, Only another loving look cast backward. And
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: then I shall stand among you, a seafarer among seafarers,
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: and you vast sea, sleepless mother, who alone are peace
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: and freedom. To the river and the stream. Only another winding.
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: Will this stream make only another murmur in this glade? Then,
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: and I shall come to you a boundless drop to
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: a boundless ocean. And as he walked, he saw from
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: afar men and women leaving their fields and their vineyards,
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: and hastening towards the city gates. And he heard their
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: voices calling his name, and shouting from field to field,
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: telling one another of the coming of his ship. And
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: he said to himself, shall the day of parting be
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: the day of gathering? And shall it be said that
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: my eve was in truth my dawn. And what shall
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: I give unto him who has left his plow in
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: mid furrow, or to him who has stopped the wheel
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: of his wine press. Shall my heart become a tree,
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: heavy laden with fruit, that I may gather and give
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: unto them and shall my desires flow like a fountain
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: that I may fill their cups? Am I? A harp
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: that the hand of the Mighty may touch me, or
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: a flute that his breath may pass through me? A
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: seeker of silences? Am I? And what treasure have I
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: found in silences? That I may dispense with confidence? If
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: this is my day of harvest? In what fields have
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: I sowed the seed? And in what unremembered seasons? If
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: this indeed be the hour in which I lift up
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: my lantern, it is not my flame that shall burn
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: therein empty and dark. Shall I raise my lantern, and
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: the guardian of the night shall fill it with oil,
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: and he shall light it. Also these things he said
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: in words, but much in his heart remained unset, for
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: he himself could not speak his deeper secret. And when
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: he entered into the city, all the people came to
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: meet him, and they were crying out to him as
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: with one voice. And the elders of the city stood
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: forth and said, go not yet away from us. A
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: noontide have you bid in our twilight? And your youth
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: has given us dreams to dream. No stranger are you
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: among us, nor a guest, but our son, and our
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: dearly beloved, suffer not yet our eyes to hunger for
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: your face. And the priests and the priestesses said unto him,
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: let not the waves of the sea separate us now,
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: and the years you have spent in our midst become
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: a memory. You have walked among us a spirit, and
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: your shadow has been a light upon our faces. Much
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: have we loved you, But speechless was our love, And
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: with veils has it been veiled? Yet? Now what a
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: cries aloud unto you, and would stand revealed before you?
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: And ever has it been? That love knows not its
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: own depth until the hour of separation. And others came
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: also and entreated him, But he answered them not. He
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: only bent his head, and those who stood near saw
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: his tears falling upon his breast. And he and the
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: people proceeded to towards the great square before the temple,
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: and there came out of the sanctuary a woman whose
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: name was Almetra, and she was a cirrus. And he
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: looked upon her with exceeding tenderness, for it was she
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: who had first sought and believed in him, when he
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: had been but a day in their city. And she
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: hailed him, saying, Prophet of God, in quest of the
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: uttermost long have you searched the distances for your ship,
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: And now your ship has come, and you must needs go.
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: Deep is your longing for the land of your memories
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: and the dwelling place of your greater desires. And our
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: love could not bind you, nor our needs hold you.
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: Yet this we ask ere you leave us, that you
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: speak to us and give us of your truth, and
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: we will give it unto our children, and they unto
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: their children, and it shall not perish in your alone.
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: You have watched with our days, and in your wakefulness
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: you have listened to the weeping and the laughter of
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: our sleep. Now, therefore, disclose us to ourselves, and tell
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: us all that has been shown you, of that which
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: is between birth and death. And he answered, people of orphiles,
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: of what can I speak save of that which is
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: even now moving within your souls. End of chapter one,
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: Chapter two on love. Then said Almetra, speak to us
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: of love. And he raised his head and looked upon
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: the people, and there fell a stillness upon them, And
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: with a great voice, he said, when love beckons to you,
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: follow him, though his ways are hard and steep, and
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: when his wings enfold you. Yield to him, though the
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: sword hidden among his pinions may wound you. And when
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: he speaks to you, believe in him, though his voice
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: may shatter your dreams. As the north wind lays waste
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: the garden. For even as love crowns you, so shall
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth,
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: So is he for your pruning. Even as he ascends
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: in the sun, So shall he descend to your roots
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: and shake them and their clinging to the earth like
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: sheaves of corn. He gathers you unto himself. He threshes
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: you to make you naked. He sifts you to free
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: you from your husks. He grinds you to whiteness. He
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: needs you until you are pliant, And then he assigns
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: you to his sacred fire, that you may become sacred
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: bread for God's sacred feast. All these things shall Love
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: do unto you, that you may know the secrets of
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: your heart, and in that knowledge become a fragment of
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: life's heart. But if in your fear you would seek
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: only love's peace and love's pleasure, then it is better
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: of love's threshing floor into the seasonless world, where you
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: shall laugh but not all of your laughter, and weep
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: but not all of your tears. Love gives naught but itself,
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: and takes naught but from itself. Love possesses not, nor
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: would it be possessed. For love is sufficient unto love.
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: And when you love, you should not say God is
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: in my heart, but rather I am in the heart
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: of God, and think not. You can direct the course
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: your course. Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself.
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: But if you love and must needs, have desires, let
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: these be your desires. To melt and be like a
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: running brook that sings its melody to the night, To
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: know the pain of too much tenderness, to be wounded
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: by your own understanding of love, and to bleed willingly
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: and joyfully. To wake at dawn with a winged heart
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: and give thanks for another day of loving. To rest
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: at the noon hour and meditate love's ecstasy, To return
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: home at eventide with gratitude, and then to sleep with
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: a prayer for the beloved. In your heart, and a
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: song of praise upon your lips end of chapter