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02 - The Prophet - Kahlil Gibran · Philosophy and Faith

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  Speaker 1: Chapter three on marriage. Then Almetri spoke again and said,
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  Speaker 1: and what of marriage? Master? And he answered, saying, you
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  Speaker 1: were born together, and together you shall be forevermore. You
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  Speaker 1: shall be together when the white wings of death scatter
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  Speaker 1: your days. Ay, you shall be together even in the
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  Speaker 1: silent memory of God. But let there be spaces in
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  Speaker 1: your togetherness, And let the winds of the heavens dance
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  Speaker 1: between you. Love one another, but make not a bond
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  Speaker 1: of love. Let it rather be a moving sea between
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  Speaker 1: the shores of your souls. Fill each other's cup, but
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  Speaker 1: drink not from one cup. Give one another of your bread,
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  Speaker 1: but eat not from the same loaf. Sing and dance together,
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  Speaker 1: and be joyous. But let each one of you be alone,
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  Speaker 1: even as the strings of a lute are alone, though
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  Speaker 1: they quiver the same music. Give your hearts, but not
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  Speaker 1: unto each other's keeping. For only the hand of life
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  Speaker 1: can contain your hearts. And stand together, yet not too
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  Speaker 1: near together, for the pillars of the temple stand apart,
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  Speaker 1: and the oak tree and the cypress grow not in
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  Speaker 1: each other's shadow. Chapter four on children and a woman
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  Speaker 1: who held a babe against her. Bosom said, speak to
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  Speaker 1: us of children, and he said, your children are not
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  Speaker 1: your children. They are the sons and daughters of life's
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  Speaker 1: longing for itself. They come through you, but not from you.
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  Speaker 1: And though they are with you, yet they belong not
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  Speaker 1: to you. You may give them your love, but not
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  Speaker 1: your thoughts, for they have their own thoughts. You may
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  Speaker 1: house their bodies, but not their souls, for their souls
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  Speaker 1: dwell in the house of tomorrow, row which you cannot visit,
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  Speaker 1: not even in your dreams. You may strive to be
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  Speaker 1: like them, but seek not to make them like you,
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  Speaker 1: For life goes not backward, nor tarries with yesterday. You
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  Speaker 1: are the bows from which your children, as living arrows,
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  Speaker 1: are sent forth. The archer sees the mark upon the
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  Speaker 1: path of the infinite, and he bends you with his might,
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  Speaker 1: that his arrows may go swift and far. Let your
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  Speaker 1: bending in the archer's hand be for gladness, for even
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  Speaker 1: as he loves the arrow that flies, so he loves
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  Speaker 1: also the bow that is stable. Chapter five. On giving,
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  Speaker 1: then said a rich man speak to us of giving.
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  Speaker 1: And he answered, you give but little when you give
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  Speaker 1: of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself
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  Speaker 1: that you truly give, For what are your possessions of
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  Speaker 1: things you keep and guard for fear you may need
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  Speaker 1: them tomorrow and tomorrow. What shall tomorrow bring to the
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  Speaker 1: overprudent dog burying bones in the trackless sand as he
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  Speaker 1: follows the pilgrims to the Holy city. And what is
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  Speaker 1: fear of need? But need itself? Is it? Not? Dread
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  Speaker 1: of thirst? When you're well is full the thirst that
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  Speaker 1: is unquenchable. There are those who give little of the
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  Speaker 1: much which they have, and they give it for recognition,
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  Speaker 1: and their hidden desire makes their gifts unwholesome. And there
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  Speaker 1: are those who have little and give it all. These
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  Speaker 1: are the believers in life and the bounty of life,
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  Speaker 1: and their coffer is never empty. There are those who
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  Speaker 1: give with joy, and that joy is their reward. And
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  Speaker 1: there are those who give with pain, and that pain
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  Speaker 1: is their baptism. And there are those who give and
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  Speaker 1: not pain in giving, nor do they seek joy, nor
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  Speaker 1: give with mindfulness of virtue. They give as in yonder
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  Speaker 1: Valley the myrtle breathes its fragrance into space. Through the
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  Speaker 1: hands of such as these, God speaks, and from behind
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  Speaker 1: their eyes he smiles upon the earth. It is well
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  Speaker 1: to give when asked, but it is better to give unasked,
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  Speaker 1: through understanding, and to the open handed. The search for
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  Speaker 1: one who shall receive is joy greater than giving, and
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  Speaker 1: is there aught. You would withhold all you have shall
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  Speaker 1: some day be given. Therefore give now, that the season
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  Speaker 1: of giving may be yours and not your inheritors. You
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  Speaker 1: often say I would give, but only to the deserving.
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  Speaker 1: The trees in your orchard, say not so, nor the
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  Speaker 1: flocks in your pasture. They give that they may live.
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  Speaker 1: For to withhold is to perish. Surely, he who is
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  Speaker 1: worthy to receive his days and his nights is worthy
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  Speaker 1: of all else from you. And he who has deserved
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  Speaker 1: to drink from the ocean of life deserves to fill
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  Speaker 1: his cup from your little stream. And what desert greater
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  Speaker 1: shall there be than that which lies in the courage
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  Speaker 1: and the confidence, nay, the charity of receiving. And who
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  Speaker 1: are you that men should rend their bosom and unveil
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  Speaker 1: their pride, that you may see their worth naked and
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  Speaker 1: their pride unabashed. See first that you yourself deserve to
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  Speaker 1: be a giver and an instrument of giving, For in truth,
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  Speaker 1: it is life that gives unto life, While you who
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  Speaker 1: deem yourself a giver, are but a witness, and you receivers,
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  Speaker 1: And you are all receivers. Assume no weight of gratitude,
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  Speaker 1: lest you lay a yoke upon yourself and upon him
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  Speaker 1: who gives. Rather rise together with the giver on his
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  Speaker 1: gifts as on wings. For to be overmindful of your
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  Speaker 1: debt is to doubt his generosity. Who has the free
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  Speaker 1: hearted Earth for mother, and God for Father. Chapter six
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  Speaker 1: on eating and drinking. Then an old man, a keeper
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  Speaker 1: of an inn, said, speak to us of eating and drinking?
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  Speaker 1: And he said, would that you could live on the
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  Speaker 1: fragrance of the earth, and like an air plant, be
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  Speaker 1: sustained by the light. But since you must kill to eat,
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  Speaker 1: and rob the newly born of its mother's milk to
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  Speaker 1: quench your thirst, let it then be an active worship.
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  Speaker 1: And let your board stand an altar on which the
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  Speaker 1: pure and the innocent of forest and plane are sacrificed
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  Speaker 1: for them that which is purer and still more innocent
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  Speaker 1: in man. When you kill a beast, say to him
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  Speaker 1: in your heart, by the same power that slays you,
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  Speaker 1: I too am slain, and I too shall be consumed
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  Speaker 1: for the law that delivered you into my hand shall
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  Speaker 1: deliver me into a mightier hand. Your blood, and my
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  Speaker 1: blood is naught but the sap that feeds the tree
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  Speaker 1: of heaven. And when you crush an apple with your teeth,
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  Speaker 1: say to it in your heart. Your seeds shall live
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  Speaker 1: in my body, and the buds of your tomorrow shall
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  Speaker 1: blossom in my heart. And your fragrance shall be my breath.
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  Speaker 1: And together we shall rejoice through all the seasons. And
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  Speaker 1: in the autumn, when you gather the grapes of your
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  Speaker 1: vineyards for the wine press, say in your heart, I
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  Speaker 1: too am a vineyard, and my fruit shall be gathered
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  Speaker 1: for the wine press, and like new wine, I shall
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  Speaker 1: be kept in eternal vessels. And in winter, when you
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  Speaker 1: draw the wine, let there be in your heart a
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  Speaker 1: song for each cup. And let there be in the
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  Speaker 1: song a remembrance for the autumn days, and for the vineyard,
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  Speaker 1: and for the wine press. And on work. Then a
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  Speaker 1: plowman said, speak to us of work. And he answered, saying,
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  Speaker 1: you work, that you may keep pace with the earth
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  Speaker 1: and the soul of the earth. For to be idle
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  Speaker 1: is to become a stranger unto the seasons, and to
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  Speaker 1: step out of life's procession that marches in majesty and
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  Speaker 1: proud submission towards the infinite. When you work, you are
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  Speaker 1: a flute through whose heart the whispering of the hours
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  Speaker 1: turns to music, which of you would be a red,
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  Speaker 1: dumb and silent when all else sings together in unison always.
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  Speaker 1: You have been told that work is a curse and
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  Speaker 1: labor a misfortune. But I say to you that when
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  Speaker 1: you work, you fulfill a part of Earth's furthest dream
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  Speaker 1: assign to you when that dream was born. And in
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  Speaker 1: keeping yourself with labor, you are, in truth loving life.
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  Speaker 1: And to love life through labor is to be intimate
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  Speaker 1: with life's inmost secret. But if you and your pain
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  Speaker 1: call birth an affliction and the support of the flesh
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  Speaker 1: a curse written upon your brow, then I answer that
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  Speaker 1: naught but the sweat of your brow shall wash away
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  Speaker 1: that which is written. You have been told also that
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  Speaker 1: life is darkness, and in your weariness you echo what
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  Speaker 1: was said by the weary, And I say that life
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  Speaker 1: is indeed darkness, save where there is urge, and all
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  Speaker 1: urge is blind, save where there is knowledge, and all
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  Speaker 1: knowledge is vain, save when there is work, and all
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  Speaker 1: work is empty, save when there is love. And when
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  Speaker 1: you work with love, you bind yourself to yourself, and
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  Speaker 1: to one another, and to God. And what is it
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  Speaker 1: to work with love? It is to weave the cloth
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  Speaker 1: with threads drawn from your heart, even as if your
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  Speaker 1: beloved were to wear that cloth. It is to build
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  Speaker 1: a house with affection, even as if you're beloved were
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  Speaker 1: to dwell in that house. It is to sow seeds
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  Speaker 1: with tenderness, and reap the harvest with joy, even as
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  Speaker 1: if your beloved were to eat the fruit. It is
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  Speaker 1: to charge all things you fashion with a breath of
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  Speaker 1: your own spirit, and to know that all the blessed
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  Speaker 1: dead are standing about you and watching. Often have I
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  Speaker 1: heard you say, as if speaking in sleep, he who
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  Speaker 1: works in marble and finds the shape of his own
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  Speaker 1: soul in the stone is nobler than he who plows
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  Speaker 1: the soil, And he who seizes the rainbow to lay
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  Speaker 1: it on a cloth in the likeness of man, is
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  Speaker 1: more than he who makes the sandals for our feet.
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  Speaker 1: But I say not in sleep, but in the over
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  Speaker 1: wakefulness of noontide, that the wind speaks not more sweetly
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  Speaker 1: to the giant oaks than to the least of all
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  Speaker 1: the blades of grass. And he alone is great who
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  Speaker 1: turns the voice of the wind into a song made
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  Speaker 1: sweeter by his own loving work is love made visible.
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  Speaker 1: And if you cannot work with love, but only with distaste,
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  Speaker 1: it is better that you should leave your work and
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  Speaker 1: sit at the gate of the temple, and take alms
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  Speaker 1: of those who work with joy. For if you bake
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  Speaker 1: bread with indifference, you bake a bitter bread that feed
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  Speaker 1: reads but half man's hunger. And if you grudge the
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  Speaker 1: crushing of the grapes, You're grudge distills a poison in
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  Speaker 1: the wine. And if you sing, though as angels and
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  Speaker 1: love not the singing, you muffle man's ears to the
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  Speaker 1: voices of the day and the voices of the night.
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  Speaker 1: End of section two.