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Prophet (version 3) - Kahlil Gibran · Classic Treasures - Must-Read Fiction Books

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Speaker 1: Chapter one of The Prophet by Khalil Gibron. This is
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Speaker 1: a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
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Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
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Speaker 1: Recording by Adam Santoni. The Prophet by Khalil Gibron, Chapter one,
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Speaker 1: The Coming of the Ship. El Mustafa, the Chosen and
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Speaker 1: the Beloved, who was a dawn unto his own day,
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Speaker 1: had waited twelve years in the city of Orphiles for
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Speaker 1: his ship that was to return and bear him back
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Speaker 1: to the isle of his birth. And in the twelfth year,
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Speaker 1: on the seventh day of Yalul, the month of reaping,
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Speaker 1: he climbed the hill without the city walls and looked seaward,
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Speaker 1: and he beheld his ship coming with the mist. Then
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Speaker 1: the gates of his heart were flung open, and his
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Speaker 1: joy flew far over the sea. And he closed his
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Speaker 1: eyes and prayed in the silences of his soul. But
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Speaker 1: as he descended the hill, a sadness came upon him,
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Speaker 1: and he thought in his heart, how shall I go
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Speaker 1: in peace and without sorrow, nay, not without a wound
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Speaker 1: in the spirit? Shall I leave this city? Long? With
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Speaker 1: the days of pain I have spent within its walls,
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Speaker 1: and long with the nights of a loneness. And who
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Speaker 1: can depart from his pain and his loneness without regret?
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Speaker 1: Too many fragments of the spirit have I scattered in
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Speaker 1: these streets, And too many are the children of my
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Speaker 1: longing that walk naked among these hills. And I cannot
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Speaker 1: withdraw from them without a burden and an ache. It
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Speaker 1: is not a garment I cast off this day, but
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Speaker 1: a skin that I tear with my own hands. Nor
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Speaker 1: is it a thought I leave behind me, but a
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Speaker 1: heart made sweet with hunger and with thirst. Yet I
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Speaker 1: cannot tarry longer. The sea that calls all things unto
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Speaker 1: her calls me, and I must embark. For to stay
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Speaker 1: though the hours burn in the night, is to freeze
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Speaker 1: and crystallize and be bound in a mold. Fain would
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Speaker 1: I take it with me, all that is here? But
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Speaker 1: how shall I A voice cannot carry the tongue and
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Speaker 1: the lips that gave it wings? Alone? Must it seek
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Speaker 1: the ether? And alone, and without his nest shall the
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Speaker 1: eagle fly across the sun? Now, when he reached the
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Speaker 1: foot of the hill, he turned again towards the sea,
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Speaker 1: and he saw his ship approaching the harbor, and upon
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Speaker 1: her prow the mariners, the men of his own land,
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Speaker 1: and his soul cried out to them, and he said,
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Speaker 1: sons of my ancient mother, you riders up the tides,
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Speaker 1: How often have you sailed in my dreams? And now
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Speaker 1: you come in my awakening, which is my deeper dream.
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Speaker 1: Ready am I to go? And my eagerness, with sails
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Speaker 1: full set awaits the wind. Only another breath will I
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Speaker 1: breathe in this still air. Only another loving look cast backward,
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Speaker 1: And then I shall stand among you, a sea farer
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Speaker 1: among seafarers, and you, vast sea sleepless mother, who alone
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Speaker 1: are peace and freedom to the river in the stream.
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Speaker 1: Only another winding will this stream make? Only another murmur
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Speaker 1: in this glade. And then shall I come to you,
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Speaker 1: a boundless drop to a boundless ocean. And as he walked,
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Speaker 1: he saw from afar men and women leaving their fields
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Speaker 1: and their vineyards, and hastening towards the city gates. And
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Speaker 1: he heard their voices calling his name, and shouting from
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Speaker 1: field to field, telling one another of the coming of
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Speaker 1: his ship. And he said to himself, shall the day
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Speaker 1: of parting be the day of gathering. And shall it
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Speaker 1: be said that my eve was in truth my dawn.
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Speaker 1: And what shall I give unto him who has left
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Speaker 1: his plow in mid furrow, or to him who has
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Speaker 1: stopped the wheel of his wine press? Shall my heart
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Speaker 1: become a tree heavy laden with fruit that I may
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Speaker 1: gather and give unto them? And shall my desires flow
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Speaker 1: like a fountain that I may fill their cups? Am
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Speaker 1: I a harp that the hand of the Mighty may
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Speaker 1: touch me? Or a flute that his breath may pass
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Speaker 1: through me? A seeker of silences? Am I? And what
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Speaker 1: treasure have I found in silences? That I may dispense
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Speaker 1: with confidence? If this is my day of harvest, in
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Speaker 1: what fields have I sowed the seed? And in what
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Speaker 1: unremembered seasons? If this indeed be the hour in which
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Speaker 1: I lift up my lantern, it is not my flame
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Speaker 1: that shall burn therein empty and dark. Shall I raise
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Speaker 1: my lantern, and the guardian of the night shall fill
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Speaker 1: it with oil, and he shall light it. Also these
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Speaker 1: things he said in words, but much in his heart
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Speaker 1: remained unsaid, for he himself could not speak his deeper secret.
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Speaker 1: And when he entered into the city, all the people
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Speaker 1: came to meet him, and they were crying out to
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Speaker 1: him as with one voice, And the elders of the
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Speaker 1: city stood forth and said, go not yet away from
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Speaker 1: us a noontide have you been in our twilight, and
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Speaker 1: your youth has given us dreams to dream. No stranger
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Speaker 1: are you among us, nor a guest. But our sun
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Speaker 1: and our dearly beloved suffer not yet our eyes to
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Speaker 1: hunger for your face. And the priests and the priestesses
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Speaker 1: said unto him, let not the waves of the sea
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Speaker 1: separate us now, and the years you have spent in
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Speaker 1: our midst become a memory. You have walked among us
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Speaker 1: a spirit, and your shadow has been a light upon
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Speaker 1: our faces. Much have we loved you, But speechless was
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Speaker 1: our love, And with veils has it been veiled? Yet
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Speaker 1: now it cries aloud unto you, and would stand revealed
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Speaker 1: before you. And ever has it been that love knows
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Speaker 1: not its own depth until the hour of separation. And
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Speaker 1: others came also and entreated him, But he answered them not.
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Speaker 1: He only bent his head, and those who stood near
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Speaker 1: saw his tears falling upon his breast, and he and
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Speaker 1: the people proceeded towards the great square, before the temple,
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Speaker 1: and there came out of the sanctuary a woman whose
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Speaker 1: name was Almetra, and she was a cirrus. And he
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Speaker 1: looked upon her with exceeding tenderness, for it was she
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Speaker 1: who had first sought and believed in him, when he
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Speaker 1: had been but a day in their city. And she
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Speaker 1: hailed him, saying, Prophet of God, in quest of the
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Speaker 1: uttermost long have you searched the distances for your ship,
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Speaker 1: and now your ship has come, and you must needs go.
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Speaker 1: Deep is your longing for the land of your memories
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Speaker 1: and the dwelling place of your greater desires. And our
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Speaker 1: love would not bind you, nor our needs hold you.
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Speaker 1: Yet this we ask ere you leave us, that you
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Speaker 1: speak to us and give us your truth, and we
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Speaker 1: will give it unto our children, and they unto their children,
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Speaker 1: and it shall not perish. In your loneness. You have
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Speaker 1: watched with our days, and in your wakefulness you have
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Speaker 1: listened to the weeping and the laughter of our sleep. Now, therefore,
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Speaker 1: disclose us to ourselves, and tell us all that has
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Speaker 1: been shown you, of that which is between birth and death.
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Speaker 1: And he answered, people of orphiles, of what can I
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Speaker 1: speak save of that which is even now moving within
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Speaker 1: your souls. End of Chapter one, Chapter two of the
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Speaker 1: Prophet by Khalil Gibron. This LibriVox recording is in the
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Speaker 1: public domain. On love, then said Almitra, speak to us
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Speaker 1: of love. And he raised his head and looked upon
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Speaker 1: the people, and there fell a stillness upon them. And
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Speaker 1: with a great voice, he said, when love beckons to you,
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Speaker 1: follow him. And though his ways are hard and steep,
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Speaker 1: And when his wings unfold, you yield to him, though
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Speaker 1: the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you. And
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Speaker 1: when he speaks to you, believe in him, though his
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Speaker 1: voice may shatter your dreams. As the north wind lays
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Speaker 1: waste the garden. For even as love crowns you, so
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Speaker 1: shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth,
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Speaker 1: so is he for your pruning. Even as he ascends
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Speaker 1: to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver
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Speaker 1: in the sun, So shall he descend to your roots
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Speaker 1: and shake them in their clinging to the earth like
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Speaker 1: sheaves of corn. He gathers you unto himself. He threshes
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Speaker 1: you to make you naked. He sifts you to free
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Speaker 1: you from your husks. He grinds you to whiteness. He
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Speaker 1: needs you until you are pliant, and then he assigns
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Speaker 1: you to his sacred fire. Then you may become sacred
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Speaker 1: bread for God's sacred feast. All these things shall Love
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Speaker 1: do unto you, that you may know the secrets of
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Speaker 1: your heart, and in that knowledge become a fragment of
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Speaker 1: life's heart. But if in your fear you would seek
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Speaker 1: only love's peace and love's pleasure, then it is better
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Speaker 1: for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out
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Speaker 1: of love's threshing floor into the seasonless world, where you
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Speaker 1: shall laugh but not all of your laughter, and weep
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Speaker 1: but not all of your tears. Love gives naught but itself,
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Speaker 1: and takes nought. But from itself Love possesses not, nor
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Speaker 1: would it be possessed, For love is sufficient unto love.
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Speaker 1: When you love, you should not say God is in
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Speaker 1: my heart, but rather I am in the heart of God,
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Speaker 1: and think not. You can direct the course of love,
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Speaker 1: for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.
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Speaker 1: Love has no other desire but to fail fill itself.
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Speaker 1: But if you love and must needs have desires, let
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Speaker 1: these be your desires to melt and be like a
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Speaker 1: running brook that sings its melody to the night. To
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Speaker 1: know the pain of too much tenderness, to be wounded
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Speaker 1: by your own understanding of love, and to bleed willingly
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Speaker 1: and joyfully. To wake at dawn with a winged heart
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Speaker 1: and give thanks for another day of loving. To rest
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Speaker 1: at the noon hour and meditate love's ecstasy. To return
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Speaker 1: home at eventide with gratitude, And then to sleep with
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Speaker 1: a prayer for the beloved in your heart, and a
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Speaker 1: song of praise upon your lips. End of Chapter two,
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Speaker 1: Chapter three of the Prophet by Khalil Jabrn. This LibriVox
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Speaker 1: recruting is in the public domain. On marriage. Then Almtris
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Speaker 1: spoke again and said, and what of marriage? Master? And
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Speaker 1: he answered, saying, you were born together, and together you
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Speaker 1: shall be forevermore. You shall be together when the white
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Speaker 1: wings of death scatter your days. Aye, you shall be
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Speaker 1: together even in the silent memory of God. But let
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Speaker 1: there be spaces in your togetherness. And let the winds
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Speaker 1: of the heavens dance between you. Love one another, but
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Speaker 1: make not a bond of love. Let it rather be
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Speaker 1: a moving sea between the shores of your souls. Fill
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Speaker 1: each other's cup, but drink not from one cup. Give
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Speaker 1: one another of your bread, but eat not from the
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Speaker 1: same loaf. Sing and dance together, and be joyous. But
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Speaker 1: let each one of you be alone, even as the
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Speaker 1: strings of a lute are alone, though they quiver with
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Speaker 1: the same music. Give your hearts, but not into each
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Speaker 1: other's keeping. For only the hand of life can contain
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Speaker 1: your hearts and stand together. Yet not two near together,
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Speaker 1: For the pillars of the temple stand apart, and the
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Speaker 1: oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.
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Speaker 1: End of Chapter three, Chapter four of the Prophet by
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Speaker 1: Khalil Gibrn. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
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Speaker 1: On children and a woman who held a babe against her,
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Speaker 1: Bosom said, speak to us of children, And he said,
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Speaker 1: your children are not your children. They are the sons
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Speaker 1: and daughters of life's longing for itself. They come through you,
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Speaker 1: but not from you. And though they are with you,
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Speaker 1: yet they belong not to you. You may give them
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Speaker 1: your love, but not your thoughts, for they have their
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Speaker 1: own thoughts. You may house their bodies, but not their souls,
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Speaker 1: for their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which
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Speaker 1: you cannot visit, not even in your dreams. You may
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Speaker 1: strive to be like them, but seek not to make
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Speaker 1: them like you. For life goes not backward nor tarries
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Speaker 1: with yesterday. You are the bows from which your children,
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Speaker 1: as living arrows, are sent forth. The archer sees the
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Speaker 1: mark upon the path of the infinite, and he bends
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Speaker 1: you with his might, that his arrows may go swift
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Speaker 1: and far. Let your bending in that archer's hand be
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Speaker 1: for gladness. For even as he loves the arrow that flies,
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Speaker 1: so he loves also the bow that is stable. End
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Speaker 1: of Chapter four, Chapter five of the Prophet by Khalil Gibron.
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Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. 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 but
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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: fee year of need? But need itself is 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: know not pain in giving, nor do they seek joy,
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Speaker 1: nor give with mindfulness of virtue. They give, as in
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Speaker 1: yonder Valley the myrtle breaths its fragrance into space. Through
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Speaker 1: the hands of such as these, God speaks, and from
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Speaker 1: behind their eyes he smiles upon the earth. It is
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Speaker 1: well to give when asked, but it is better to
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Speaker 1: give unasked, through understanding and to the open handed. The
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Speaker 1: search for one who shall receive is joy greater than giving,
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Speaker 1: and is there aught. You would withhold all you have
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Speaker 1: shall some day be given. Therefore give now, that the
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Speaker 1: season of giving may be yours and not your inheritors.
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Speaker 1: You 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 knights 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 there worth naked and
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Speaker 1: in 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 is the free
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Speaker 1: hearted Earth for mother and God for Father. End of
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Speaker 1: Chapter five, Chapter six of the Prophet by Khalil Gibron.
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Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. On eating
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Speaker 1: and drinking, then an old man, a keeper of an inn, said,
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Speaker 1: speak to us of eating and drinking. And he said,
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Speaker 1: would that you could live on the fragrance of the earth,
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Speaker 1: and like an air plant, be sustained by the light.
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Speaker 1: But since you must kill to eat, and rob the
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Speaker 1: newly born of its mother's milk to quench your thirst,
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Speaker 1: let it then be an act of worship. And let
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Speaker 1: your boards stand in altar on which the pure and
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Speaker 1: the innocent of forest and plain are sacrificed for that
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Speaker 1: which is purer and still more innocent in man. When
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Speaker 1: you kill a beast, say to him in your heart,
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Speaker 1: by the same power that slays you, I too am slain,
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Speaker 1: and I too shall be consumed. For the law that
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Speaker 1: delivered you into my hand shall deliver me into a
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Speaker 1: mightier hand. Your blood, in my blood, is not but
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Speaker 1: the sap that feeds the tree of heaven. And when
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Speaker 1: you crush an apple with your teeth, say to it
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Speaker 1: in your heart your seeds shall live in my body,
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Speaker 1: and the buds of your tomorrow shall blossom in my heart.
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Speaker 1: And your fragrance shall be my breath, and together we
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Speaker 1: shall rejoice through all the seasons. And in the autumn,
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Speaker 1: when you gather the grapes of your vineyards for the
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Speaker 1: wine press, say in your heart, I too am a vineyard,
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Speaker 1: and my fruit shall be gathered for the wine press,
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Speaker 1: And like new wine, I shall be kept in eternal vessels.
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Speaker 1: And in winter, when you draw the wine, let there
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Speaker 1: be in your heart a song for each cup. And
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Speaker 1: let there be in the song a remembrance for the
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Speaker 1: autumn days, and for the vineyard, and for the wine press.
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Speaker 1: End of Chapter six, Chapter seven of the Prophet by
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Speaker 1: Khalil Jabron. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
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Speaker 1: On work, then a plowman said, speak to us of work.
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Speaker 1: And he answered, saying, you work, that you may keep
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Speaker 1: pace with the earth and the soul of the earth.
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Speaker 1: For to be idle is to become a stranger unto
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Speaker 1: the seasons, and to step out of life's procession that
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Speaker 1: marches in majesty and proud submission towards the infinite. When
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Speaker 1: you work, you are a flute through whose heart the
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Speaker 1: whispering of the hours turns to music, which of you
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Speaker 1: would be a read dumb and silent, when all else
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Speaker 1: sings together in unison always. You have been told that
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Speaker 1: work is a curse and labor a misfortune. But I
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Speaker 1: say to you that when you work, you fulfill a
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Speaker 1: part of Earth's furthest dream assigned to you when that
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Speaker 1: dream was born. And in keeping yourself with labor, you are,
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Speaker 1: in truth loving life. And to love life through labor
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Speaker 1: is to be intimate with life's inmost secret. But if
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Speaker 1: you and your pain call birth an affliction, and the
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Speaker 1: support of the flesh a curse written upon your brow,
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Speaker 1: then I answer that nought, but the sweat of your
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Speaker 1: brow shall wash away that which is written. You have
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Speaker 1: been told also that life is darkness, and in your
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Speaker 1: weariness you echo what was said by the weary, And
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Speaker 1: I say that life is indeed darkness, save when there
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Speaker 1: is urge, and all urge is blind, save when there
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Speaker 1: is knowledge, and all knowledge is vain, save when there
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Speaker 1: is work, and all work is empty, save when there
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Speaker 1: is love. And when you work with love, you bind
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Speaker 1: yourself to yourself and to one another, and to God.
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Speaker 1: And what is it to work with love? It is
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Speaker 1: to weave the cloth with threads drawn from your heart,
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Speaker 1: even as if your beloved were to wear that cloth.
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Speaker 1: It is to build a house with affection, even as
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Speaker 1: if your beloved were to dwell in that house. It
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Speaker 1: is to sow seeds with tenderness, and reap the harvest
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Speaker 1: with joy, even as if your beloved were to eat
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Speaker 1: the fruit. It is to charge all things you fashion
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Speaker 1: with the breath of your own spirit, and to know
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Speaker 1: that all the blessed dead are standing about you and watching.
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Speaker 1: Often have I heard you say, as if speaking in sleep,
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Speaker 1: he who works in marble and finds the shape of
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Speaker 1: his own soul in the stone is nobler than he
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Speaker 1: who plows the soil. And he who seizes the rainbow
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Speaker 1: to lay it on a cloth in the likeness of man,
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Speaker 1: is 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 graund. And he alone is great who
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Speaker 1: turns the voice of the wind into a song made
20:05
Speaker 1: sweeter by his own loving work is love made visible.
20:09
Speaker 1: And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste,
20:13
Speaker 1: it is better that you should leave your work and
20:16
Speaker 1: sit at the gate of the temple and take alms
20:18
Speaker 1: of those who work with joy. For if you bake
20:21
Speaker 1: bread with indifference, you bake a bitter bread that feeds
20:25
Speaker 1: but half man's hunger. And if you grudge the crushing
20:28
Speaker 1: of the grapes, your grudge distills a poison in the wine.
20:32
Speaker 1: And if you sing, though as angels and love not
20:35
Speaker 1: the singing, you muffle man's ears to the voices of
20:38
Speaker 1: the day and the voices of the night. End of
20:41
Speaker 1: chapter seven, Chapter eight of the Prophet by Khalil Gibrn.
20:52
Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. On joy
20:56
Speaker 1: and sorrow, then a woman said, speak to us of
21:01
Speaker 1: joy and sorrow. And he answered, your joy is your
21:05
Speaker 1: sorrow unmasked. And the self same well from which your
21:09
Speaker 1: laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears. And how
21:14
Speaker 1: else can it be. The deeper that sorrow carves into
21:17
Speaker 1: your being. The more joy you can contain. Is not
21:21
Speaker 1: the cup that holds your wine, the very cup that
21:23
Speaker 1: was burned in the potter's oven, And is not the
21:26
Speaker 1: loote that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was
21:29
Speaker 1: hollowed with knives. When you are joyous, look deep into
21:33
Speaker 1: your heart, and you shall find it is only that
21:35
Speaker 1: which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.
21:39
Speaker 1: When you are sorrowful, look again in your heart, and
21:42
Speaker 1: you shall see that, in truth you are weeping for
21:44
Speaker 1: that which has been your delight. Some of you say
21:48
Speaker 1: joy is greater than sorrow, and others say, nay, sorrow
21:53
Speaker 1: is the greater. But I say unto you, they are inseparable.
21:57
Speaker 1: Together they come, and when one sits alone with you
22:00
Speaker 1: at your board, remember that the other is asleep upon
22:03
Speaker 1: your bed. Verily, you are suspended, like scales between your
22:08
Speaker 1: sorrow and your joy. Only when you are empty are
22:11
Speaker 1: you at standstill and balanced. When the treasure keeper lifts
22:15
Speaker 1: you towagh his gold and his silver, needs, must your
22:19
Speaker 1: joy or your sorrow rise or fall? End of Chapter eight,
22:29
Speaker 1: Chapter nine of the Prophet by Khalil Jibron. This LibriVox
22:34
Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain. On houses, then a
22:40
Speaker 1: mason came forth and said, speak to us of houses.
22:44
Speaker 1: And he answered and said, build of your imaginings a
22:48
Speaker 1: bower in the wilderness. Ere you build a house within
22:51
Speaker 1: the city walls. For even as you have homecomings in
22:55
Speaker 1: your twilight, so has the wanderer in you, the ever
22:59
Speaker 1: distant and alone. Your house is your larger body. It
23:03
Speaker 1: grows in the sun and sleeps in the stillness of
23:06
Speaker 1: the night. And it is not dreamless. Does not your
23:09
Speaker 1: house dream and dreaming leave the city for grove or hilltop?
23:15
Speaker 1: Would that I could gather your houses into my hand,
23:17
Speaker 1: and like a sower scatter them in forest and meadow.
23:21
Speaker 1: Would the valleys where your streets, and the green paths
23:24
Speaker 1: your alleys, that you might seek one another through vineyards,
23:27
Speaker 1: and come with the fragrance of the earth in your garments.
23:31
Speaker 1: But these things are not yet to be. In their fear,
23:35
Speaker 1: your forefathers gathered you two near together, And that fear
23:38
Speaker 1: shall endure a little longer. A little longer shall your
23:42
Speaker 1: city walls separate your hearths from your fields? And tell me,
23:46
Speaker 1: people of Orphelies, what have you in these houses? And
23:50
Speaker 1: what is it you guard with fastened doors? Have you
23:53
Speaker 1: peace the quiet urge that reveals your power? Have you
23:57
Speaker 1: remembrances the glimmering arches that span the summits of the mind.
24:02
Speaker 1: Have you beauty that leads the heart from things fashioned
24:05
Speaker 1: of wood and stone to the holy mountain? Tell me,
24:09
Speaker 1: have you these in your houses? Or have you only comfort?
24:12
Speaker 1: And the lust for comfort, that stealthy thing that enters
24:16
Speaker 1: the house as a guest, and then becomes a host,
24:18
Speaker 1: and then a master. Aye, and it becomes a tamer,
24:23
Speaker 1: and with hook and scourge, makes puppets of your larger desires.
24:27
Speaker 1: Though its hands are silken, its heart is of iron.
24:31
Speaker 1: It lulls you to sleep, only to stand by your
24:33
Speaker 1: bed and jeer at the dignity of the flesh. It
24:36
Speaker 1: makes mock of your sound senses and lays them in
24:39
Speaker 1: thistle down like fragile vessels. Verily, the lust for comfort
24:44
Speaker 1: murders the passion of the soul, and then walks grinning
24:47
Speaker 1: in the funeral. But you children of space, you restless,
24:52
Speaker 1: and rest You shall not be trapped nor tamed. Your
24:56
Speaker 1: house shall be not an anchor but a mast. It
24:59
Speaker 1: shall not be a glistening film that covers a wound,
25:03
Speaker 1: but an eyelid that guards the eye. You shall not
25:06
Speaker 1: fold your wings that you may pass through doors, nor
25:09
Speaker 1: bend your heads that they strike not against a ceiling,
25:12
Speaker 1: nor feared to breathe, lest walls should crack and fall down.
25:16
Speaker 1: You shall not dwell in tombs made by the dead,
25:19
Speaker 1: for the living, and though of magnificence and splendor your
25:23
Speaker 1: house shall not hold your secret, nor shelter your longing.
25:27
Speaker 1: For that which is boundless in you abides in the
25:29
Speaker 1: mansion of the sky, whose door is the morning mist,
25:33
Speaker 1: and whose windows are the songs and the silences of
25:36
Speaker 1: the night. End of Chapter nine, Chapter ten of the
25:46
Speaker 1: Prophet by Khalil Jabron. This LibriVox recording is in the
25:50
Speaker 1: public domain. On clothes end, the weaver said, speak to
25:57
Speaker 1: us of clothes, And he answered, your clothes conceal much
26:01
Speaker 1: of your beauty, Yet they hide not the unbeautiful. And
26:05
Speaker 1: though you seek in garments the freedom of privacy, you
26:08
Speaker 1: may find in them a harness and a chain. Would
26:12
Speaker 1: that you could meet the sun and the wind with
26:14
Speaker 1: more of your skin and less of your raiment. For
26:17
Speaker 1: the breath of life is in the sunlight, and the
26:19
Speaker 1: hand of life is in the wind. Some of you say,
26:23
Speaker 1: it is the north wind who is woven the clothes
26:25
Speaker 1: we wear, And I say, aye, it was the north wind.
26:30
Speaker 1: But shame was his loom, and the softening of the
26:33
Speaker 1: sinews was his thread, And when his work was done,
26:36
Speaker 1: he laughed in the forest. Forget not that modesty is
26:40
Speaker 1: for a shield against the eye of the unclean, And
26:43
Speaker 1: when the unclean shall be no more, what were modesty
26:47
Speaker 1: but a fetter and a fowling of the mind. And
26:50
Speaker 1: forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet,
26:53
Speaker 1: and the winds long to play with your hair. End
26:57
Speaker 1: of chapter ten Chapter eleven of the Prophet by Khalil Jabron.
27:07
Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. On buying
27:11
Speaker 1: and selling, And a merchant said, speak to us of
27:16
Speaker 1: buying and selling. And he answered and said to you,
27:20
Speaker 1: the earth yields her fruit, and you shall not want
27:23
Speaker 1: if you but know how to fill your hands. It
27:26
Speaker 1: is in exchanging the gifts of the earth that you
27:28
Speaker 1: shall find abundance and be satisfied. Yet, unless the exchange
27:33
Speaker 1: be in love and kindly justice, it will but lead
27:36
Speaker 1: some to greed and others to hunger. When in the
27:40
Speaker 1: market place you toilers of the sea and fields and vineyards,
27:44
Speaker 1: meet the weavers and the potters, and the gatherers of spices,
27:48
Speaker 1: invoke then the master spirit of the Earth to come
27:51
Speaker 1: into your midst and sanctify the scales and the reckoning
27:54
Speaker 1: that weighs value against value, And suffer not the barren
27:58
Speaker 1: handed to take part in your transactions. Who would sell
28:02
Speaker 1: their words for your labor To such men, you should say,
28:06
Speaker 1: come with us to the field, or go with our
28:09
Speaker 1: brothers to the sea, and cast your net. For the
28:11
Speaker 1: land and the sea shall be bountiful to you, even
28:15
Speaker 1: as to us. And if there are come the singers
28:17
Speaker 1: and the dancers and the flute players, buy of their
28:20
Speaker 1: gifts also, for they too are gatherers of fruit and frankincense.
28:25
Speaker 1: And that which they bring, though fashioned of dreams, is
28:29
Speaker 1: raiment and food for your soul. And before you leave
28:32
Speaker 1: the marketplace, see that no one has gone his way
28:35
Speaker 1: with empty hands. For the master spirit of the earth
28:39
Speaker 1: shall not sleep peacefully upon the wind till the needs
28:42
Speaker 1: of the least of you are satisfied. End of chapter
28:45
Speaker 1: eleven Chapter twelve of the Prophet by Khalil Gibrn. This
28:56
Speaker 1: LibriVox recording is in the public domain. On crime and punishment,
29:03
Speaker 1: then one of the judges of the city stood forth
29:05
Speaker 1: and said, speak to us of crime and punishment. And
29:09
Speaker 1: he answered, saying, it is when your spirit goes wandering
29:13
Speaker 1: upon the wind, that you, alone and unguarded, commit a
29:17
Speaker 1: wrong unto others and therefore unto yourself. And for that
29:22
Speaker 1: wrong committed must you knock and wait awhile, unheeded at
29:25
Speaker 1: the gate of the blessed. Like the ocean is your
29:28
Speaker 1: God's self, it remains forever undefiled, and like the ether
29:33
Speaker 1: it lifts, but the winged, even like the sun, is
29:37
Speaker 1: your God's self. It knows not the ways of the mole,
29:40
Speaker 1: nor seeks it the holes of the serpent. But your
29:43
Speaker 1: God's Self dwells not alone in your being. Much in
29:47
Speaker 1: you is still man, and much in you is not
29:50
Speaker 1: yet man, but a shapeless pigmy that walks asleep in
29:53
Speaker 1: the mist, searching for its own awakening. And of the
29:57
Speaker 1: man in you would I now speak, for it is he,
30:00
Speaker 1: and not your God's self, nor the pigmy in the mist,
30:03
Speaker 1: that knows crime and the punishment of crime. Oftentimes have
30:07
Speaker 1: I heard you speak of one who commits wrong, as
30:10
Speaker 1: though he were not one of you, but a stranger
30:13
Speaker 1: unto you, and an intruder upon your world. But I
30:17
Speaker 1: say that, even as the holy and the righteous cannot
30:19
Speaker 1: rise beyond the highest witches in each one of you.
30:23
Speaker 1: So the wicked and the weak cannot fall lower than
30:25
Speaker 1: the lowest witches in you. Also, and as a single
30:29
Speaker 1: leaf turns not yellow, but with the silent knowledge of
30:32
Speaker 1: the whole tree, so the wrong doer cannot do wrong
30:35
Speaker 1: without the hidden will of you. All. Like a procession,
30:39
Speaker 1: you walk together towards your God's self. You are the
30:43
Speaker 1: way and the way farers. And when one of you
30:46
Speaker 1: falls down, he falls for those behind him, a caution
30:50
Speaker 1: against the stumbling stone. Aye, And he falls for those
30:54
Speaker 1: ahead of him, who, though faster and surer a foot,
30:57
Speaker 1: yet removed not the stumbling stone. And this also, though
31:02
Speaker 1: the word lie heavy upon your hearts. The murdered is
31:06
Speaker 1: not unaccountable for his own murder, and the robed is
31:09
Speaker 1: not blameless in being robbed. The righteous is not innocent
31:13
Speaker 1: of the deeds of the wicked, and the white handed
31:17
Speaker 1: is not clean in the doings of the felon. Yea.
31:20
Speaker 1: The guilty is oftentimes the victim of the injured, and
31:23
Speaker 1: still more often the condemned is the burden bearer for
31:26
Speaker 1: the guiltless and unblamed. You cannot separate the just from
31:30
Speaker 1: the unjust, and the good from the wicked, For they
31:34
Speaker 1: stand together before the face of the sun, even as
31:37
Speaker 1: the black thread and the white are woven together. And
31:40
Speaker 1: when the black thread breaks, the weaver shall look into
31:44
Speaker 1: the whole cloth, and he shall examine the loom. Also,
31:48
Speaker 1: if any of you would bring to judgment the unfaithful wife,
31:51
Speaker 1: let him also weigh the heart of her husband in scales,
31:55
Speaker 1: and measure his soul with measurements. And let him who
31:58
Speaker 1: would lash the offender, look unto the spirit of the offended.
32:02
Speaker 1: And if any of you would punish in the name
32:04
Speaker 1: of righteousness and lay the axe unto the evil tree,
32:08
Speaker 1: let him see to its roots, and verily he will
32:11
Speaker 1: find the roots of the good and the bad, the
32:14
Speaker 1: fruitful and the fruitless, all entwined together in the silent
32:18
Speaker 1: heart of the earth. And you, judges, who would be just?
32:22
Speaker 1: What judgment pronounce you upon him who, though honest in
32:25
Speaker 1: the flesh, yet is a thief in spirit? What penalty
32:28
Speaker 1: lay you upon him who slays in the flesh, yet
32:31
Speaker 1: is himself slain in the spirit. And how prosecute you
32:34
Speaker 1: him who in action is a deceiver and an oppressor,
32:38
Speaker 1: yet who also is aggrieved and outraged? And how shall
32:42
Speaker 1: you punish those whose remorse is already greater than their misdeeds.
32:46
Speaker 1: Is not remorse the justice which is administered by that
32:50
Speaker 1: very law which you would fain serve. Yet you cannot
32:53
Speaker 1: lay remorse upon the innocent, nor lift it from the
32:56
Speaker 1: heart of the guilty. Unbidden shall it call in the
32:59
Speaker 1: knight that men may wake and gaze upon themselves. And you,
33:03
Speaker 1: who would understand justice, how shall you unless you look
33:06
Speaker 1: upon all deeds in the fullness of light. Only then
33:10
Speaker 1: shall you know that the erect and the fallen are
33:12
Speaker 1: but one man standing in twilight between the night of
33:15
Speaker 1: his pigmy self and the day of his god self.
33:18
Speaker 1: And that the cornerstone of the temple is not higher
33:21
Speaker 1: than the lowest stone in its foundation. End of Chapter twelve,
33:31
Speaker 1: Chapter thirteen of the Prophet by Khalil Gibron. This LibriVox
33:36
Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain. On laws, then a
33:42
Speaker 1: lawyer said, but what of our laws? Master? And he answered,
33:47
Speaker 1: you delight in laying down laws, yet you delight more
33:50
Speaker 1: in breaking them, Like children playing by the ocean, who
33:53
Speaker 1: build sand towers with constancy and then destroy them with laughter.
33:58
Speaker 1: But while you build your sand tower, the ocean brings
34:01
Speaker 1: more sand to the shore, And when you destroy them,
34:04
Speaker 1: the ocean laughs with you, verily. The ocean laughs always
34:08
Speaker 1: with the innocent. But what of those to whom life
34:11
Speaker 1: is not an ocean, and man made laws are not
34:14
Speaker 1: sand towers? But to whom life is a rock, and
34:17
Speaker 1: the law a chisel with which they would carve it
34:20
Speaker 1: in their own likeness. What of the cripple who hates dancers.
34:24
Speaker 1: What of the ox, who loves his yoke and deems
34:26
Speaker 1: the elk and deer of the forest stray and vagrant things.
34:30
Speaker 1: What of the old serpent, who cannot shed his skin
34:33
Speaker 1: and calls all others naked and shameless. And of him
34:37
Speaker 1: who comes early to the wedding feast, and when over
34:40
Speaker 1: fed and tired, goes his way, saying that all feasts
34:43
Speaker 1: are violation, and all feasters lawbreakers. What shall I say
34:48
Speaker 1: of these, save that they too stand in the sunlight,
34:51
Speaker 1: but with their backs to the sun, they see only
34:54
Speaker 1: their shadows, And their shadows are their laws. And what
34:58
Speaker 1: is the sun to them but a ca master of shadows.
35:01
Speaker 1: And what is it to acknowledge the laws but to
35:04
Speaker 1: stoop down and trace their shadows upon the earth. But you,
35:08
Speaker 1: who walk facing the sun What images drawn on the
35:11
Speaker 1: earth can hold you, you who travel with the wind?
35:15
Speaker 1: What weather vane shall direct your course? What man's law
35:19
Speaker 1: shall bind you if you break your yoke but upon
35:22
Speaker 1: no man's prison door? What laws shall you fear if
35:25
Speaker 1: you dance but stumble against no man's iron chains? And
35:29
Speaker 1: who is he that shall bring you to judgment? If
35:32
Speaker 1: you tear off your garment, yet leave it in no
35:34
Speaker 1: man's path? People of orphiles, you can muffle the drum,
35:39
Speaker 1: and you can loosen the strings of the lyre, But
35:42
Speaker 1: who shall command the skylark not to sing? End of
35:46
Speaker 1: Chapter thirteen, Chapter fourteen of the Prophet by Khalil Jibron.
35:57
Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. On freedom,
36:03
Speaker 1: and an orator said, speak to us of freedom? And
36:07
Speaker 1: he answered, at the city gate and by your fireside,
36:11
Speaker 1: I have seen you prostrate yourself and worship your own freedom,
36:15
Speaker 1: even as slaves humble themselves before a tyrant and praise
36:19
Speaker 1: him though he slays them. I in the grove of
36:22
Speaker 1: the temple, and in the shadow of the citadel, I
36:24
Speaker 1: have seen the friest among you, where their freedom is
36:27
Speaker 1: a yoke and a handcuff. And my heart bled within me.
36:31
Speaker 1: For you can only be free when even the desire
36:33
Speaker 1: of seeking freedom becomes a harness to you, And when
36:37
Speaker 1: you cease to speak of freedom as a goal and
36:39
Speaker 1: a fulfillment. You shall be free. Indeed, when your days
36:42
Speaker 1: are not without a care, nor your nights without a
36:45
Speaker 1: want and a grief, but rather when these things girdle
36:48
Speaker 1: your life, and yet you rise above them, naked and unbound.
36:53
Speaker 1: And how shall you rise beyond your days and nights
36:55
Speaker 1: unless you break the chains which you, at the dawn
36:58
Speaker 1: of your understanding, have fasten, and around your noon hour.
37:02
Speaker 1: In truth, that which you call freedom is the strongest
37:05
Speaker 1: of these chains. Though its links glitter in the sun
37:08
Speaker 1: and dazzle your eyes. And what is it but fragments
37:12
Speaker 1: of your own self, you would discard that you may
37:14
Speaker 1: become free. If it is an unjust law, you would abolish.
37:18
Speaker 1: That law was written with your own hand, upon your
37:21
Speaker 1: own forehead. You cannot erase it by burning your law books,
37:25
Speaker 1: nor by washing the foreheads of your judges, though you
37:29
Speaker 1: pour the sea upon them. And if it is despot
37:32
Speaker 1: you would dethrone, see first that his throne erected within you,
37:36
Speaker 1: is destroyed. For how can a tyrant rule the free
37:39
Speaker 1: and the proud, but for a tyranny in their own freedom,
37:42
Speaker 1: and a shame in their own pride. And if it
37:45
Speaker 1: is a care, you would cast off that cart has
37:48
Speaker 1: been chosen by you rather than imposed on you. And
37:51
Speaker 1: if it is a fear, you would dispel. The seat
37:54
Speaker 1: of that fear is in your heart, and not in
37:56
Speaker 1: the hand of the feared. Verily, all things move within
38:00
Speaker 1: your being in constant half embrace. The desired and the dreaded,
38:05
Speaker 1: the repugnant and the cherished, the pursued, and that which
38:08
Speaker 1: you would escape. These things move within you as lights
38:12
Speaker 1: and shadows in pairs that cling. And when the shadow
38:15
Speaker 1: fades and is no more, the light that lingers becomes
38:19
Speaker 1: a shadow to another light. And thus your freedom, when
38:22
Speaker 1: it loses its fetters, becomes itself the fetter of a
38:26
Speaker 1: greater freedom. End of Chapter fourteen, Chapter fifteen of the
38:36
Speaker 1: Prophet by Khalil Jibron. This LibriVox recording is in the
38:40
Speaker 1: public domain. On reason and passion. And the Priestess spoke
38:46
Speaker 1: again and said, speak to us of reason and passion.
38:51
Speaker 1: And he answered, saying, your soul is oftentimes a battlefield
38:56
Speaker 1: upon which your reason and your judgment wage war against
38:59
Speaker 1: your past and your appetite. Would that I could be
39:03
Speaker 1: the peacemaker in your soul, that I might turn the
39:05
Speaker 1: discord and the rivalry of your elements into oneness and melody.
39:10
Speaker 1: But how shall I unless you yourselves be also the peacemakers, nay,
39:15
Speaker 1: the lovers of all your elements. Your reason and your
39:19
Speaker 1: passion are the rudder and the sales of your seafaring soul.
39:23
Speaker 1: If either your sails or your rudder be broken, you
39:26
Speaker 1: can but toss and drift, or else be held at
39:29
Speaker 1: a standstill in mid seas. For reason, ruling alone is
39:34
Speaker 1: a force confining, and passion unattended is a flame that
39:38
Speaker 1: burns to its own destruction. Therefore, let your soul exalt
39:42
Speaker 1: your reason to the height of passion that it may sing,
39:46
Speaker 1: and let it direct your passion with reason, that your
39:49
Speaker 1: passion may live through its own daily resurrection, and like
39:52
Speaker 1: the phoenix, rise above its own ashes. I would have
39:56
Speaker 1: you consider your judgment and your appetite, even as if
40:00
Speaker 1: you would two loved guests in your house, surely you
40:03
Speaker 1: would not honor one guest above the other. For he
40:06
Speaker 1: who is more mindful of one loses the love and
40:09
Speaker 1: the faith of both among the hills. When you sit
40:12
Speaker 1: in the cool shade of the white poplars, sharing the
40:16
Speaker 1: peace and serenity of distant fields and meadows, then let
40:19
Speaker 1: your heart say in silence, God rests in reason. And
40:23
Speaker 1: when the storm comes and the mighty wind shakes the forest,
40:27
Speaker 1: and thunder and lightning proclaim the majesty of the sky,
40:31
Speaker 1: then let your heart say in awe, God moves in passion.
40:35
Speaker 1: And since you are a breath in God's spear and
40:38
Speaker 1: a leaf in God's forest, you too should rest in
40:41
Speaker 1: reason and move in passion. End of chapter fifteen Chapter
40:52
Speaker 1: sixteen of the Prophet by Khalil Jibrn. This LibriVox recording
40:57
Speaker 1: is in the public domain. On pain, and a woman spoke, saying,
41:03
Speaker 1: tell us of pain, And he said, your pain is
41:07
Speaker 1: the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding. Even
41:12
Speaker 1: as the stone of the fruit must break that its
41:14
Speaker 1: heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain.
41:18
Speaker 1: And you could keep your heart in wonder at the
41:20
Speaker 1: daily miracles of your life. Your pain would not seem
41:24
Speaker 1: less wondrous than your joy, and you would accept the
41:27
Speaker 1: seasons of your heart, even as you have always accepted
41:30
Speaker 1: the seasons that pass over your fields, and you would
41:34
Speaker 1: watch with serenity through the winters of your grief. Much
41:38
Speaker 1: of your pain is self chosen. It is the bitter
41:41
Speaker 1: potion by which the physician within you heals your sick self. Therefore,
41:45
Speaker 1: trust the physician and drink his remedy in silence and tranquility.
41:50
Speaker 1: For his hand, though heavy and hard, is guided by
41:53
Speaker 1: the tender hand of the unseen, and the cup he brings,
41:57
Speaker 1: though it burn your lips, has been fashioned of the
42:00
Speaker 1: clay which the potter has moistened with his own sacred tears.
42:04
Speaker 1: End of Chapter sixteen, Chapter seventeen of the Prophet by
42:14
Speaker 1: Khalil Gibron. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
42:19
Speaker 1: On self knowledge, and a man said, speak to us
42:24
Speaker 1: of self knowledge. And he answered, saying, your heart's know
42:29
Speaker 1: in silence the secrets of the days and the nights.
42:32
Speaker 1: But your ears thirst for the sound of your heart's knowledge.
42:36
Speaker 1: You would know in words that which you have always
42:39
Speaker 1: known in thought. You would touch with your fingers the
42:42
Speaker 1: naked body of your dreams. And it is well you should.
42:46
Speaker 1: The hidden well spring of your soul must needs rise
42:50
Speaker 1: and run murmuring to the sea, and the treasure of
42:53
Speaker 1: your infinite depths would be revealed to your eyes. But
42:56
Speaker 1: let there be no scales to weigh your unknown treasure.
43:00
Speaker 1: And seek not the depths of your knowledge with staff
43:02
Speaker 1: or sounding line. For self is a sea, boundless and measureless.
43:07
Speaker 1: Say not I have found the truth, But rather I
43:11
Speaker 1: have found a truth. Say not I have found the
43:15
Speaker 1: path of the soul. Say rather I have met the
43:18
Speaker 1: soul walking upon my path. For the soul walks upon
43:22
Speaker 1: all paths. The soul walks not upon a line. Neither
43:26
Speaker 1: does it grow like a read The soul unfolds itself
43:30
Speaker 1: like a lotus of countless pedals. End of Chapter seventeen,
43:40
Speaker 1: Chapter eighteen of the Prophet by Khalil Gabron. This LibriVox
43:44
Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain. On teaching, then said
43:50
Speaker 1: a teacher speak to us of teaching, And he said,
43:54
Speaker 1: no man can reveal to you ought but that which
43:57
Speaker 1: already lies half asleep in the dawning of your knowledge.
44:00
Speaker 1: The teacher who walks in the shadow of the temple
44:03
Speaker 1: among his followers, gives not of his wisdom, but rather
44:06
Speaker 1: of his faith and his lovingness. If he is indeed wise,
44:11
Speaker 1: he does not bid you enter the house of his wisdom,
44:13
Speaker 1: but rather leads you to the threshold of your own mind.
44:17
Speaker 1: The astronomer may speak to you of his understanding of space,
44:21
Speaker 1: but he cannot give you his understanding. The musician may
44:24
Speaker 1: sing to you of the rhythm which is in all space,
44:27
Speaker 1: but he cannot give you the ear which arrests the rhythm,
44:30
Speaker 1: nor the voice that echoes it. And he who is
44:33
Speaker 1: versed in the science of numbers can tell of the
44:36
Speaker 1: regions of weight and measure, but he cannot conduct you hither.
44:40
Speaker 1: For the vision of one man lends not its wings
44:43
Speaker 1: to another man. And even as each one of you
44:46
Speaker 1: stands alone in God's knowledge, so must each one of
44:49
Speaker 1: you be alone in his knowledge of God and in
44:52
Speaker 1: his understanding of the Earth. End of Chapter eighteen, Chapter
45:03
Speaker 1: nineteen of the Prophet by Khalil Gibrn. This LibriVox recording
45:07
Speaker 1: is in the public domain. On friendship, and a youth said,
45:13
Speaker 1: speak to us of friendship. And he answered, saying, your
45:17
Speaker 1: friend is your needs answered, he is your field, which
45:21
Speaker 1: you sow with love and reap with thanksgiving. And he
45:25
Speaker 1: is your board and your fireside. For you come to
45:28
Speaker 1: him with your hunger, and you seek him for peace.
45:32
Speaker 1: When your friend speaks his mind, you fear not the
45:35
Speaker 1: nay in your own mind, nor do you withhold the eye.
45:39
Speaker 1: And when he is silent, your heart ceases not to
45:42
Speaker 1: listen to his heart. For without words, in friendship, all thoughts,
45:46
Speaker 1: all desires, all expectations are born and shared with joy
45:51
Speaker 1: that is unacclaimed. When you part from your friend, you
45:55
Speaker 1: grieve not for that which you love most in him
45:58
Speaker 1: may be cleverer in his absence, as the mountain to
46:01
Speaker 1: the climber is clearer from the plain. And let there
46:04
Speaker 1: be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.
46:08
Speaker 1: For love that seeks aught, but the disclosure of its
46:11
Speaker 1: own mystery is not love but a nette cast forth,
46:15
Speaker 1: and only the unprofitable is caught. And let your best
46:19
Speaker 1: be for your friend. If he must know the ebb
46:22
Speaker 1: of your tide, let him know its flood. Also, for
46:25
Speaker 1: what is your friend that you should seek him with
46:28
Speaker 1: hours to kill, Seek him always with hours to live.
46:32
Speaker 1: For it is his to fill your need, but not
46:34
Speaker 1: your emptiness. And in the sweetness of friendship, let there
46:38
Speaker 1: be laughter and sharing of pleasures. For in the do
46:41
Speaker 1: of little things the heart finds its mourning and is refreshed.
46:46
Speaker 1: End of chapter nineteen, Chapter twenty of the Prophet by
46:56
Speaker 1: Khalil Gibrn. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
47:01
Speaker 1: On talking, and then a scholar said, speak of talking,
47:07
Speaker 1: And he answered, saying, you talk when you cease to
47:11
Speaker 1: be at peace with your thoughts, and when you can
47:14
Speaker 1: no longer dwell in the solitude of your heart. You
47:16
Speaker 1: live in your lips. And sound is a diversion and
47:20
Speaker 1: a pastime. And in much of your talking, thinking is
47:24
Speaker 1: half murdered. Forethought is a bird of space that, in
47:28
Speaker 1: a cage of words, may indeed unfold its wings, but
47:31
Speaker 1: cannot fly. There are those among you who seek the
47:34
Speaker 1: talkative through fear of being alone. The silence of a
47:38
Speaker 1: loneness reveals to their eyes their naked selves, and they
47:41
Speaker 1: would escape. And there are those who talk, and without
47:45
Speaker 1: knowledge or forethought, reveal a truth which they themselves do
47:49
Speaker 1: not understand. And there are those who have the truth
47:52
Speaker 1: within them, but they tell it not in words. In
47:55
Speaker 1: the bosom of such as these, the spirit dwells in
47:58
Speaker 1: rhythmic silence. When you meet your friend on the road
48:02
Speaker 1: side or in the market place, let the spirit in
48:05
Speaker 1: you move your lips and direct your tongue. Let the
48:08
Speaker 1: voice within your voice. Speak to the ear of his ear,
48:12
Speaker 1: for his soul will keep the truth of your heart
48:14
Speaker 1: as the taste of the wine is remembered, when the
48:16
Speaker 1: color is forgotten and the vessel is no more. End
48:21
Speaker 1: of Chapter twenty Chapter twenty one of the Prophet by
48:30
Speaker 1: Calil Gibrn. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
48:35
Speaker 1: On time, and an astronomer said, Master, what of time?
48:41
Speaker 1: And he answered, you would measure time the measureless and
48:45
Speaker 1: the immeasurable. You would adjust your conduct and even direct
48:49
Speaker 1: the course of your spirit according to hours and seasons
48:53
Speaker 1: of time. You would make a stream upon whose bank
48:56
Speaker 1: you would sit and watch its flowing. Yet the timeless
48:59
Speaker 1: in you is aware of life's timelessness, and knows that
49:02
Speaker 1: yesterday is but today's memory, and tomorrow is today's dream.
49:07
Speaker 1: And that which sings and contemplates in you is still
49:10
Speaker 1: dwelling within the bounds of that first moment which scattered
49:13
Speaker 1: the stars into space. Who among you does not feel
49:17
Speaker 1: that his power to love is boundless? And yet who
49:20
Speaker 1: does not feel that very love, though boundless, encompassed within
49:24
Speaker 1: the center of his being, and moving not from love
49:27
Speaker 1: thought to love thought, nor from love deeds to other
49:30
Speaker 1: love deeds, and is not time, even as love is
49:34
Speaker 1: undivided and paceless. But if in your thought you must
49:38
Speaker 1: measure time into seasons, let each season encircle all the
49:42
Speaker 1: other seasons. And let today embrace the past with remembrance,
49:47
Speaker 1: and the future with longing. End of chapter twenty one,
49:57
Speaker 1: Chapter twenty two of the Prophet by Khalil's Kron. This
50:01
Speaker 1: LibriVox recording is in the public domain. On good and evil,
50:07
Speaker 1: And one of the elders of the city said, speak
50:10
Speaker 1: to us of good and evil? And he answered, of
50:14
Speaker 1: the good in you, I can speak, but not of
50:17
Speaker 1: the evil. For what is evil but good tortured by
50:20
Speaker 1: its own hunger and thirst. Verily, when good is hungry,
50:24
Speaker 1: it seeks food even in dark caves, and when at thirst,
50:28
Speaker 1: it drinks even of dead waters. You are good when
50:31
Speaker 1: you are one with yourself. Yet when you are not
50:34
Speaker 1: one with yourself, you are not evil. For a divided
50:37
Speaker 1: house is not a den of thieves, it is only
50:40
Speaker 1: a divided house. And a ship without rudder may wander
50:44
Speaker 1: aimlessly among perilous isles, yet sink not to the bottom.
50:48
Speaker 1: You are good when you strive to give of yourself
50:51
Speaker 1: Yet you are not evil when you seek gain for yourself.
50:55
Speaker 1: For when you strive for gain, you are but a
50:57
Speaker 1: root that clings to the earth and sucks at her bath.
51:00
Speaker 1: Surely the fruit cannot say to the root, be like me,
51:04
Speaker 1: ripe and full and ever giving of your abundance. For
51:08
Speaker 1: to the fruit, giving is a need, as receiving is
51:11
Speaker 1: a need to the root. You are good when you
51:13
Speaker 1: are fully awake in your speech. Yet you are not
51:17
Speaker 1: evil when you sleep while your tongue staggers without purpose,
51:21
Speaker 1: and even stumbling speech may strengthen a weak tongue. You
51:24
Speaker 1: are good when you walk to your goal firmly and
51:27
Speaker 1: with bold steps. Yet you are not evil when you
51:30
Speaker 1: go thither limping. Even those who limp go not backward.
51:34
Speaker 1: But you, who are strong and swift, see that you
51:37
Speaker 1: do not limp before the lame, deeming it kindness. You
51:41
Speaker 1: are good in countless ways, and you are not evil.
51:44
Speaker 1: When you are not good, you are only loitering and sluggard.
51:48
Speaker 1: Pity that the stags cannot teach swiftness to the turtles
51:52
Speaker 1: in your longing, for your giant self lies your goodness,
51:56
Speaker 1: and that longing is in all of you, but in
51:58
Speaker 1: some of you that life longing is a torrent rushing
52:01
Speaker 1: with might to the sea, carrying the secrets of the
52:04
Speaker 1: hillsides and the songs of the forest. And in others
52:08
Speaker 1: it is a flat stream that loses itself in angles
52:11
Speaker 1: and bends and lingers before it reaches the shore. But
52:15
Speaker 1: let not him who longs much, say to him who
52:18
Speaker 1: longs little? Wherefore are you slow and halting for the
52:22
Speaker 1: truly good? Ask not the naked where is your garment?
52:26
Speaker 1: Nor the houseless? What has befallen your house? End of
52:30
Speaker 1: Chapter twenty two Chapter twenty three of the Prophet by
52:39
Speaker 1: Khalil Gibron. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
52:45
Speaker 1: On prayer, then a priestess said, speak to us of prayer.
52:51
Speaker 1: And he answered, saying, you pray in your distress and
52:55
Speaker 1: in your need. Would that you might pray also in
52:58
Speaker 1: the fullness of your joy and in your days of abundance.
53:02
Speaker 1: For what is prayer but the expansion of yourself into
53:05
Speaker 1: the living ether. And if it is for your comfort
53:08
Speaker 1: to pour your darkness into space, it is also for
53:11
Speaker 1: your delight to pour forth the dawning of your heart.
53:15
Speaker 1: And if you cannot but weep when your soul summons
53:17
Speaker 1: you to prayer. She should spur you again and yet again,
53:20
Speaker 1: though weeping, until you shall come laughing. When you pray,
53:24
Speaker 1: you rise to meet in the air those who are
53:26
Speaker 1: praying at that very hour, and whom save in prayer,
53:30
Speaker 1: you may not meet. Therefore, let your visit to that
53:33
Speaker 1: Temple invisible be for naught but ecstasy and sweet communion.
53:37
Speaker 1: For if you should enter the temple for no other
53:39
Speaker 1: purpose than asking, you shall not receive. And if you
53:43
Speaker 1: should enter it to humble yourself, you shall not be lifted.
53:47
Speaker 1: Or even if you should enter it to beg for
53:49
Speaker 1: the good of others, you shall not be heard. It
53:52
Speaker 1: is enough that you enter the Temple invisible. I cannot
53:55
Speaker 1: teach you how to pray in words. God listens not
53:58
Speaker 1: to your words say when he himself utters them through
54:02
Speaker 1: your lips. And I cannot teach you the prayer of
54:05
Speaker 1: the seas and the forests and the mountains. But you,
54:08
Speaker 1: who are born of the mountains and the forests and
54:10
Speaker 1: the seas, can find their prayer in your heart. And
54:14
Speaker 1: if you but listen in the stillness of the night,
54:17
Speaker 1: you shall hear them saying, in silence, our God, who
54:20
Speaker 1: art our winged self. It is thy will in us
54:24
Speaker 1: that willeth. It is thy desire in us that desireth.
54:28
Speaker 1: It is thy urge in us that would turn our knights,
54:31
Speaker 1: which are thine, into days which are thine. Also we
54:35
Speaker 1: cannot ask thee for aught, for thou knowest our needs
54:39
Speaker 1: before they are born. In us, Thou art our need,
54:42
Speaker 1: And in giving us more of thyself, thou givest us
54:45
Speaker 1: all end of Chapter twenty three, Chapter twenty four of
54:55
Speaker 1: the Prophet by Khalil Jabrn. This LibriVox recording is in
54:59
Speaker 1: the public domain. On pleasure, then a hermit who visited
55:05
Speaker 1: the city once a year came forth and said, speak
55:09
Speaker 1: to us of pleasure. And he answered saying, pleasure is
55:13
Speaker 1: a freedom song, but it is not freedom. It is
55:17
Speaker 1: the blossoming of your desires, but it is not their fruit.
55:21
Speaker 1: It is a depth calling unto a height, but it
55:23
Speaker 1: is not the deep nor the high. It is the
55:26
Speaker 1: caged taking wing, but it is not space and compassed.
55:31
Speaker 1: I in very truth, pleasure is a freedom song, and
55:35
Speaker 1: I fain would have you sing it with fullness of heart.
55:38
Speaker 1: Yet I would not have you lose your hearts in
55:40
Speaker 1: the singing some of your youth seek pleasure as if
55:43
Speaker 1: it were all, and they are judged and rebuked, I
55:46
Speaker 1: would not judge nor rebuke them. I would have them seek,
55:50
Speaker 1: for they shall find pleasure. But not her alone. Seven
55:55
Speaker 1: are her sisters, and the least of them is more
55:57
Speaker 1: beautiful than pleasure. Have you not heard of the man
56:01
Speaker 1: who was digging in the earth for roots and found
56:03
Speaker 1: a treasure? And some of your elders remember pleasures with regret,
56:07
Speaker 1: like wrongs committed in drunkenness. But regret is the beclouding
56:11
Speaker 1: of the mind, not its chastisement. They should remember their
56:16
Speaker 1: pleasures with gratitude, as they would the harvest of a summer.
56:20
Speaker 1: Yet if it comforts them to regret, let them be comforted.
56:24
Speaker 1: And there are among you those who are neither young
56:26
Speaker 1: to seek nor old to remember, And in their fear
56:30
Speaker 1: of seeking and remembering, they shun all pleasures, lest they
56:34
Speaker 1: neglect the spirit or offend against it. But even in
56:37
Speaker 1: their foregoing is their pleasure. And thus they too find
56:41
Speaker 1: a treasure, though they dig for roots with quivering hands.
56:44
Speaker 1: But tell me who is he that can offend the spirit?
56:48
Speaker 1: Shall the nightingale offend the stillness of the night, or
56:51
Speaker 1: the fire fly the stars. And shall your flame or
56:54
Speaker 1: your smoke burden the wind? Think you the spirit is
56:58
Speaker 1: a still pool, which you can try with a staff. Oftentimes,
57:02
Speaker 1: in denying yourself pleasure, you do but store the desire
57:05
Speaker 1: and the recesses of your being. Who knows, but that
57:09
Speaker 1: which seems omitted today waits for tomorrow. Even your body
57:13
Speaker 1: knows its heritage and its rightful need, and will not
57:16
Speaker 1: be deceived. And your body is the harp of your soul,
57:20
Speaker 1: and it is yours to bring forth sweet music from
57:23
Speaker 1: it or confused sounds. And now you ask in your heart,
57:27
Speaker 1: how shall we distinguish that which is good and pleasure
57:30
Speaker 1: from that which is not good? Go to your fields
57:33
Speaker 1: and your gardens, and you shall learn that it is
57:35
Speaker 1: pleasure of the bee to gather honey of the flower,
57:39
Speaker 1: But it is also the pleasure of the flower to
57:41
Speaker 1: yield its honey to the bee. For to the bee
57:44
Speaker 1: a flower is a fountain of life, and to the
57:47
Speaker 1: flower a bee is a messenger of love. And to
57:50
Speaker 1: both be and flower, the giving and the receiving of
57:54
Speaker 1: pleasure is a need and an ecstasy. People of orphiles,
57:58
Speaker 1: be in your pleasure's life. The flowers and the bees
58:03
Speaker 1: end of chapter twenty four Chapter twenty five of the
58:12
Speaker 1: Prophet by Khalil Jabron. This LibriVox recording is in the
58:16
Speaker 1: public domain. On beauty, and the poet said, speak to
58:22
Speaker 1: us of beauty. And he answered, where shall you seek beauty?
58:26
Speaker 1: And how shall you find her unless she herself be
58:29
Speaker 1: your way and your guide? And how shall you speak
58:33
Speaker 1: of her except she be the weaver of your speech.
58:36
Speaker 1: The aggrieved and the injured say, Beauty is kind and gentle,
58:41
Speaker 1: like a young mother, half shy of her own glory.
58:43
Speaker 1: She walks among us. And the passionate say, nay, Beauty
58:48
Speaker 1: is a thing of might and dread. Like the tempest.
58:51
Speaker 1: She shakes the earth beneath us and the sky above us.
58:54
Speaker 1: The tired and the weary say, Beauty is of soft whisperings,
59:00
Speaker 1: weeks in our spirit. Her voice yields to our silences,
59:03
Speaker 1: like a faint light that quivers in fear of the shadow.
59:06
Speaker 1: But the restless say, we have heard her shouting among
59:10
Speaker 1: the mountains, and with her cries came the sound of hoofs,
59:13
Speaker 1: and the beating of wings, and the roaring of lions.
59:17
Speaker 1: At night, the watchmen of the city say, Beauty shall
59:20
Speaker 1: rise with the dawn from the east, and at noontide,
59:24
Speaker 1: the toilers and the wayfarers say, we have seen her
59:27
Speaker 1: leaning over the earth from the windows of the sunset.
59:31
Speaker 1: In winter, say the snow bound, she shall come with
59:34
Speaker 1: the spring leaping upon the hills. And in the summer
59:38
Speaker 1: heat the reapers say, we have seen her dancing with
59:42
Speaker 1: the autumn leaves, and we saw a drift of snow
59:45
Speaker 1: in her hair. All these things have you said of beauty,
59:48
Speaker 1: Yet in truth you spoke not of her, but of
59:51
Speaker 1: needs unsatisfied. And beauty is not in need, but in ecstasy.
59:57
Speaker 1: It is not a mouth thirsting, nor an empty hand
1:00:00
Speaker 1: stretched forth, but rather a heart inflamed and a soul enchanted.
1:00:05
Speaker 1: It is not the image you would see, nor the
1:00:07
Speaker 1: song you would hear, but rather in image you see
1:00:10
Speaker 1: though you close your eyes, and a song you hear
1:00:13
Speaker 1: though you shut your ears. It is not the sap
1:00:16
Speaker 1: within the furrowed bark, nor a wing attached to a claw,
1:00:20
Speaker 1: but rather a garden forever in bloom, and a flock
1:00:24
Speaker 1: of angels forever in flight. People of orphiles, beauty is
1:00:29
Speaker 1: life when life unveils her holy face. But you are life,
1:00:33
Speaker 1: and you are the veil beauty is eternity gazing at
1:00:37
Speaker 1: itself in a mirror. But you are eternity, and you
1:00:41
Speaker 1: are the mirror. End of Chapter twenty five Chapter twenty
1:00:51
Speaker 1: six of the Prophet by Khalil Jabron. This LibriVox recording
1:00:56
Speaker 1: is in the public domain. On religion, and an old
1:01:01
Speaker 1: priest said, speak to us of religion. And he said,
1:01:06
Speaker 1: have I spoken this day of aught? Else is not
1:01:09
Speaker 1: religion all deeds and all reflection. And that which is
1:01:13
Speaker 1: neither deed nor reflection, but a wonder and a surprise,
1:01:17
Speaker 1: ever springing in the soul, even while the hands hew
1:01:20
Speaker 1: the stone or tend the loom. Who can separate his
1:01:24
Speaker 1: faith from his actions, or his belief from his occupations,
1:01:28
Speaker 1: Who can spread his hours before him saying this for God,
1:01:32
Speaker 1: in this for myself, this for my soul, and this
1:01:36
Speaker 1: other for my body. All your hours are wings that
1:01:39
Speaker 1: beat through space from self to self. He who wears
1:01:43
Speaker 1: his morality, but as his best garment were better naked,
1:01:47
Speaker 1: the wind and the sun will tear no holes in
1:01:49
Speaker 1: his skin. And he who defines his conduct by ethics
1:01:53
Speaker 1: imprisons his song bird in a cage. The freest song
1:01:58
Speaker 1: comes not through bars and wires and He to whom
1:02:01
Speaker 1: worshiping is a window to open but also to shut,
1:02:05
Speaker 1: has not yet visited the house of his soul, whose
1:02:08
Speaker 1: windows are from dawn to dawn. Your daily life is
1:02:12
Speaker 1: your temple and your religion. Whenever you enter it, take
1:02:16
Speaker 1: with you your all. Take the plow and the forge,
1:02:20
Speaker 1: and the mallet and the lute, the things you have
1:02:23
Speaker 1: fashioned in necessity or for delight. For in reverie you
1:02:27
Speaker 1: cannot rise above your achievements, nor fall lower than your failures.
1:02:32
Speaker 1: And take with you all men, for in adoration you
1:02:36
Speaker 1: cannot fly higher than their hopes, nor humble yourself lower
1:02:39
Speaker 1: than their despair. And if you would know God be
1:02:43
Speaker 1: not therefore a solver of riddles. Rather, look about you,
1:02:47
Speaker 1: and you shall see him playing with your children. And
1:02:50
Speaker 1: look into space. You shall see him walking in the
1:02:53
Speaker 1: cloud outstretching his arms, and the lightning, and descending in rain.
1:02:58
Speaker 1: You shall see him smiling and flurs, then rising and
1:03:01
Speaker 1: waving his hands in the trees. End of chapter twenty
1:03:06
Speaker 1: six Chapter twenty seven of the Prophet by Khalil Jabrn.
1:03:16
Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. On death,
1:03:23
Speaker 1: then Almetris spoke, saying we would ask now of death.
1:03:29
Speaker 1: And he said, you would know the secret of death.
1:03:33
Speaker 1: But how shall you find it unless you seek it
1:03:36
Speaker 1: in the heart of life. The owl, whose night bound
1:03:39
Speaker 1: eyes are blind unto the day, cannot unveil the mystery
1:03:43
Speaker 1: of light. But if you would indeed behold the spirit
1:03:46
Speaker 1: of death, open your heart wide unto the body of life.
1:03:51
Speaker 1: For life and death are one, even as the river
1:03:54
Speaker 1: and the sea are one. In the depth of your
1:03:57
Speaker 1: hopes and desires lies your silent none of the beyond.
1:04:01
Speaker 1: And like seeds dreaming beneath the snow, your heart dreams
1:04:05
Speaker 1: of spring. Trust the dreams, for in them is hidden
1:04:09
Speaker 1: the gate to eternity. Your fear of death is but
1:04:12
Speaker 1: the trembling of the shepherd when he stands before the king,
1:04:16
Speaker 1: whose hand is to be laid upon him in honor.
1:04:19
Speaker 1: Is the shepherd not joyful beneath his trembling that he
1:04:22
Speaker 1: shall wear the mark of the king? Yet is he
1:04:25
Speaker 1: not more mindful of his trembling? For what is it
1:04:29
Speaker 1: to die but to stand naked in the wind and
1:04:31
Speaker 1: to melt into the sun. And what is it to
1:04:34
Speaker 1: cease breathing? But to free the breath from its restless tides,
1:04:38
Speaker 1: that it may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered.
1:04:42
Speaker 1: Only when you drink from the river of silence shall
1:04:45
Speaker 1: you indeed sing. And when you have reached the mountain top,
1:04:49
Speaker 1: then you shall begin to climb. And when the earth
1:04:52
Speaker 1: shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance. And
1:04:56
Speaker 1: now it was evening, and Almitra the sea said, blessed
1:05:01
Speaker 1: be this day and this place and your spirit that
1:05:05
Speaker 1: has spoken. And he answered, was it I who spoke?
1:05:10
Speaker 1: Was I not also a listener? End of Chapter twenty
1:05:14
Speaker 1: seven Chapter twenty eight of The Prophet by Khalil Gibron.
1:05:24
Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. The Farewell.
1:05:30
Speaker 1: Then he descended the steps of the temple, and all
1:05:33
Speaker 1: the people followed him. And he reached his ship and
1:05:36
Speaker 1: stood upon the deck, and facing the people again, he
1:05:40
Speaker 1: raised his voice and said, people of Orphelies, the wind
1:05:44
Speaker 1: bids me leave you. Less hasty am I than the wind?
1:05:48
Speaker 1: Yet I must go. We wanderers, ever seeking the lonelier way.
1:05:54
Speaker 1: Begin no day where we have ended another day, and
1:05:57
Speaker 1: no sunrise finds us where sunset left us. Even while
1:06:01
Speaker 1: the earth sleeps we travel. We are the seeds of
1:06:04
Speaker 1: the tenacious plant. And it is in our ripeness and
1:06:08
Speaker 1: our fullness of heart, that we are given to the
1:06:10
Speaker 1: wind and are scattered. Brief were my days among you,
1:06:14
Speaker 1: and briefer still the words I have spoken. But should
1:06:17
Speaker 1: my voice fade in your ears and my love vanish
1:06:20
Speaker 1: in your memory, then I will come again, and with
1:06:23
Speaker 1: a richer heart and lips more yielding to the spirit,
1:06:26
Speaker 1: will I speak, yea, I shall return with the tide.
1:06:30
Speaker 1: And though death may hide me and the greater silence
1:06:33
Speaker 1: unfold me, yet again will I seek your understanding, And
1:06:37
Speaker 1: not in vain will I seek. If aught I have
1:06:40
Speaker 1: said is truth, that truth shall reveal itself in a
1:06:42
Speaker 1: clearer voice and in words more kin to your thoughts.
1:06:46
Speaker 1: I go with the wind, people of Orpheles, but not
1:06:49
Speaker 1: down into emptiness. And if this day is not a
1:06:53
Speaker 1: fulfillment of your needs and my love, then let it
1:06:55
Speaker 1: be a promise till another day. Man's need change, but
1:07:00
Speaker 1: not his love nor his desire, that his love should
1:07:02
Speaker 1: satisfy his needs. Know therefore that from the greater silence
1:07:07
Speaker 1: I shall return the mist that drifts away at dawn leaving,
1:07:11
Speaker 1: but dew in the fields shall rise and gather into
1:07:14
Speaker 1: a cloud, and then fall down in rain, And not
1:07:17
Speaker 1: unlike the mist have I been in the stillness of
1:07:20
Speaker 1: the night. I have walked in your streets, and my
1:07:22
Speaker 1: spirit has entered your houses, and your heart beats were
1:07:26
Speaker 1: in my heart, and your breath was upon my face.
1:07:29
Speaker 1: And I knew you all ay. I knew your joy
1:07:33
Speaker 1: and your pain, and in your sleep your dreams were
1:07:36
Speaker 1: my dreams. And oftentimes I was among you a lake
1:07:39
Speaker 1: among the mountains. I mirrored the summits in you, and
1:07:43
Speaker 1: the bending slopes, and even the passing flocks of your
1:07:46
Speaker 1: thoughts and your desires. And to my silence came the
1:07:50
Speaker 1: laughter of your children and streams, and the longing of
1:07:53
Speaker 1: your youths and rivers. And when they reached my depth,
1:07:57
Speaker 1: the streams and the rivers ceased, not yet to sing.
1:08:00
Speaker 1: But sweeter still than laughter, and greater than longing, came
1:08:03
Speaker 1: to me. It was the boundless in you, the vast man,
1:08:07
Speaker 1: in whom you are all but sells and sinews, he
1:08:11
Speaker 1: in whose chant all your singing is but a soundless throbbing.
1:08:15
Speaker 1: It is in the vast Man that you are vast,
1:08:18
Speaker 1: and in beholding him that I beheld you and loved you.
1:08:22
Speaker 1: For what distances can love reach? That are not in
1:08:24
Speaker 1: that vast sphere. What visions, what expectations, and what presumptions
1:08:29
Speaker 1: can outsoar that flight Like a giant oak tree covered
1:08:33
Speaker 1: with apple blossoms. Is the vast man in you. His
1:08:37
Speaker 1: might binds you to the earth, His fragrance lifts you
1:08:40
Speaker 1: into space, and in his durability you are deathless. You
1:08:44
Speaker 1: have been told that even like a chain, you are
1:08:47
Speaker 1: as weak as your weakest link. This is but half
1:08:50
Speaker 1: the truth. You are also as strong as your strongest link.
1:08:54
Speaker 1: To measure you by your smallest deed is to reckon
1:08:57
Speaker 1: the power of ocean, by the frailty of its foam.
1:09:00
Speaker 1: To judge you by your failures is to cast blame
1:09:03
Speaker 1: upon the seasons for their inconstancy. I you are like
1:09:07
Speaker 1: an ocean, and though heavy grounded ships await the tide
1:09:10
Speaker 1: upon your shores. Yet even like an ocean, you cannot
1:09:14
Speaker 1: hasten your tides. And like the seasons, you are also.
1:09:18
Speaker 1: And though in your winter you deny your spring, yet
1:09:21
Speaker 1: spring reposing within you, smiles in her drowsiness and is
1:09:26
Speaker 1: not offended. Think not. I say these things in order
1:09:29
Speaker 1: that you may say the one to the other. He
1:09:32
Speaker 1: praised us well, he saw, but the good in us.
1:09:35
Speaker 1: I only speak to you in words of that which
1:09:37
Speaker 1: you yourselves know one thought, and what is word knowledge
1:09:41
Speaker 1: but a shadow of wordless knowledge. Your thoughts and my
1:09:45
Speaker 1: words are waves from a sealed memory that keeps records
1:09:48
Speaker 1: of our yesterdays, and of the ancient days when the
1:09:51
Speaker 1: earth knew not us nor herself, and of nights when
1:09:55
Speaker 1: earth was upwrought with confusion. Wise men have come to
1:09:59
Speaker 1: you to give you their wisdom. I came to take
1:10:02
Speaker 1: of your wisdom. And behold, I have found that which
1:10:05
Speaker 1: is greater than wisdom. It is a flame spirit in you,
1:10:09
Speaker 1: ever gathering more of itself, while you heedless of its expansion.
1:10:14
Speaker 1: Bewail the withering of your days. It is life in
1:10:17
Speaker 1: quest of life, and bodies that fear the grave. There
1:10:21
Speaker 1: are no graves here. These mountains and plains are a
1:10:25
Speaker 1: cradle and a stepping stone. Whenever you pass by the
1:10:28
Speaker 1: field where you have laid your ancestors, look well thereupon,
1:10:32
Speaker 1: and you shall see yourselves and your children dancing hand
1:10:36
Speaker 1: in hand. Verily, you often make merry without knowing. Others
1:10:41
Speaker 1: have come to you, to whom for golden promises made
1:10:43
Speaker 1: unto your faith you have given, but riches and power
1:10:46
Speaker 1: and glory. Less than a promise have I given, And
1:10:50
Speaker 1: yet more generous have you been to me. You have
1:10:53
Speaker 1: given me my deeper, thirsting after life. Surely there is
1:10:57
Speaker 1: no greater gift to a man than that which turns
1:11:00
Speaker 1: all his aims into parching lips, and all life into
1:11:03
Speaker 1: a fountain. And in this lies my honor and my reward,
1:11:08
Speaker 1: that whenever I come to the fountain to drink, I
1:11:10
Speaker 1: find the living water itself thirsty, and it drinks me
1:11:14
Speaker 1: while I drink it. Some of you have deemed me
1:11:17
Speaker 1: proud and overshy to receive gifts. Too proud indeed am
1:11:22
Speaker 1: I to receive wages, but not gifts. And though I
1:11:26
Speaker 1: have eaten berries among the hills, when you would have
1:11:28
Speaker 1: had me sit at your board, and slept in the
1:11:30
Speaker 1: portico of the temple, when you would gladly have sheltered me,
1:11:34
Speaker 1: Yet was it not your loving mindfulness of my days
1:11:37
Speaker 1: and my nights that made food sweet to my mouth
1:11:40
Speaker 1: and girdled my sleep with visions? For this I bless
1:11:43
Speaker 1: you most. You give much, and know not that you
1:11:47
Speaker 1: give at all. Verily, the kindness that gazes upon itself
1:11:51
Speaker 1: in a mirror turns to stone, and a good deed
1:11:54
Speaker 1: that calls itself by tender names becomes the parent to
1:11:57
Speaker 1: a curse. And some of you have called me aloof
1:12:00
Speaker 1: and drunk with my own aloneness. And you have said,
1:12:03
Speaker 1: he holds counsel with the trees of the forest, but
1:12:06
Speaker 1: not with men. He sits alone on hill tops and
1:12:10
Speaker 1: looks down upon our city. True it is that I
1:12:13
Speaker 1: have climbed the hills and walked in remote places. How
1:12:16
Speaker 1: could I have seen you, save from a great height
1:12:19
Speaker 1: or a great distance. How can one be indeed near
1:12:22
Speaker 1: unless he be far? And others among you called unto me,
1:12:26
Speaker 1: not in words, And they said, stranger, stranger, lover of
1:12:31
Speaker 1: unreachable heights. Why dwell you among the summits where eagles
1:12:34
Speaker 1: build their nests? Why seek you the unattainable? What storms
1:12:39
Speaker 1: would you trap in your net? And what vaporous birds
1:12:41
Speaker 1: do you hunt in the sky? Come and be one
1:12:44
Speaker 1: of us, Descend and appease your hunger with our bread,
1:12:47
Speaker 1: and quench your thirst with our wine. In the solitude
1:12:51
Speaker 1: of their souls, they said these things. But were there
1:12:54
Speaker 1: solitude deeper, they would have known that I sought but
1:12:57
Speaker 1: the secret of your joy and your pain. And I
1:13:00
Speaker 1: hunted only your larger selves that walk the sky. But
1:13:04
Speaker 1: the hunter was also the hunted. For many of my
1:13:07
Speaker 1: arrows left my bow only to seek my own breast.
1:13:10
Speaker 1: And the flier was also the creeper. For when my
1:13:13
Speaker 1: wings were spread in the sun, their shadow upon the
1:13:16
Speaker 1: earth was a turtle. And I, the believer, was also
1:13:20
Speaker 1: the doubter. For often have I put my finger in
1:13:23
Speaker 1: my own wound, that I might have the greater belief
1:13:26
Speaker 1: in you and the greater knowledge of you. And it
1:13:29
Speaker 1: is with this belief and this knowledge that I say
1:13:33
Speaker 1: you are not enclosed within your bodies, nor confined to
1:13:37
Speaker 1: houses or fields. That which is you dwells above the
1:13:40
Speaker 1: mountain and roves with the wind. It is not a
1:13:44
Speaker 1: thing that crawls into the sun for warmth, or digs
1:13:47
Speaker 1: holes into darkness for safety, but a thing free, a
1:13:51
Speaker 1: spirit that envelops the earth and moves in the ether.
1:13:54
Speaker 1: If these be vague words, then seek not to clear them.
1:13:59
Speaker 1: Vague and nebulous. Is the beginning of all things, but
1:14:02
Speaker 1: not their end. And I fain would have you remember
1:14:05
Speaker 1: me as a beginning. Life. And all that lives is
1:14:09
Speaker 1: conceived in the mist and not in the crystal. And
1:14:12
Speaker 1: who knows, but a crystal is missed and decay. This
1:14:16
Speaker 1: what I have you remember in remembering me, that which
1:14:19
Speaker 1: seems most feeble and bewildered in you is the strongest
1:14:23
Speaker 1: and most determined. Is it not your breath that has
1:14:26
Speaker 1: erected and hardened the structure of your bones? And is
1:14:30
Speaker 1: it not a dream which none of you remember having dreamt,
1:14:33
Speaker 1: that builded your city and fashioned all there is in it?
1:14:37
Speaker 1: Could you but see the tides of that breath, you
1:14:40
Speaker 1: would cease to see all else. And if you could
1:14:43
Speaker 1: hear the whispering of the dream, you would hear no
1:14:46
Speaker 1: other sound. But you do not see, nor do you hear.
1:14:50
Speaker 1: And it is well. The veil that clouds your eyes
1:14:53
Speaker 1: shall be lifted by the hands that wove it, and
1:14:56
Speaker 1: the clay that fills your ears shall be pierced by
1:14:58
Speaker 1: those fingers that need, and you shall see and you
1:15:02
Speaker 1: shall hear. Yet you shall not deplore having known blindness,
1:15:06
Speaker 1: nor regret having been death, For in that day you
1:15:10
Speaker 1: shall know the hidden purposes in all things, and you
1:15:14
Speaker 1: shall bless darkness as you would bless light. After saying
1:15:18
Speaker 1: these things, he looked about him, and he saw the
1:15:21
Speaker 1: pilot of his ships standing by the helm, and gazing
1:15:24
Speaker 1: now at the full sails, and now at the distance.
1:15:27
Speaker 1: And he said, patient, over, patient is the captain of
1:15:32
Speaker 1: my ship. The wind blows, and restless are the sails,
1:15:36
Speaker 1: even the rudder begs direction. Yet quietly my captain awaits
1:15:40
Speaker 1: my silence. And these my mariners, who have heard the
1:15:44
Speaker 1: choir of the greater sea, they too have heard me patiently.
1:15:48
Speaker 1: Now they shall wait no longer. I am ready. The
1:15:53
Speaker 1: stream has reached the sea, and once more the great
1:15:56
Speaker 1: mother holds her son against her breast. Fare you well,
1:16:00
Speaker 1: people of Orpheles. This day has ended. It is closing
1:16:05
Speaker 1: upon us, even as the water lily upon its own. Tomorrow.
1:16:09
Speaker 1: What was given us here we shall keep. And if
1:16:12
Speaker 1: it suffices not, then again must be come together and
1:16:15
Speaker 1: together stretch our hands unto the giver. Forget not that
1:16:19
Speaker 1: I shall come back to you a little while, and
1:16:22
Speaker 1: my longing shall gather dust and foam for another body
1:16:26
Speaker 1: a little while, a moment of rest upon the wind,
1:16:29
Speaker 1: and another woman shall bear me. Farewell to you and
1:16:33
Speaker 1: the youth I have spent with you. It was but
1:16:36
Speaker 1: yesterday we met in a dream. You have sung to
1:16:40
Speaker 1: me in my loneness, and I of your longings have
1:16:43
Speaker 1: built a tower in the sky. But now our sleep
1:16:46
Speaker 1: has fled, and our dream is over, and it is
1:16:49
Speaker 1: no longer dawn. The noontide is upon us, and our
1:16:53
Speaker 1: half waking has turned to fuller day, and we must part.
1:16:58
Speaker 1: If in the twilight of memory we should meet once more,
1:17:01
Speaker 1: we shall speak again together, and you shall sing to
1:17:05
Speaker 1: me a deeper song. And if our hands should meet
1:17:08
Speaker 1: in another dream, we shall build another tower in the sky.
1:17:13
Speaker 1: So saying, he made a signal to the seamen, and
1:17:16
Speaker 1: straightway they weighed anchor and cast the ship loose from
1:17:19
Speaker 1: its moorings, and they moved eastward. And a cry came
1:17:23
Speaker 1: from the people, as from a single heart, and it
1:17:26
Speaker 1: rose into the dusk and was carried out over the
1:17:29
Speaker 1: sea like a great trumpeting. Only Almitra was silent, gazing
1:17:33
Speaker 1: after the ship until it had vanished into the mist.
1:17:37
Speaker 1: And when all the people were dispersed, she still stood
1:17:40
Speaker 1: alone upon the sea wall, remembering in her heart his
1:17:43
Speaker 1: sang a little while a moment of rest upon the wind,
1:17:48
Speaker 1: and another woman shall bear me. End of Chapter twenty eight.
1:17:53
Speaker 1: End of the Prophet by Khalil Gibran. Recording by Adam
1:17:59
Speaker 1: Santoni