The Prophet. Kahlil Gibran

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Название The Prophet
Автор произведения Kahlil Gibran
Жанр Языкознание
Серия
Издательство Языкознание
Год выпуска 0
isbn 9782380373981



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      Table of Contents

       The Prophet

       Kahlil Gibran

       Chapter 1 The Coming of the Ship

       Chapter 2 On Love

       Chapter 3 On Marriage

       Chapter 4 On Children

       Chapter 5 On Giving

       Chapter 6 On Eating & Drinking

       Chapter 7 On Work

       Chapter 8 On Joy & Sorrow

       Chapter 9 On Houses

       Chapter 10 On Clothes

       Chapter 11 On Buying & Selling

       Chapter 12 On Crime & Punishment

       Chapter 13 On Laws

       Chapter 14 On Freedom

       Chapter 15 On Reason & Passion

       Chapter 16 On Pain

       Chapter 17 On Self-Knowledge

       Chapter 18 On Teaching

       Chapter 19 On Friendship

       Chapter 20 On Talking

       Chapter 21 On Time

       Chapter 22 On Good & Evil

       Chapter 23 On Prayer

       Chapter 24 On Pleasure

       Chapter 25 On Beauty

       Chapter 26 On Religion

       Chapter 27 On Death

       Chapter 28 The Farewell

      The Prophet

      Kahlil Gibran

       Published: 1923 Categorie(s): Fiction, Poetry

      Chapter 1 The Coming of the Ship

      ALMUSTAFA, the chosen and the beloved, who was a dawn unto his own day, had waited twelve years in the city of Orphalese for his ship that was to return and bear him back to the isle of his birth.

      And in the twelfth year, on the seventh day of Ielool, the month of reaping, he climbed the hill without the city walls and looked seaward; and he beheld his ship coming with the mist.

      Then the gates of his heart were flung open, and his joy flew far over the sea. And he closed his eyes and prayed in the silences of his soul.

      But as he descended the hill, a sadness came upon him, and he thought in his heart:

      How shall I go in peace and without sorrow? Nay, not without a wound in the spirit shall I leave this city.

      Long were the days of pain I have spent within its walls, and long were the nights of aloneness; and who can depart from his pain and his aloneness without regret?

      Too many fragments of the spirit have I scattered in these streets, and too many are the children of my longing that walk naked among these hills, and I cannot withdraw from them without a burden and an ache.

      It is not a garment I cast off this day, but a skin that I tear with my own hands.

      Nor is it a thought I leave behind me, but a heart made sweet with hunger and with thirst.

      Yet I cannot tarry longer.

      The sea that calls all things unto her calls me, and I must embark.

      For to stay, though the hours burn in the night, is to freeze and crystallize and be bound in a mould.

      Fain would I take with me all that is here. But how shall I?

      A voice cannot carry the tongue and the lips that gave it wings. Alone must it seek the ether.

      And alone and without his nest shall the eagle fly across the sun.

      Now when he reached the foot of the hill, he turned again towards the sea, and he saw his ship approaching the harbour, and upon her prow the mariners, the men of his own land.

      And his soul cried out to them, and he said:

      Sons of my ancient mother, you riders of the tides,

      How often have you sailed in my dreams. And now you come in my awakening, which is my deeper dream.

      Ready am I to go, and my eagerness with sails full set awaits the wind.

      Only another breath will I breathe in this still air, only another loving look cast backward,

      And then I shall stand among you, a seafarer among seafarers.

      And you, vast sea, sleeping mother,

      Who alone are peace and freedom to the river and the stream,

      Only another winding will this stream make, only another murmur in this glade,

      And then I shall come to you, a boundless drop to a boundless ocean.

      And as he walked he saw from afar men and women leaving their fields and their vineyards and hastening towards the city gates.

      And he heard their voices calling his name, and shouting from field to field telling one another of the coming of his ship.

      And he said to himself:

      Shall the day of parting be the day of gathering?

      And shall it be said that my eve was in truth my dawn?

      And what shall I give unto him who has