Gibran Kahlil Gibran.pdf

7/22/2019 Gibran Kahlil Gibran.pdf

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Gibran Kahlil Gibran1883-1931

The Poet of Humanity and Peace

I came to be for all and in

all. That which alone

I do today shall be

proclaimed before the

people in days to come.

And what I now say with

one tongue, tomorrow

will say with many.

Kahlil Gibran

Amin Neghavati

(2005)


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Gibran Kahlil Gibran, the slender, moustachioed Lebanese immigrant, five feet four

inches tall, with brown eyes fringed by long lashes, known to the world as the immortal

prophet of Lebanon and the Savant of His Age, was born on January 6, 1883, to a Christian

family in the village of Bsharri in the North East of Beirut not far from the famous Cedar

forests of Biblical times, at an altitude of over 5000 feet which at that time was in a Turkish

province that was part of Greater Syria and nowadays is an international spot of tourism and

pilgrimage. A lush region with blue sky and pure air, beautiful vineyards, apple and mulberry

orchards, with the far sight of the Mediterranean Sea, rugged cliffs and the beauty of the

cascading falls which had a dramatic and symbolic influence on his drawings and writings.

His mother Camilla Rahmeh, the daughter of Father Estephan Rahmeh, a Maronite

Catholic priest, was thirty when she gave birth to Gibran from her third husband Khalil

Gibran, who proved to be an irresponsible husband leading the family to poverty.

The romance between Camilla and Khalil Gibran occurred when he heard her singing in

her fathers garden. He did not rest until he had met her, and was immediately impressed

with her beauty and charm. And there was no peace for him or anyone else until he had won

her hand. I

When Gibran was born, his parents baptized him in the Maronite church and named him

after his paternal grandfather, Gibran, according to the Lebanese custom at that time.

Gibran received his early primary education in his native town with regular visits to a

village priest teaching him The Bible and Syriac and Arabic languages.

After his father, an alcoholic tax collector, was disgraced in 1891 and the Ottomon

authorities confiscated his property and made the family homeless, Gibran, aged 12 by the

time, with the family, including his elder half-brother, Peter, two younger sisters, Mariana

and Sultana, and their mother, immigrated to the United States in June, 1895 under the

IYoung, Barbara, This Man From Lebanon, New York: A. Knopf, 1970, p. 144.


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leadership of Peter, and settled in the centre of the Syrian district in Boston, where other

natives of Bsharri along with other Syrians had comprised a colony in Chinatown. The father

had remained behind in Lebanon.

The father had hardly any dominant impact on his son; unlike the mother who played an

important role in the intellectual maturation of her son. She acquainted her son with the

famous Arabian old tales and the Hunting Songs of Abu NWas.I

Gibrans English readers have always known him by a modified form of his real name.

His full name in Arabic was Gibran Khalil Gibran, the middle name being, conventionally,

his fathers. When Gibran started as a student in the Quincy School in Boston in 1895, his

English teacher suggested dropping his first name and changing the spelling of Khalil to

Kahlil to suit the American pronunciation which first was a registration mistake! The

shortened and misspelled Kahlil Gibran remained unchanged throughout the rest of his life

despite his repeated attempts at restoring his full name.

During the two years of learning in the public school of the district, Gibran scored the

highest marks among his U.S. classmates and soon was recognised as a genius. According to

Waterfield (1998), his art teacher, Florence Pierce, recognized his burgeoning talents and saw

an artistic future for the boy. He had a hand in his acquaintance with Fred Holland Day, a

prominent figure of the Boston avant-garde and a leader of a group of artists and poets known

as the Visionists. Day, who was a supporter of artists, opened up Gibrans cultural world and

set him on the road to artistic fame and reputation. Day cultivated the young immigrants

artistic talents; he commented on his sketches, and encouraged the spiritual aspect of his

drawings. Under Days tutelage, Gibran came also to develop his love of literature. It was

then that Gibran felt the joy of literature with some romantic poets and philosophers who

later had a considerable impact on his output.

IOtto, Annie Salem, The Parables of Kahlil Gibran, New York: The Citadel Press, 1963, p. 16.


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In 1896 having felt the weakness in his own native language and culture, Gibran returned

to Lebanon in order to become acquainted with the Arabian erudition along with cultivating

his mother tongue. From 1896 to 1901 he studied a great deal of subjects, such as

international law, medicine, music and the history of religion, at Madrasat Al-Hikmat (School

of Wisdom), today located in Ashrafiet, Beirut.

A significant point in his stay in Lebanon was the love experience which marked his life

deeply. It was his first romance with Miss Halla Daher whom he later immortalised in his

novel The Broken Wings (1912) under the name of Selma.I

However, she was promised

already as a child by her aristocrat parents to the hands of someone else.

By this time, the eighteen-year-old Gibran, eager to acquire the art of painting, set foot in

Paris where he stayed two years. On his way he also visited Greece, Italy, and Spain. Paris

was the city where he wrote Spirits Rebellious, his well-known criticism of Lebanese high

official society and corrupted marriage love. (The Lebanons Turkish Government burned his

work in the marketplace in Beirut.)

The loud outspoken sigh of sadness which is frequently observed in Gibrans works is

derived from the events in 1903 which drastically influenced his life. His sister, Sultana, died

when he was in Paris. He got back to Boston, but shortly after his arrival his mother was

bedridden in a hospital. The miseries increased in March of the same year when his half-

brother, Peter, died. And three months later his mother passed away. The depressing loss of

Camilla inspired Gibran to dedicate some lines to motherhood in The Broken Wings.

The most beautiful word on the lips of mankind is the word

Mother, and the most beautiful call is the call of My mother, It is a

word full of hope and love, a sweet and kind word coming from the

IGhougassian, Joseph P., Kahlil Gibran: Wings of Thought, New York: The Philosophical Library, 1973, p.26


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depth of the heart. The mother is everything- she is our consolation in

sorrow, our hope in misery, and our strength in weakness. She is the

source of love, mercy, sympathy, and forgiveness. He who loses his

mother loses a pure soul who blesses and guards him constantly.

Everything in nature bespeaks the mother. The sun is mother of

earth and gives it its nourishment of heat, it never leaves the universe at

night until it has put the earth to sleep to the song of the sea and the

hymn of birds and brooks. And this earth is the mother of trees and

flowers. It produces them, nurses them, and weans them. The trees and

flowers become kind mothers of their great fruits and seeds. And the

mother, the prototype of all existence, is the eternal spirit, full of beauty

and love.I

If Gibran has become a philosopher of human sorrow, and a great psychologist of the

finitude of human nature, it is because he immensely experienced the existential anxiety of

suffering, and the facticities of human predicaments.II

In the following years he wrote many short essays in Arabic and he also revised The

Prophet written in Arabic for the second time. By early 1904 Gibran had his first art

exhibition in Boston.

From 1908 to 1910 he studied art in Paris with August Rodin. Miss Marry Haskel, a

principal of a school, and later an everlasting friend toward whom Gibran had a spiritual and

intellectual Platonic love, advised and financed him on his second stay in Paris. Gibran also

had the experience of a Freudian love with Emile Michel, a young, beautiful French woman

who taught French in Miss Haskells school. In Paris Gibran asked her to be his mistress but

IKahlil Gibran, Gibran, The Broken Wings, pp. 82-83

IIGhougassian, Joseph P., p. 28


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she refused since she wanted to be married to him and marked the end of a second frustrated

love.

Around 1912 he settled in New York, where he devoted himself to writing and painting

till the end of his life. He lived at 51 West Tenth Street, on the third floor of the famous

Studio Building exclusively built for painters and writers. And from 1918 he published

mostly in English. The Madman: His Parables and Poems (1918) was his first book

originally publishedin the English language. Writing in English definitely increased English-

speakingreaders recognition of Gibrans abilities as a writer, since they startedreading his

original work rather than a translated one.Finally, with the publication of The Prophet in

1923, Gibrans reputation spread both in the Middle East and in the United States.

After the outbreak of World War I, Gibrans political activity increased. He worked with

the Syrian-Mount Lebanon Volunteer Committee, advising Syrian residents in the United

States on how to join the French army involved in the war, and advocating Arab

independence from the Ottoman Empire.

Kahlil Gibran passed away peacefully at 10.55 p.m., on April 10, 1931, at the age of

forty-eight, in St. Vincents hospital in New York. Among other people close to Gibran, his

sister, Marianna, and his best friend Naimy were by his side. He was buried in his birthplace

in his motherland.

Gibran left behind a rich literary production and four hundred pieces of paintings and

drawings.


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The Prophet is Gibrans literary and artistic masterpiece. It remained Americas best

selling book after The Bible during the 20th Century. It has been translated into at least

twenty languages and has become one of the greatest classics of our time. The book is said to

be a testimony to the genius of Gibran.

There are signs that Gibrans mind was obsessed with the spiritual hunger of the world

and the desire in his soul to write a book on this need:

The world is hungry, Mary, and I have seen and heard the hunger of the world; and if

this thing is bread it will find a place in the heart of the world, and if it is not bread it will at

least make the hunger of the world deeper and higher (Beloved Prophet, 1972, p. 264).

It is a long time that readers have found themselves returning to the glorious pages of the

book to reabsorb its wisdom. Its beloved poetry is commonly read at weddings, baptisms, and

funerals throughout the world. The Chicago Evening Post Literary Review said of The

Prophet:

Truth is here: truth expressed with all the music and beauty and

idealism of a SyrianThe words of Gibran bring to ones ears the

majestic rhythm of EcclesiastesFor Kahlil Gibran has not feared to be

an idealist in an age of cynics. Nor to be concerned with simple truth

where others devote themselves to mountebank clevernessThe

twenty-eight chapters in the book form a little bible, to be read and loved

by those at all ready for truth

(qtd in Young, 1945, p. 61).

The book portrays the journey of a banished man called Almustafa, which in the Arabic

language means the chosen one. As he prepares to go back to the isle of his birth, he wishes

to offer the Orphalese, the people among whom he has been placed, gifts but possesses


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nothing. The people gather around him, and Almitra, the seeress, asks him to give us of your

truth and the mans spiritual insights in twenty-six poetic sermons are his gift.

As a wise sage and man of great vision, Almustafa teaches moral values, the mysteries of

life, and timeless wisdom about the human experience: marriage, children, friendship,

pleasure, death He, for example, calls for balancing heart and mind, passion and reason,

and for giving without recognition because the givers joy is his reward. Almustafa describes

the yearning of the soul for spiritual regeneration and self-fulfillment. He teaches that mans

purpose in life is a mystic quest towards a Greater Self, towards Godhood and the infinite. He

talks about your larger selves (p. 91)

Then at the end of the book Almustafa closes his farewell address saying: A little while,

a moment of rest upon the wind, and another woman shall bear me (p. 96). This image

reflects a romantic vision of eternal rebirth, reincarnation, and continuity of life. It evokes the

Unity of Being which Gibran believes in rather than fragmentation. Almustafas soul, hence,

will return again to its mystical path towards a greater soul.

The positive and optimistic teachings of the book are appealing. Almustafa strongly

believes in the power of the human soul. Speaking of God and Evil, Almustafa has this to

say:

You are good when you are one with yourself

Yet when you are not one with yourself you are not evil.

For a divided house is not a den of thieves; it is only a divided house.

And a ship without rudder may wander aimlessly among perilous isles

yet sink not to the bottom.

(p. 64)


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Gibran also beautifully combines his Romantic thoughts of nature with his teachings. In

his sermon on Reason and Passion, for example, he writes:

Among the hills, when you sit in the cool shade of the white poplars,

sharing the peace and serenity of distant fields and meadows then let

your heart say in silence, God rests in reason. And when the storm

comes, and the mighty wind shakes the forest, and thunder and lightning

proclaim the majesty of the sky, -- then let your heart say in awe, God

moves in passion

(p. 51).

Critics agree that The Prophet is partly autobiographical. Mary is often said to be the

inspiration for Almitra, and America or New York for the city of Orphalese. The twelve-year

wait Almustafa experienced before returning home from the land of the Orphalese seems to

equal Gibrans own twelve-year stay in New York City.


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Kahlil Gibran(1883-1931), Ameen Rihani(1876-1940), and Mikhail Naimy(1889-1988),

the key figures in the history of modern Arabic literature, became citizens of the U.S. and

wrote both in Arabic and in English. As ambassadors of their homeland to the West, they

celebrated the glorious past of the Arab world but attacked what they considered its backward

present. They produced enduring works that were dedicated to modernism and constituted a

channel for new ideas, but remained Arab in essence. Ameen Rihani came to be known as the

father of Arab American literature and also the father of Arabic prose poetry; Mikhail

Naimys name is associated with literary criticism that helped revive traditional Arabic

literature. As for Kahlil Gibran, his writings penetrate to our emotional and spiritual

awareness.

In America, they were impressed with values of freedom and democracy in addition to

scientific progress, but rejected what they saw as an excessive materialism at the expense of

spirituality. Meanwhile a powerful counter-current was flowing in different parts of the world

against Materialism. In India there were holy men equal to any teachers of her golden age -

Ramakrishna, Vivekananda, Ramana, Maharshi, Sri Aurobindo, and Mahatma Gandhi who

eagerly inspired faith in the power of non-violence to change the world. Gibran, re-visioning

Christianity in the light of Islamic (Sufi) mysticism, is of this group of inspired teachers of

the modern world. All these were persecuted in one way or another: Gandhi was repeatedly

imprisoned. Yeats, great world-poet as he was, was ridiculed by his contemporaries who were

ignorant of the great mainstream of civilization from which he drew his knowledge. Gibran

was dismissed for the opposite reason, because of his immense following of ordinary men

and women, for he answered to a deep need within the Western world, starved as it was, of its

spiritual food.

Communism and capitalism alike have believed that mankind could be fed on bread

alone but once again the prophets of the ever-living spirit have shown that the Word of


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God is the necessary food of the soul. It is as if one mind had spoken through their several

voices, none more eloquent or beautiful than the lonely voice of the Christian Lebanese Arab,

Kahlil Gibran.

Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.

When it comes to expressing our patriotic fervour, many of us would naturally recall the

rich statement which John F. Kennedy proudly mentioned on his Inauguration Day in 1961

and attained the highest grade of popularity in many nations, worldwide. But in fact, these

two sentences had been published in a non-journalistic, mystic article some fifty years prior

to J.F.K.s speech in a Lebanese newspaper and the writer was the unknown Gibran Kahlil

Gibran. The article was targeted to the young people in the Arabian territories, who were

under the sovereignty of The Ottomon Emperor, encouraging them to fight for their long-lost

independence.

By virtue of the phenomenal success of his chef-doeuvre The Prophet, Kahlil Gibran,

a visionary youth, turned out to be the most famous Arab-American ever and one of the

worlds great writers. That is to say, Kahlil Gibran is not, as many may think, a one-book

legend, as his earlier writings are equally monumental. English-speaking readers will also

appreciate Gibrans A Tear and a Smile, The Broken Wings, and The Procession among

others. His message and images have resonated among peoples of diverse cultures and

brought them together in appreciation of his art. In his life and work-which were inspired by

his experiences as an immigrant in an adopted land- Gibran resolved cultural and human

conflicts and developed in the process a unique consciousness, one that transcended the

barriers of East and West. His belief in the unity of being, his awareness of spiritual

continuity, his call for universal fellowship and the unification of the human race all retain

their potency today, as do the messages of all great poets. Among modern poets it would be


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hard to find one who has toiled and laboured more arduously than Gibran to promote a

universal culture of peace, one that unites both East and West.

Gibran particularly moved his readers with The Prophet, the words of which eloquently

carry deep truths of our human existence. The Prophet, which Gibran considered as his

greatest achievement, remains widely popular; another Bible for millions of people around

the world, and hence fulfilling Gibrans desire to be a poet-prophet.

Yet, despite the degree of self-confirmation and global reputation he reached, he is not

yet part of the American literary canon. Many biographical works have been published, but

Gibran has not been studied enough and most universities in America do not teach him in

their English Departments.

People of Orphalese, you can muffle the drum, and you can loosen the strings of the lyre, but

who shall command the skylark not to sing?

-laws


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Books by Kahlil Gibran

Gibran, Kahlil. The Broken Wings, trans. Anthony R. Ferris. New York: Citadel Press, 1957.

-----------------.A Tear and a Smile, trans. H. M. Nahmad. New York: Knopf, 1972.

-----------------. Spirits Rebellious, trans. H.M. Nahmad, New York: Knopf, 1948.

-----------------.Nymphs of the Valley, trans. H.M. Nahmad, New York: Knopf, 1948.

-----------------. On Music, a Pamphlet, New York: Al-Mohajer, 1905.

-----------------. The Madmen: His Parables and Poems, New York: Knopf, 1918.

-----------------. The Procession, trans. M.F. Kheirallah, New York: Arab-American Press,

1947.

-----------------. Twenty Drawings, New York: Knopf, 1919.

-----------------. The Forerunner: His Parables and Poems, New York: Knopf, 1920.

-----------------. Sand and Foam, New York, New York: Knopf, 1926.

-----------------. The Prophet, New York: Knopf, 2000.

-----------------. Spiritual Sayings, trans. Anthony R. Ferris, New York: Citadel Press, 1962.

-----------------.Jesus, the Son of Man, New York: Knopf, 1928.

------------------. The Earth Gods, New York: Knopf, 1931.

-----------------. The Wanderer: His Parables and Sayings, New York: Knopf, 1932.

-----------------. The Garden of the Prophet, New York: Knopf, 1933.

-----------------. Lazarus and His Beloved and The Blind, Philadelphia: Westminster Press,

1981.


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The following list is a bouquet of Gibrans themes which would allow us to explore

the different sides of Gibran:


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PHOTOGHRAPHS

One of the last photographs of Gibran(from Robin Waterfields The Life and Times of Kahlil Gibran).


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A 1920 photograph of four prominent members of The Pen League(from left to right): Nasib Arida, Kahlil Gibran, Abd al-Masih Haddad, and

Mikhail Naimy.

(from Robin Waterfields The Life and Times of Kahlil Gibran).


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A portrait of Gibrans mother, Kamila Rahma, pencil on paper(from Suheil Bushrui & Joe Jenkins Kahlil Gibran: Man and Poet)

Documents

Gibran Kahlil Gibran.pdf