Gibran Khalil Gibran

Seven times have I despised my soul:

The first time when I saw her being weak that she might attain height.

The second time when I saw her limping before the crippled.

The third time when she was given to choose between the heart and the easy, and she chose the easy.

The fourth time when she committed a wrong, and comforted herself that others also commit wrong.

The fifth time when she forbore for weakness, and attributed her patience to strength.

The sixth time when she despised the ugliness of a face, and knew not that it was one of her own masks.

And the seventh time when she sang a song of praise and deemed it a virtue.

-Gibran Khalil Gibran

Gibran Khalil Gibran: I mean, the name is just enough for an avid reader to stop and read him. A few months back, a friend introduced me to the world of Khalil Gibran. And ever since, I have been hooked! From reading online articles on him to e-books, whatever I can lay my hands on. And it's a crying shame, that I am not versed in Arabic to read it in the actual script. Doubtless, it would be breathtakingly beautiful, more so than the English translations.

Today, I would like to share some of his works, that I have become my absolute favorites. And I just can't get enough of them. :)

The one above, is something I associate with sometimes.

The following are some of my favorite quotes by him. It was so hard to pick them!

"You cannot have youth and the knowledge of it at the same time;For youth is too busy living to know, and the knowledge is too busy seeking itself to live.."

"Art is a step from what is obvious and well-known toward what is arcane and concealed"

"What the soul knows is often unknown to the man who has a soul. We are infinitely more than we think"

"Doubt is a pain too lonely to know that faith is his twin brother"

"Strange that we all defend our wrongs with more vigor than we do our rights"

"How shall my heart be unsealed unless it be broken"

"Yesterday is but today's memory, tomorrow is today's dream"

"The most pitiful among men is he who turns his dreams into silver and gold"

"What is poetry? An extension of vision - and music is an extension of hearing"

And this my favorite poem by him. It is so so perfect and beautiful on so many levels, no matter how one perceives it. I truly believe he was a Genius and I absolutely and whole-heartedly love his work.

Beyond My Solitude

Beyond my solitude is another solitude, and to him who dwells therein my aloneness is a crowded market-place and my silence a confusion of sounds.

Too young am I and too restless to seek that above-solitude. The voices of yonder valley still hold my ears and its shadows bar my way and I cannot go.

Beyond these hills is a grove of enchantment and to him who dwells therein my peace is but a whirlwind and my enchantment an illusion.

Too young am I and too riotous to seek that sacred grove. The taste of blood is clinging in my mouth, and the bow and the arrows of my fathers yet linger in my hand and I cannot go.

Beyond this burdened self lives my freer self; and to him my dreams are a battle fought in twilight and my desires the rattling of bones.

Too young am I and too outraged to be my freer self.

And how shall I become my freer self unless I slay my burdened selves, or unless all men become free?

How shall the eagle in me soar against the sun until my fledglings leave the nest which I with my own beak have built for them?