Beautiful and Brilliant
Written: Jul 20 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: inspiring. incredible. A masterpiece.
Cons: none, even in translation.
The Bottom Line: I highly, highly, recommend this to anyone, anywhere, in any translation. It is one of humanity's masterpieces for its beauty, truth, and accessibility to everyone.
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| Admarginate's Full Review: The Prophet Books |
Does art imitate life or does life imitate art? My introduction to Gibran’s The Prophet was one of those moments give that question meaning.
It was a seemingly casual conversation. I had just been to a lecture by Edward Said, a Palestinian literary critic. I went to the lecture because it was free, but I came away wondering that I had never noticed my total lack of knowledge about the art and culture of the middle east. I expressed my concern and new found interest to my friend. I didn’t even know where to begin.
Immediately he asked me, “Have you ever read The Prophet, by Gibran?”
I told him I’d heard of it, but didn’t really know what it was. It didn’t really sound like something I’d enjoy.
Instantly, he started reciting from memory a section on children:
Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams...
He kept going, this bleached blond, 20 year old boy, dressed like some strange explosion of a salvation army, the farthest thing I can imagine from a father. Somehow he was touched by this passage so much so that he internalized it’s meaning and memorized its form. He stared right at me, tenderly, his normally awkward face poised as a statue in a church, and didn’t skip a beat. It was mesmerizing. And as a former child, and perhaps future mother, I heard the words as truth.
...You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.
He recited this whole section. It was followed by a peaceful silence as the words, their beauty and meaning, and this moment, in which life attained the sort of focused drama I’d previously only read about, began to sink in. It was a life-affirming moment, and twinkling of the most elusive parts of our nature as humans: the spark of religion, the pinch of true beauty, the sweet taste of ever-fleeting truth, and the joy and exhilaration of communication between like-minded creatures. This is the sort of book that creates those moments. . .And art and life melt into one another.
This was the very next book that I bought.
It is the story of a prophet, Almustfa, who is leaving the city of Orphalese. Before he goes the people come to him a beg him to give them his truths before he leaves. What follows is a series of questions put forth by townspeople who represent kinds of human beings, or parts of every human being, e.g., a rich man asks, “Speak to us of Giving.” or a poet, “Speak to us of Beauty.” Each question and it’s answer is presented as a section that, as you can see above of the section I quoted, blurs the line between poetry and prose. Interspersed throughout the book, as well, are twelve incredible pen & ink drawings also by Gibran.
Each section itself is beautiful and brilliant. They are dripping with profound bits of wisdom and human warmth. Gibran will flawlessly say that life is sweet and that humanity is good, and you will agree. He enables his reader to feel a connection to all humans, transcending culture, politics, even time. They sing the song of man and they make a human heart sing in unison. He talks of Love, of Marriage, Clothes, Freedom, Talking, Time, Work, Crime and Punishment, Buying and Selling, Giving, Death, and many more.
And to Gibran, life indeed tastes sweet, but it is not in the absence of pain and the darker depths of mans being. In the section of Crime and Punishment, for instance, Almustfa says, “. . .your god-self dwells not alone in your being. Much in you is still man, and much in you is not yet man. . .” and that pleasure, for instance, “is a freedom-song, But it is not freedom.” As he speaks, and the truths resonate in his audience, he reminds us that we all have these parts of us, and that we do not have to hate them but understand them. Gibran, I think, very much helps his readers to better understand who they are as individual human beings and as members of society to which they belong, as well as the progression of humanity over time. If Gibran fails to cover all aspects of human-ness, then he certainly comes very close.
Though it is a work that could be called philosophy, or theology, or poetry even, it is not inaccessible to any literate adult. Though it could be studied for centuries, it is also the kind of work that doesn’t need to be analyzed and studied to be understood and enjoyed. Though I cannot tell you if it is a good translation from the original, I do know that it speaks across translation. The language is simple, honest, and clear. The philosophy concerns the things that pertain to any and every human being, even supposed “superficialities” like clothing. It is not light reading, it can be intense, but I do not think it is beyond the reach of anyone.
It has been reprinted 119 times since 1923 when it was first published, it has been translated into more than 20 languages. . . more people than a small minority of scholars are demanding, buying, and cherishing this work.
The Prophet cannot fail to reach you. It is a masterpiece. It is also the kind of book that transcends all the categories and touches upon humanity itself. It is the kind of book that people find, read, love, and then pass on to their children, who will do the same. It is a book that stays with you as an adult as much as that first book you really loved as a child; my copy sits between my tattered, childhood copy of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. and Hamlet.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
Admarginate
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Location: Chicago, IL
Reviews written: 32
Trusted by: 8 members
About Me:
I move a lot. End goal: New York City. (Someday. . .)
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