Merveilles et Processions

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.

The Prophet

UPON A DAY IN THE SPRING OF THE YEAR Jesus stood in the market-place of Jerusalem and He spoke to the multitudes of the kingdom of heaven.

And He accused the scribes and the Pharisees of setting snares and digging pitfalls in the path of those who long after the kingdom; and He denounced them.

Now amongst the crowd was a company of men who defended the Pharisees and the scribes, and they sought to lay hands upon Jesus and upon us also.

But He avoided them and turned aside from them, and walked towards the north gate of the city.

And He said to us, "My hour has not yet come. Many are the things I have still to say unto you, and many are the deeds I shall yet perform ere I deliver myself up to the world."

Jesus, The Son of Man

Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931) was a Lebanese American of Assyrian descent, an artist, poet and writer. He was born Gibran Khalil Gibran in Lebanon (at the time a Syrian Province of the Ottoman Empire) and spent much of his productive life in the United States. While most of Gibran's early writings were in Syriac and Arabic, most of his work published after 1918 was in English. Gibran also took part in the New York Pen League, also known as the "immigrant poets" (al-mahjar), alongside other important Lebanese American authors such as Ameen Rihani ("the father of Lebanese American literature"), Mikhail Naimy and Elia Abu Madi. Gibran's best-known work is The Prophet, a book composed of 26 poetic essays, first written in English in 1923. The Prophet remains famous to this day, having been translated into more than 20 languages. Other works in English include: Spirits Rebellious, (1908), The Broken Wings (1912), A Tear and a Smile (1914), The Forerunner (1920), Sand and Foam (1926), Jesus the Son of Man (1928), The Earth Gods (1929), The Wanderer (1932) and The Garden of the Prophet (1933).

L'errant

Le Calligraphe, Le Poète et La Paix

Il Profeta è l'opera più famosa del poeta e filosofo libanese Khalil Gibran (1883-1931). Alla gente che gli chiede di parlare dell'amore, della vita, della morte, del denaro, del lavoro, dei figli e delle tante altre problematiche umane, il profeta Almustafà risponde con profonda saggezza, in una ineguagliata sintesi del pensiero occidentale e orientale, della Bibbia e degli insegnamenti dei mistici Sufi. Un prezioso testo sapienziale che aiuta a conoscere meglio se stessi e il proprio compito nella vita - e oltre. Di questa sua opera Gibran stesso disse: "Tutto Il profeta dice un'unica cosa: Sei molto più grande di quanto tu non sappia - e Tutto è bene".

Il profeta

The Garden of The Prophet, which Gibran intended as a companion to his masterpiece The Prophet, is a lyrical celebration of the mystical beauty of Nature.

Le jardin du prophète

The God separated a spirit from Himself and fashioned it into Beauty. He showered upon her all the blessings of gracefulness and kindness. He gave her the cup of happiness and said, "Drink not from this cup unless you forget the past and the future, for happiness is naught but the moment." And He also gave her a cup of sorrow and said, "Drink from this cup and you will understand the meaning of the fleeting instants of the joy of life, for sorrow ever abounds."

And the God bestowed upon her a love that would desert he forever upon her first sigh of earthly satisfaction, and a sweetness that would vanish with her first awareness of flattery.

A Tear and a Smile

Le Sable et l'Écume, et autres poèmes

L'Essentiel de Khalil Gibranses plus Beaux Textes

Khalil Gibran est mondialement célèbre pour un petit livre, de moins de cent pages, Le Prophète.  Élevé dans le christianisme maronite, porteur des trésors de la tradition spirituelle de l'Orient, Gibran a pourtant écrit ce livre dans une langue que, de son propre aveu, il ne maîtrisait pas bien, l'anglais, et pour un public américain marqué par l'éthique protestante.  Sa voix la plus authentique est donc plutôt à chercher dans les textes écrits dans sa langue maternelle, l'arabe. Le Livre des Processions (Al-Mawâkib) en est le plus important. Le Livre des Processions constitue comme une première version du Prophète en langue arabe. C’est à ce titre qu’il est un texte capital pour la compréhension de l’oeuvre et de la personnalité de Gibran.  Ses thèmes annoncent directement le message du Prophète, mais dans un style brillant et paradoxal qui évoque plus souvent William Blake ou Nietzsche que la morale assez puritaine dont Le Prophète est souvent entaché.  Quant à sa forme, très personnelle même si inspirée de la grande littérature arabe classique, elle est unique dans l’oeuvre de Gibran.  Le Livre des Processions est accompagné d’une préface inédite d’Adonis, très largement considéré aujourd’hui comme le plus grand poète arabe vivant (publié pour la première fois en France par les Editions Arfuyen en 1982).  La postface d’Anne Wade Minkowski (également traductrice du Prophète dans la collection Folio-Gallimard) souligne les tensions qui animent l’oeuvre de Gibran, partagé durant toute sa vie entre deux cultures – la culture arabe et la culture américaine – comme entre deux moyens d’expression – la peinture et la littérature.Texte © Editions Arfuyen

Le livre des processions Al-Mawâkib

Millions all over the world have responded to the message of Kahlil Gibrana as recorded in his masterpiece, "The Prophet". In the style that gave Gibran the title of "Dante of the Twentieth Century", "The Voice of the Master" speaks stirringly of the victory of faith over grief, and love over loneliness. "Of Marriage", "Of the Divinity of Man", "Of Reason and Knowledge", "Of Love and Equality", --these are some of the themes Gibran searches in this volume, offering fresh insight into many of life's most perplexing riddles.

La voix de léternelle sagesse

Miserable is the man who loves a woman and takes her for a wife, pouring at her feet the sweat of his skin and the blood of his body and the life of his heart, and placing in her hands the fruit of his toil and the revenue of his diligence; for when he slowly wakes up, he finds that the heart, which he endeavoured to buy, is given freely and in sincerity to another man for the enjoyment of its hidden secrets and deepest love. Miserable is the woman who arises from the inattentiveness and restlessness of youth and finds herself in the home of a man showering her with his glittering gold and precious gifts and according her all the honours and grace of lavish entertainment but unable to satisfy her soul with the heavenly wine which God pours from the eyes of a man into the heart of a woman.

Livres