The Khalil Gibran Megapack. Khalil GibranЧитать онлайн книгу.
stood there, and once more he bethought him. And he said in his heart, “We have indeed, to be watchful and to keep guard over our guardian angels.”
THE STATUE
Once there lived a man among the hills who possessed a statue wrought by an ancient master. It lay at his door face downward and he was not mindful of it.
One day there passed by his house a man from the city, a man of knowledge, and seeing the statue he inquired of the owner if he would sell it.
The owner laughed and said, “And pray who would want to buy that dull and dirty stone?”
The man from the city said, “I will give you this piece of silver for it.”
And the other man was astonished and delighted.
The statue was removed to the city, upon the back of and elephant. And after many moons the man from the hills visited the city, and as he walked the streets he saw a crowd before a shop, and a man with a loud voice was crying, “Come ye in and behold the most beautiful, the most wonderful statue in all the world. Only two silver pieces to look upon this most marvellous work of a master.”
Thereupon the man from the hills paid two silver pieces and entered the shop to see the statue that he himself had sold for one spice of silver.
THE EXCHANGE
Once upon a crossroad a poor Poet met a rich Stupid, and they conversed. And all that they said revealed but their discontent.
Then the Angel of the Road passed by, and he laid his hand upon the shoulder of the two men.
And behold, a miracle: The two men had now exchanged their possessions.
And they parted. But strange to relate, the Poet looked and found naught in his hand but dry moving sand; and the Stupid closed his eyes and felt naught but moving cloud in his heart.
LOVE AND HATE
A woman said unto a man, “I love you.” And the man said, “It is in my heart to be worthy of your love.”
Ant he woman said, “You love me not?”
And the man only gazed upon her and said nothing.
Then the woman cried aloud, “I hate you.”
And the man said, “Then it is also in my heart to be worthy of your hate.”
DREAMS
A man dreamed a dream, and when he awoke he went to his soothsayer and desired that his dream be made plain unto him.
And the soothsayer said to the man, “Come to me with the dreams that you behold in your wakefulness and I will tell you their meaning. But the dreams of your sleep belong neither to my wisdom nor to your imagination.”
THE MADMAN
It was in the garden of a madhouse that I met a youth with a face pale and lovely and full of wonder. And I sat beside him upon the bench, and I said, “Why are you here?”
And he looked at me in astonishment, and he said, “It is an unseemly question, yet I will answer you. My father would make of me a reproduction of himself; so also would my uncle. My mother would have me the image of her seafaring husband as the perfect example for me to follow. My brother thinks I should be like him, a fine athlete.
“And my teachers also, the doctor of philosophy, and the music-master, and the logician, they too were determined, and each would have me but a reflection of his own face in a mirror.
“Therefore I came to this place. I find it more sane here. At least, I can be myself.”
Then of a sudden he turned to me and he said, “But tell me, were you also driven to this place by education and good counsel?”
And I answered, “No, I am a visitor.”
And he answered, “Oh, you are one of those who live in the madhouse on the other side of the wall.”
THE FROGS
Upon a summer day a frog said to his mate, “I fear those people living in that house on the shore are disturbed by our night-songs.”
And his mate answered and said, “Well, do they not annoy our silence during the day with their talking?”
The frog said, “Let us not forget that we may sing too much in the night.”
And his mate answered, “Let us not forget that they chatter and shout overmuch during the day.”
Said the frog, “How about the bullfrog who that they clatter and shout overmuch during the day.”
Said the frog, “How about the bullfrog who disturbs the whole neighbourhood with his God-forbidden booming?”
And his mate replied, “Aye, and what say you of the politician and the priest and the scientist who come to these shores and fill the air with noisy and rhymeless sound?”
Then the frog said, “Well, let us be better than these human beings. Let us be quiet at night, and keep our songs in our hearts, even though the moon calls for our rhythm and the stars for our rhyme. At least, let us be silent for a night or two, or even for three nights.”
And his mate said, “Very well, I agree. We shall see what your bountiful heart will bring forth.”
That night the frogs were silent; and they were silent the following night also, and again upon the third night.
And strange to relate, the talkative woman who lived in the house beside the lake came down to breakfast on that third day and shouted to her husband, “I have not slept these three nights. I was secure with sleep when the noise of the frogs was in my ear. But something must have happened. They have not sung now for three nights; and I am almost maddened with sleeplessness.”
The frog heard this and turned to his mate and said, winking his eye, “And we were almost maddened with our silence, were we not?”
And his mate answered, “Yes, the silence of the night was heavy upon us. And I can see now that there is no need for us to cease our singing for the comfort of those who must needs fill their emptiness with noise.”
And that night the moon called not in vain for their rhythm nor the stars for their rhyme.
LAWS AND LAW-GIVING
Ages ago there was a great king, and he was wise. And he desired to lay laws unto his subjects.
He called upon one thousand wise men of one thousand different tribes to his capitol and lay down the laws.
And all this came to pass.
But when the thousand laws written upon parchment were put before the king and he read them, he wept bitterly in his soul, for he had not known that there were one thousand forms of crime in his kingdom.
Then he called his scribe, and with a smile upon his mouth he himself dictated laws. And his laws were but seven.
And the one thousand wise men left him in anger and returned to their tribes with the laws they had laid down. And every tribe followed the laws of its wise men.
Therefore they have a thousand laws even to our own day.
It is a great country, but it has one thousand prisons, and the prisons are full of women and men, breakers of a thousand laws.
It is indeed a great country, but the people thereof are descendants of one thousand law-givers and of only one wise king.
YESTERDAY, TODAY AND TOMORROW
I said to my friend, “You see her leaning upon the arm of that man. It was but yesterday that she leaned thus upon my arm.”
And my friend said, “And tomorrow she will lean upon mine.”
I said, “Behold her sitting close at his side. It was but yesterday she sat close beside me.”
And he answered, “Tomorrow she will sit beside me.”