> Babelio : https://www.babelio.com/livres/Gibran-Pensees-et-meditations/860489

> Les dernières années de Gibran furent marquées par la maladie et les sollicitations mondaines suscitées par sa gloire, car le Libanais était devenu un écrivain américain exprimant des intérêts universels. Outre la rencontre de l'Orient et de l'Occident, ce poète incarne surtout l'acharnement d'un homme à être un vivant. Ce livre apporte un éclairage percutant sur sa vision de l'humanité.
—Danieljean (Babelio) ( )

I haven’t read Kahlil Gibran’s famous work ”The Prophet” nor any other books of his previously, so this is my first.

The book is translated from the Arabic.

As the translator, Anthony R. Ferris, informed us in the Preface, in his youth, Kibran, the prophet of Lebanon, “conceived the universe as perfect and devoid of evil”. He had looked upon “the heads of state and the hierarchs of the religions as truly the pillars of society” and expected them to provide examples of justice and wisdom.

When he realized the truth and “saw the rich abusing the poor who lived under the yoke of slavery and despotism” he began to express his feelings about this through “scorching” articles in Arabic newspapers, books, etc. Some of these are included in the present volume.

Gibran lamented that the world was such as it was.

Gibran’s texts are pure poesy. He writes about death and destruction, beauty and love. I can’t say that I fully understand his writing, perhaps hardly at all in some cases, but the beauty speaks to my heart.

“My soul preached to me and taught me to love that which the people abhor and befriend him whom they revile.” “But now love has become a halo whose beginning is its end, and whose end is its beginning. It surrounds every being and extends slowly to embrace all that shall be."

“Ere my soul preached to me, I heard naught but clamor and wailing. But now I eagerly attend Silence and hear its choirs singing the hymns of the ages and the songs of the firmament announcing the secrets of the Universe.”

“And ere my soul spoke to me, I imagined the Past as an epoch that never returned, and the Future as one that could never be reached.

Now I realize that the present moment contains all time and within it is all that can be hoped for, done and realized.”

“For you and I are one, and there is not variance between us save that I urgently declare that which is in my inner self, while you keep as a secret that which is within you.”

In “Decayed Teeth” Gibran talks about the rotten, black, and dirty teeth in the Syrian nation: in the homes of the rich reign conceit, falsehood and hypocrisy, and in the huts of the poor dwell fear, ignorance, and cowardice.

In “Mister Gabber” he tells us how his soul abhors “gabbers and their gab”. Mister Gabber is found in the courts and institutions of learning, in the temples and other places of worship, in his home too, everywhere.

I have read widely but never anything like the work of this poet.

If you possess any poetic sense whatsoever, or sense of Love, Beauty, Spirituality, or Wisdom, take a look at this work. I received it as a present from my mother-in-law many years ago and, sadly, did not open it until now: I should have done so years ago. ( )