Death XXVII
1923

Then Almitra spoke, saying, “We would ask now of Death.”

And he said:

You would know the secret of death.

But how shall you find it unless you seek it in the heart of life?

The owl whose night-bound eyes are blind unto the day cannot unveil the mystery of light.

If you would indeed behold the spirit of death, open your heart wide unto the body of life.

For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one.

In the depth of your hopes and desires lies your silent knowledge of the beyond;

And like seeds dreaming beneath the snow your heart dreams of spring.

Trust the dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.

Your fear of death is but the trembling of the shepherd when he stands before the king whose hand is to be laid upon him in honour.

Is the shepherd not joyful beneath his trembling, that he shall wear the mark of the king?

Yet is he not more mindful of his trembling?

For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun?

And what is to cease breathing, but to free the breath from its restless tides, that it may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered?

Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing.

And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb.

And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance

Khalil Gibran
Born: 6 January 1883, Bsharri, Lebanon
Nationality: Lebanese-American
Died: 10 April 1931, New York, USA

Gibran was a writer, poet, and visual artist. He was also considered to be a philosopher although he rejected the title. Best known as the author of ‘The Prophet,’ first published in 1923 and went on to become one of the all-time best-selling books. ‘The Prophet’ has been translated into over 100 languages, Gibran was born in a village of the Ottoman-ruled Mount Lebanon Mutsarrifate and emigrated to the United States with his mother and siblings in 1895. At fifteen he was sent back to Lebanon to enroll at the Collège de la Sagesse in Beirut. He returned to Bost when his youngest sister died in 1902. His mother and older half-brother died the following year