Kahlil Gibran

Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931)

Time (from The Prophet)


Edited by Peter Y. Chou
WisdomPortal.com

The Prophet (1923)



A comparison between original manuscript & the printed edition of The Prophet




You would measure time the
measureless and the immeasurable.
And you would adjust your
conduct and even direct the
course of your spirit according
to hours and seasons.
And of time you would
make a stream, upon whose bank
you would sit and watch its
flowing. Yet the timeless in you
is aware of life's timelessness,
and knows that yesterday
is but today's memory and
tomorrow is today's dream, and
that that which sings and contemplates
in you is still dwelling within
the bounds of that first moment
which scattered the stars into space.
Who among you does not feel that
his power to love is boundless?
And who does not feel that
his love, though boundless, is
encompassed within the centre of
his being and moves not from
love thought to love thought, nor
runs from love deeds to other
love deeds? And you should
think of time even as you think
of love, the undivided and paceless.
But if you must divide time
into measure seasons, let every
season encircle all the other seasons,
and let your thoughts of today
embrace the past with remembrance
and the future in longing.

from two manuscript pages in
William Shehadi, Kahlil Gibran:
a prophet in the making

American University of Beirut,
Lebanon, 1991, pp. 224-227

And an astronomer said,
"Master, what of Time?"
And he answered:
You would measure time the
measureless and the immeasurable.
You would adjust your
conduct and even direct the
course of your spirit according
to hours and seasons.
Of time you would
make a stream upon whose bank
you would sit and watch its
flowing. Yet the timeless in you
is aware of life's timelessness,
And knows that yesterday
is but today's memory and
tomorrow is today's dream. And
that that which sings and contemplates
in you is still dwelling within
the bounds of that first moment
which scattered the stars into space.
Who among you does not feel that
his power to love is boundless?
And yet who does not feel that
very love, though boundless,
encompassed within the centre of
his being and moving not from
love thought to love thought, nor
from love deeds to other love deeds?
And is not time even as love is,
undivided and paceless?
But if in your thought you must
measure time into seasons, let each
season encircle all the other seasons,
And let today embrace
the past with remembrance
and the future in longing.


from Chapter 21
of Kahlil Gibran's
The Prophet (1923)



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