Kahlil Gibran-A great poet, thinker and mystic writer

“Kahlil Gibran has attempted  a unique and daring experiment-It is as though contemporary of Jesus sat down at a belated hour, to write another and different gospel”  John Keynes Holmes

Those were the majestic words for Kahlil Gibran, the poet, philosopher and painter of Lebanon, whose  death anniversary fell on 10^th April 2012. Khalil Gibran died on April 10, 1931 in New York City. The cause of death was determined to be cirrhosis of the liver and tuberculosis. Before his death, Gibran expressed the wish to be buried in Lebanon. This wish was fulfilled in 1932, when Mary Haskell and his sister Mariana purchased the Mar Sarkis Monastery in Lebanon, which has since become the Gibran Museum.

Born on 6^th January 1883, Kahlil Gibran,( Variations on the spelling of this Arabic name include Jubrãn, Gubran, Jibran, Kahlil and Kalil. It is written جبران خليل جبران from right to left), in his sadly brief but eventful life of 48 summers, carved out for himself niche in the hall of immortals and earned an undying name as a poet and painter of no mean order.

Crushed under the iron heel of Turkey imperialism, the  Arabic renaissance made a great get-away in the latter half of the nineteenth century and came into its own; and Kahlil Gibran’s became the surging voice of the inner urge and genius of the Arabic people and their passion for freedom.

Born of Meronite Christian parents in the little mountain village of Bsherri in Lebanon, Gibran, like most great men, owed much to his mother Kamila Rahmi sang to him, in her wonderful voice, the softly plaintive and haunting songs of the desert and mountain and as he grew up, she regaled him with the tales of Haroun-al-Raschid and of the Arab wonderland. When Gibran was six years old, his understanding mother presented him with a book of reproductions of Leonardo. They kindled in him a deep love for art; and soon, he was drawing pictures with coloured pencils and paints with a passion rare for a young boy of his age.

Inheriting from his mother a linguistic fluency, Gibran when still young, attained a commendable command of Arabic, French and English languages. Young Gibran studied at the Madrasat  Al-Hikmat at Beirut and concluded his studies in 1901 with high honours .He also studied  a variety of subjects like music, international law and medicine, although they were outside the regular curriculum. During this period Gibran did much writing in Arabic and also edited a literary and philosophical magazine called Al-Hakikat ( The Truth ).

Merging Eastern and Western philosophies, Gibran was influenced by his Lebanese childhood, his adopted America, and the time he spent studying art with  Auguste Rodin in Paris. Read how he lost his first name, made his first fame, and more in a short biography. Shorter still, but no less illustrative of the artist is this quote

“In one drop of water are found all the secrets of all the oceans; in one aspect of You are found all the aspects of existence.”

From 1901 to 1903 and again from 1908 to 1910 Gibran studied painting in Paris. His paintings were exhibited in the Paris Salon, and, later, several exhibitions of his works were held in New York, where he had settled down in 1910.He made portraits of many celebrities like Rodin, Maurice Maeterlinck, W.B. Yeats, Sarah Bernhardt and John Masefield.

Gibran’s paintings represented the mystic symbolism of the East but, all the same , the qualities of the East and West were blended in him with a singular felicity of expression. Gibran himself said that “Art is a step from nature to the infinite” and his works symbolised this “step” remarkably well.

Gibran’s undying fame, however, rests as a great poet, thinker and mystic writer. He believed in the essential divinity of human being and the continuity of life. Most of his writings were done originally in Arabic and later translated into English either by himself or by others. Among his outstanding works are “The Prophet” and “ Jesus, the Son of Mani”, to select only a couple of them.

Humanity is the spirit of the Supreme Being on earth, and humanity is standing amidst unseen ruins, hiding its nakedness behind tattered rags, shedding tears upon hollow cheeks, calling for its children in pitiful voice. But the children are busy singing the anthem; they are busy sharpening the swords and can not hear the cries of their mothers.”  Kahlil Gibran.

Lebanon had been convulsed by religious violence only twenty years before his birth, but for Gibran the underlying unity beneath the various forms of religion overruled all differences. As a student he even drew up plans for a opera house to be built in Beirut with two domes symbolizing the reconciliation of Christianity and Islam. The dream eventually bore fruit, albeit only on paper, in Al-Mustafa, “the chosen and the beloved”, who is the main character in his best known work. The Prophet is said to be the second bestselling book in the United States, after the Bible.

Gibran first wrote “The Prophet” in Arabic at the age of fifteen and again re-wrote and published it in English in 1923. The book is illustrated with twelve symbolic drawings done by Gibran himself. In the 28^th chapters of the book the Prophet Al-Mustafa gives a series of replies to the seekers who question him on the conduct of life and the mystery of death. An American review of this book said “Truth is here: truth expressed with all the music and beauty and idealism of a Syrian……The 28 chapters in the book form a little bible, to be read and loved by those at all ready for the truth.” The London Times said “this book combines all that is best in Christian and Buddhist thought.”

His other great work, “ Jesus, the Son of Man” was dictated by Gibran to Barbara Young. His gifted biographer and friend, over a period of 18 months. It appeared as though Gibran was lost in a spiritual frenzy as he dictated the story of Jesus. Speaking of those days Barbara Young observes, “a radiance would shine upon his countenance…He was transfigured. Each of the seventy characters came alive in that place….Sometimes a few lines, a Light, tenuous but clearly visible, showed above and about him as he walked”.

Gibran’s influence on popular culture in the twentieth century cannot be overestimated. When the American president John F. Kennedy in his Inaugural Speech famously cautioned his fellow countrymen

“Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.”

He was quoting from The New Frontier which Gibran had written thirty six years earlier:

“Are you a politician asking what your country can do for you or a zealous one asking what you can do for your country?”

Merging Eastern and Western philosophies, Gibran was influenced by his Lebanese childhood, his adopted America, and the time he spent studying art with Augusta Rodin in Paris. Read how he lost his first name, made his first fame, and more in a short biography. Shorter still, but no less illustrative of the artist is this quote

“In one drop of water are found all the secrets of all the oceans; in one aspect of You are found all the aspects of existence.”

I am alive like you, and now I stand beside you.
Close your eyes and look around, you will see me in front of you.

(Gibran’s epitaph)