[Lebanon] Appreciation of Love Poems by Kahlil Gibran "On Love"

[Lebanon] Kahlil Gibran

So Ermei sent and said, please tell us about love.

He looked up at the people, who were silent for a moment. He said in a loud voice:

When love calls to you, follow him,

Although his journey is difficult and steep.

Surrender to him when his wings wrap around you,

Though the blade hidden among his feathers may wound you.

Believe in Him when He speaks to you,

Though His voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind desolates the garden.

Even though love crowns you, it will also crucify you. Although He cultivates you, He also prunes you.

Even though He has ascended to your highest place and caressed your branches and leaves that tremble in the sun,

He will come down to your roots and shake everything at your foundation. joints and return them to the earth.

Like a sheaf of rice, He gathers you together.

He will beat you to make you ***.

He sifts you out of your shell.

He grinds you until you are white.

He kneads you until you are pliable;

Then He sends you to His holy fire, making you the holy bread of God's holy feast.

These are things that love will do for you, allowing you to know the secrets in your heart, and in this knowledge you will become a speck in the heart of "life".

If in your doubts and fears, you only seek the peace and joy of love,

it is better to cover up your passion and escape the sifting of love,

And enter the world without seasons, where you will laugh, but not as much as you can, and cry, but not shed all your tears.

Love gives nothing but itself and receives nothing except itself.

Love does not possess, nor is it possessed.

Because love is satisfied in love.

When you love, don’t say, “God is in my heart,” but say, “I am in the heart of God.”

Don’t think you can guide love journey, because if He finds you worthy, He will guide you.

Love has no other wishes, only to fulfill itself.

But if you love and need wishes, let the following be your wishes:

Melt yourself and sing songs to the clear night like a stream.

Know the pain of excessive tenderness.

Let your understanding of love destroy yourself;

And bleed willingly and joyfully.

Wake up in the morning and express your gratitude for this day of love with a joyful heart;

Rest in the middle of the day and silently remember the joy of love;

When the evening tide goes out, go home with thanksgiving;

Then pray as you sleep, for you have the Beloved in your heart and songs of praise on your lips.

(Translated by Bing Xin)

"On Love" is a famous chapter in the Lebanese writer Gibran Gibran's masterpiece "The Prophet".

Gibran Khalil Gibran (1883～1931) was a modern Arab poet, writer and painter, and a representative figure of the "Symetic School" literature. He was born in a mountain village in northern Lebanon. When he was young, he lived with his mother, traveled across the ocean, and settled in Boston. At the age of 14, he returned to his motherland alone to learn Arabic language and culture, as well as French, painting and music. In 1901, graduated from Xikma College. Later, he studied painting in Paris under Rodin and was highly praised. After 1910, he returned to the United States and stayed there until his death. His representative works include "Broken Wings", "The Prophet", "Sand and Foam", etc.

"The Prophet" is a wonder in the poetry world that Gibran cultivated with his lifelong efforts. At the age of 15, he wrote the first draft of "The Prophet"; at the age of 25, he revised it again in Arabic in Boston. After 1917, several more modifications were made. Ms. Barbara Young, an American female writer who wrote Gibran's biography, said: Gibran kept this manuscript with him for nearly 30 years; "In the five years before "The Prophet" was printed, the author changed the manuscript five times!" This painstakingly world-famous book, It is known as "the best gift from the East to the West".

In the collection of philosophical prose poems "The Prophet", the poet ingeniously invented a fable: In the city of Apalis on the coast of the West, there lived an Eastern wise man, Ellemus. Tafa, after 12 years, has been waiting for his ship to arrive and want to return to his hometown. However, when he was about to leave, he felt reluctant to say goodbye again. At this time, "a woman named Elmes came out of the temple. She was a prophet." "He looked upon her with infinite tenderness, for she was one of the first persons whom he had sought to trust on his first day in the city." She asked him to speak the truth.

Therefore, he, El Mustafa, known as the "dawn of the contemporary era", "the prophet of God" and the "supreme explorer", talked about love, giving, freedom, reason and passion, religion and beauty, etc. 26 truths about life constitute the main content of the collection of poems "Prophet".

This artistic conception is not the creation of Gibran, "it generally borrows the format of Nietzsche's Zarathustra" (Nuemann). Just as Zarathustra was a spokesman for Nietzsche, so El Mustafa was a spokesman for Gibran.

"On Love" (***5), in terms of artistic conception and expression mode, is exactly the same as the overall structure of "The Prophet": Elme sends a request to talk about love, Ellemu Staffa - He started preaching. This kind of fable-like narrative method with questions and answers is convenient for reasoning. It is the ideal expression of philosophical poetry.

Every young person will have love in the spring of life. Love can produce great power and lead people to the heaven of noble sentiments. Therefore, in verse 1, he advises people: “When love calls you,” to “follow him,” “yield to him,” and “believe in him”; although “his journey is hard and dangerous.” "It's so steep" that his "blade may hurt you" and even "shatter your dreams into pieces". This means that no matter how great the difficulties and risks, we should withstand the test of love.

In verse 2, the poet uses symbolic techniques to show that love can crown you and make you feel happy and joyful; but it can also nail you to a cross and suffer torture and pain. Love will make you look the same and become more simple and sincere. The poem says that love is "like a bundle of rice, it gathers you together"; it controls you and restrains you, making you nobler and purer! After the tempering of love, it "makes you ***"—— Open-minded; "make you out of your shell" - purification and innocence; "until you are white" - simple and kind; "until you are pliable" - resolute and strong; finally "make you the holy bread of God's holy feast" - noble and pure A victim of love who devotes everything to love.

The third verse is a summary and summary of the second verse. The poet regards love as the highest spiritual achievement of mankind, and constant awareness is the characteristic and essence of spiritual activities. After being cultivated by love, everyone will become more "beautiful", more "kind", and more aware. This can "make you know the secrets of your own heart" - shortcomings and deficiencies; therefore, it can also enable you to occupy a "little" place in the heart of human "life" - not in your own heart, that is, in "immortality" .

In Section 4, the poet opposes the suspicion and fear of love. Just as he said in "Sand and Foam": "Love and suspicion do not talk"; "Love is a bright word, written by a bright hand on a bright album." The poet also said: "True love comes from spiritual communication"; "Holy love will not be jealous because it is contented." Therefore, he warned people: "Love gives nothing except itself, and receives nothing except itself. Love does not possess, nor is it possessed. Because love is satisfied in love." This is an ideal love, a noble love. . The poet's standard for love is: "Limited love requires possession of the other person, while infinite love only requires love itself" ("Broken Wings").

The poet believes: In the heart of God, there is no difference between people - you and me, this one and that one. He treats all people equally and are equal companions; In the heart of God, there are no barriers between people, no differences between giving and being given, possessing and being possessed, and no barriers can be set up between people. Therefore, the poet said: "When you love, don't say 'God is in my heart', but say 'I am in God's heart'".

In the last section, the poet particularly emphasizes: true love should not have any requirements or wishes! "But if you love and need wishes", there can only be two wishes: one is love The sacrifice of love - "shed blood willingly and joyfully"; the second is to let love accompany you forever - morning, noon, evening and night, day, month, year, until life. Gibran once said: "In youth, Cupid was my teacher; in middle age, cupid was my assistant; in old age, cupid was my comfort. cupid will always be with me... Until life ends and death comes, until the hand of God brings you and me together ("Broken Wings").

"On Love" is different from ordinary poems. It does not move people with emotion, but convinces people with reason, and uses philosophy to inspire and persuade readers. What is amazing is that profound abstract philosophy is often displayed with the help of superb artistic skills, leaving it feeling empty and boring without any reason.

Gibran's poems express clear metaphors and symbolic meanings. For example, the "him" in "Like a bundle of rice grains, he gathers you together" obviously hides the essence and metaphor, and directly replaces the essence-love with metaphor. In figurative rhetoric, good use of metonymy is one of the characteristics of Gibran's style. Another example: "He chops you to make you ***./He sifts you to shell you./He grinds you until you are white./He kneads you until you are pliable"; use "beat", "sift", "Grinding" and "rubbing" symbolize the training and test of love, "***" symbolizes magnanimity, "shelling" symbolizes purification and innocence, "white" symbolizes simplicity and kindness, and "flexibility" symbolizes perseverance. .

At the same time, the artistic effects of personification and parallelism are also used here.