"There's nothing to match curling up with a good book

when there's a repair job to be done

around the house."

Joe Ryan

******

Thursday

Caramel (Arabic:سكر بنات Sukkar banat)


Lebanon, Khalil Gibran's land...
Go and read Mereabeille 's post about the film Caramel...
Then read these lines from a poem written by Khalil Gibran جبران خليل جبران
Those are the children of your Lebanon.
They are, in your estimation, great; but insignificant in my estimation.
Let me tell you who are the children of my Lebanon.
They are farmers who would turn the fallow field into garden and grove.
They are the shepherds who lead their flocks through the valleys to be fattened for your table meat and your woollens.
They are the vine-pressers who press the grape to wine and boil it to syrup.
They are the parents who tend the nurseries, the mothers who spin the silken yarn.
They are the husbands who harvest the wheat and the wives who gather the sheaves.
They are the builders, the potters, the weavers and the bell-casters.
They are the poets who pour their souls in new cups.
They are those who migrate with nothing but courage in their hearts and strength in their arms but who return with wealth in their hands and a wreath of glory upon their heads.
They are the victorious wherever they go and loved and respected wherever they settle.
They are the ones born in huts but who died in palaces of learning.
These are the children of Lebanon; they are the lamps that cannot be snuffed by the wind and the salt which remains unspoiled through the ages.
They are the ones who are steadily moving toward perfection, beauty, and truth.

The whole text is here.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

don't you love Gibran? My aunt (my mother's younger sister) introduced me to him when I was a teenager - she loved "The Prophet" and while I didn't really understand a lot of it then, I loved the feel of the words in my head!

La Ferme de Sourrou said...

The Prophet was one of my "revelation" books that changed my life.

I'd love to have a better memeory to remember the exact words, but I just have to content myself with the ideas still alive in my head.