! From Kahlil Gibran On Friendship Poem by Michael Shepherd
! From Kahlil Gibran On Friendship
Your friend is one who answers to your needs:
the field you sow with love, and reap with thanks;
you seek him for your peace, to hear his heart;
and when he's silent - still his heart you hear:
because, with words or not, you share his joy;
in presence or in absence he is there;
and stronger love may in his absence show:
the beauty of a love that asks for naught.
So tell your friend of all that ebbs and flows,
your best and worst of what fate deals to you:
no thought too great nor light for open minds
who share their pleasures, and their laughter too.
For in the dew of sweet and passing thoughts
each morning's fresh, for close and constant hearts.
Herbert, when I first read it as prose I took it that as in the Sufi tradition, the world as transitory and its passing sorrows, and joys, were being known and shared, and illusion blown away by laughter. I tried to keep close to Gibran and keep the Christian vale of sorrows out of it! Not to mention Luther and Calvin! But I'll pass on your animadversions to Gibran if we meet sometime, or indeed beyond time...
Nasra, in English translation it comes to us as prose...so the 'poem' is mine, but as close as I could make it, to Gibran's words and sense, and in the form of a (partially-rhymed) sonnet; as it was intended for a book of sonnets...some prose, whether from original poems or not, just asks to fall into verse, to make it a wee bit more memorable.
Line 12 stands out too much for me, I would have expected not to find pleasure and laughter in the same breath. Just the forinnner in me m'boy. H
U mean u translatd khalil jibran's piece? Wow fabulous rhyme scheme. Do pls review my latest poem too
At the risk of going on about it - what drew me to this passage in Gibran was that the world is full of love poems, love me poems, love you poems, it's-over poems, hate you now poems...yet how rare, a poem to friendship! And when written, it breathes love, especially married love and love shared... Shakespeare's 'constant heart'...
Yes, Michael, for some of us sympathy is growing so close to love out of the ditch of the great needs that we prefer to wait for the sun's shade. Your point is well taken but it was dull when I received it. H
Beautifully written and very inspiring. It has given me food for thought.
Sorry for all this but you started it Herbert - it does raise a question about poetry that frequently raises itself on this site: the expression of grief can be noble, but the implicit asking for sympathy is something else...it can be unfruitful reading. Is Gibran's ideal friend offering or asking for friendship?
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
Delivering Poems Around The World
Poems are the property of their respective owners. All information has been reproduced here for educational and informational purposes to benefit site visitors, and is provided at no charge...
4/28/2024 11:03:18 PM # 1.0.0.1119
Im just wondering if this poem was inspired by the work of Khalil Jobran or it is the poem of Khalil Jibran.... its lovely....thank you for sharing it with us