The Khalil Gibran Megapack. Khalil Gibran

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СКАЧАТЬ the music-master, and the logician, they too were determined, and each would have me but a reflection of his own face in a mirror.

      “Therefore I came to this place. I find it more sane here. At least, I can be myself.”

      Then of a sudden he turned to me and he said, “But tell me, were you also driven to this place by education and good counsel?”

      And I answered, “No, I am a visitor.”

      And he answered, “Oh, you are one of those who live in the madhouse on the other side of the wall.”

      THE FROGS

      Upon a summer day a frog said to his mate, “I fear those people living in that house on the shore are disturbed by our night-songs.”

      And his mate answered and said, “Well, do they not annoy our silence during the day with their talking?”

      The frog said, “Let us not forget that we may sing too much in the night.”

      And his mate answered, “Let us not forget that they chatter and shout overmuch during the day.”

      Said the frog, “How about the bullfrog who that they clatter and shout overmuch during the day.”

      Said the frog, “How about the bullfrog who disturbs the whole neighbourhood with his God-forbidden booming?”

      And his mate replied, “Aye, and what say you of the politician and the priest and the scientist who come to these shores and fill the air with noisy and rhymeless sound?”

      Then the frog said, “Well, let us be better than these human beings. Let us be quiet at night, and keep our songs in our hearts, even though the moon calls for our rhythm and the stars for our rhyme. At least, let us be silent for a night or two, or even for three nights.”

      And his mate said, “Very well, I agree. We shall see what your bountiful heart will bring forth.”

      That night the frogs were silent; and they were silent the following night also, and again upon the third night.

      And strange to relate, the talkative woman who lived in the house beside the lake came down to breakfast on that third day and shouted to her husband, “I have not slept these three nights. I was secure with sleep when the noise of the frogs was in my ear. But something must have happened. They have not sung now for three nights; and I am almost maddened with sleeplessness.”

      The frog heard this and turned to his mate and said, winking his eye, “And we were almost maddened with our silence, were we not?”

      And his mate answered, “Yes, the silence of the night was heavy upon us. And I can see now that there is no need for us to cease our singing for the comfort of those who must needs fill their emptiness with noise.”

      And that night the moon called not in vain for their rhythm nor the stars for their rhyme.

      LAWS AND LAW-GIVING

      Ages ago there was a great king, and he was wise. And he desired to lay laws unto his subjects.

      He called upon one thousand wise men of one thousand different tribes to his capitol and lay down the laws.

      And all this came to pass.

      But when the thousand laws written upon parchment were put before the king and he read them, he wept bitterly in his soul, for he had not known that there were one thousand forms of crime in his kingdom.

      Then he called his scribe, and with a smile upon his mouth he himself dictated laws. And his laws were but seven.

      And the one thousand wise men left him in anger and returned to their tribes with the laws they had laid down. And every tribe followed the laws of its wise men.

      Therefore they have a thousand laws even to our own day.

      It is a great country, but it has one thousand prisons, and the prisons are full of women and men, breakers of a thousand laws.

      It is indeed a great country, but the people thereof are descendants of one thousand law-givers and of only one wise king.

      YESTERDAY, TODAY AND TOMORROW

      I said to my friend, “You see her leaning upon the arm of that man. It was but yesterday that she leaned thus upon my arm.”

      And my friend said, “And tomorrow she will lean upon mine.”

      I said, “Behold her sitting close at his side. It was but yesterday she sat close beside me.”

      And he answered, “Tomorrow she will sit beside me.”

      I said, “See, she drinks wine from his cup, and yesterday she drank from mine.”

      And he said, “Tomorrow, from my cup.”

      Then I said, “See how she gazes at him with love, and with yielding eyes. Yesterday she gazed thus upon me.”

      And my friend said, “It will be upon me she gazes tomorrow.”

      I said, “Do you not hear her now murmuring songs of love into his ears? Those very songs of love she murmured but yesterday into my ears.”

      And my friend said, “And tomorrow she will murmur them in mine.”

      I said, “Why see, she is embracing him. It was but yesterday that she embraced me.”

      And my friend said, “She will embrace me tomorrow.”

      Then I said, “What a strange woman.”

      But he answered, “She is like unto life, possessed by all men; and like death, she conquers all men; and like eternity, she enfolds all men.”

      THE PHILOSOPHER AND THE COBBLER

      There came to a cobbler’s shop a philosopher with worn shoes. And the philosopher said to the cobbler, “Please mend my shoes.”

      And the cobbler said, “I am mending another man’s shoes now, and there are still other shoes to patch before I can come to yours. But leave your shoes here, and wear this other pair today, and come tomorrow for your own.”

      Then the philosopher was indignant, and he said, “I wear no shoes that are not mine own.”

      And the cobbler said, “Well then, are you in truth a philosopher, and cannot enfold your feet with the shoes of another man? Upon this very street there is another cobbler who understands philosophers better than I do. Go you to him for mending.”

      BUILDERS OF BRIDGES

      In Antioch where the river Assi goes to meet the sea, a bridge was built to bring one half of the city nearer to the other half. It was built of large stones carried down from among the hills, on the backs of the mules of Antioch.

      When the bridge was finished, upon a pillar thereof was engraved in Greek and in Aramaic, “This bridge was builded by King Antiochus II.”

      And all the people walked across the good bridge over the СКАЧАТЬ