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From: ghassoun@eleceng.adelaide.edu.au Subject: ``Dead Are My People'' (Part 3 of 5) - By Gibran Khalil Gibran Date: Fri, 13 Aug 93 GIBRAN-GIBRAN-GIBRAN-GIBRAN-GIBRAN-GIBRAN-GIBRAN-GIBRANG I I B DEAD ARE MY PEOPLE (Part 3 of 5) B R R A ( Written in exile during the famine in A N Syria [and Lebanon] in World War I ) N - - G [...] G I Were I an ear of corn grown in the earth I B Of my country, the hungry child would B R Pluck me and remove with my kernels R A The hand of Death from his soul. Were A N I a ripe fruit in the gardens of my N - Country, the starving woman would - G Gather me and sustain life. Were I G I A bird flying in the sky of my country, I B My hungry brother would hunt me and B R Remove with the flesh of my body the R A Shadow of the grave from his body. A N But alas! I am not an ear of corn N - Grown in the plains of Syria, nor a - G Ripe fruit in the valleys of Lebanon; G I This is my disaster, and this is my I B Mute calamity which brings humiliation B R Before my soul and before the phantoms R A Of the night.... This is the painful A N Tragedy which tightens my tongue and N - Pinions my arms and arrests me usurped - G Of power and of will and of action. G I This is the curse burned upon my I B Forehead before God and man. B R R A And often time they say unto me, A N ``The disaster of your country is N - But naught to the calamity of the - G World, and the tears and blood shed G I By your people are as nothing to I B The rivers of blood and tears B R Pouring each day and night in the R A Valleys and plains of the earth....'' A N N - - G ( To be continued...) G I I B ``The Prophet of Lebanon'' B R R GIBRAN-GIBRAN-GIBRAN-GIBRAN-GIBRAN-GIBRAN-GIBRAN-GIBRANG [Above poem was quoted from a book entitled "A Treasury of Kahlil Gibran" (note the spelling and the name order), edited by Martin L. Wolf and translated from Arabic by Anthony Riscallah Ferris, The Citadel Press, New York, 1951.] | |
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