Kahlil Gibran lahir di Bsherri, Lebanon, 6 Januari 1883. Dalam usia remaja bersama ibunya pindah ke Boston, Amerika Serikat. Setelah kembali ke Lebanon untuk mempelajari sastra Arab, mulai tahun 1905 karya-karyanya terbit dan menarik perhatian, terutama Sang Nabi. Ia memperluas pandangan sastra dan belajar melukis di Paris, kemudian menetap di New York, mendirikan studio "Pertapaan". Buku-bukunya yang terkenal selain Sang Nabi, juga Taman Sang Nabi, Pasir dan Buih, Sayap-Sayap Patah, Suara Sang Guru, Si Gila, Sang Pralambang, Sang Musyafir, dll. Ia meninggal 10 April 1931 karena sakit lever dan radang paru-paru.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

THE FORERUNNER

THE FORERUNNER
by : Kahlil Gibran

You are your own forerunner, and the towers you have builded are but the foundation of your giant-self. And that self too shall be a foundation.

And I too am my own forerunner, for the long shadow stretching before me at sunrise shall gather under my feet at the noon hour. Yet another sunrise shall lay another shadow before me, and that also shall be gathered at another noon.

Always have we been our own forerunners, and always shall we be. And all that we have gathered and shall gather shall be but seeds for fields yet unploughed. We are the fields and the ploughmen, the gatherers and the gathered.

When you were a wandering desire in the mist, I too was there a wandering desire. Then we sought one another, and out of our eagerness dreams were born. And dreams were time limitless, and dreams were space without measure.

And when you were a silent word upon life's quivering lips, I too was there, another silent word. Then life uttered us and we came down the years throbbing with memories of yesterday and with longing for tomorrow, for yesterday was death conquered and tomorrow was birth pursued.

And now we are in God's hands. You are a sun in His right hand and I an earth in His left hand. Yet you are not more, shining, than I, shone upon.

And we, sun and earth, are but the beginning of a greater sun and a greater earth. And always shall we be the beginning.
You are your own forerunner, you the stranger passing by the gate of my garden.

And I too am my own forerunner, though I sit in the shadows of my trees and seem motionless.

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