Gibran Stories Omnibus

place. We
cannot bathe here.”
      We walked on until we reached an inlet. There we saw, standing on a
white rock, a man holding a bejewelled box, from which he took sugar
and threw it into the sea.
      “And this is the optimist,” said my soul, “And he too must not see
our naked bodies.
      Further on we walked. And on a beach we saw a man picking up dead
fish and tenderly putting them back into the water.
      “And we cannot bathe before him,” said my soul. “He is the humane
philanthropist.”
      And we passed on.
      Then we came where we saw a man tracing his shadow on the sand.
Great waves came and erased it. But he went on tracing it again and
again.
      “He is the mystic,” said my soul, “Let us leave him.”
      And we walked on, till in a quiet cover we saw a man scooping up the
foam and putting it into an alabaster bowl.
      “He is the idealist,” said my soul, “Surely he must not see our
nudity.”
      And on we walked. Suddenly we heard a voice crying, “This is the
sea. This is the deep sea. This is the vast and mighty sea.” And when
we reached the voice it was a man whose back was turned to the sea, and
at his ear he held a shell, listening to its murmur.
      And my soul said, “Let us pass on. He is the realist, who turns his
back on the whole he cannot grasp, and busies himself with a fragment.”
      So we passed on. And in a weedy place among the rocks was a man with
his head buried in the sand. And I said to my soul, “We can bath here,
for he cannot see us.”
      “Nay,” said my soul, “For he is the most deadly of them all. He is
the puritan.”
      Then a great sadness came over the face of my soul, and into her
voice.
      “Let us go hence,” she said, “For there is no lonely, hidden place
where we can bathe. I would not have this wind lift my golden hair, or
bare my white bosom in this air, or let the light disclose my sacred
nakedness.”
      Then we left that sea to seek the Greater Sea.

CRUCIFIED
         
      I cried to men, “I would be crucified!”
      And they said, “Why should your blood be upon our heads?”
      And I answered, “How else shall you be exalted except by crucifying
madmen?”
      And they heeded and I was crucified. And the crucifixion appeased
me.
      And when I was hanged between earth and heaven they lifted up their
heads to see me. And they were exalted, for their heads had never
before been lifted.
      But as they stood looking up at me one called out, “For what art
thou seeking to atone?”
      And another cried, “In what cause dost thou sacrifice thyself?”
      And a third said, “Thinkest thou with this price to buy world
glory?”
      Then said a fourth, “Behold, how he smiles! Can such pain be
forgiven?”
      And I answered them all, and said:
      “Remember only that I smiled. I do not atone-nor sacrifice-nor wish
for glory; and I have nothing to forgive. I thirsted-and I besought you
to give me my blood to drink. For what is there can quench a madman's
thirst but his own blood? I was dumb-and I asked wounds of you for
mouths. I was imprisoned in your days and nights-and I sought a door
into larger days and nights.
      And now I go-as others already crucified have gone. And think not we
are weary of crucifixion. For we must be crucified by larger and yet
larger men, between greater earths and greater heavens.”

THE ASTRONOMER
         
      In the shadow of the temple my friend and I saw a blind man sitting
alone. And my friend said, “Behold the wisest man of our land.”
      Then I left my friend and approached the blind man and greeted him.
And we conversed.
      After a while I said, “Forgive my question; but since when has thou
been blind?”
      “From my birth,” he answered.
      Said I, “And what path of wisdom followest thou?”
      Said he, “I am an astronomer.”
      Then he placed his hand upon his breast saying, “I watch all these
suns and moons and stars.”

THE GREAT LONGING
         
      Here I sit between my brother the mountain and my sister the sea.
      We three are one in loneliness, and the love that binds us together
is deep and strong and strange. Nay, it is deeper than my