Gibran Stories Omnibus

us.
     
      Mary : But spring is with us, and though veiled with the veil
of sorrow, yet it is spring. Let us not speak of pity. Let us rather
accept both our spring and our sorrow with gratitude. And let us wonder
in sweet silence at Him who gave you life yet yielded His own life. Let
us not speak of pity, Lazarus.
     
      Lazarus : Pity, pity that I should be torn away from a
thousand thousand years of heart's desire, a thousand thousand years of
heart's hunger. Pity that after a thousand thousand springs I am turned
to this winter.
     
      Mary : What do you mean, my brother? Why do you speak of a
thousand thousand springs? You were but three days away from us. Three
short days. But our sorrow was indeed longer than three days.
     
      Lazarus : Three days? Three centuries, three aeons! All of
time! All of time with the one my soul loved before time began.
     
      The Madman : Yes, three days, three centuries, three aeons.
Strange they would always weigh and measure. It is always a sundial and
a pair of scales.
     
      Mary : (In amazement) The one you soul loved before time
began? Lazarus, why do you say these things? It is but a dream you
dreamed in another garden. Now we are here in this garden, a stone's
throw from Jerusalem. We are here. And you know well, my brother, that
our Master would have you be with us in this awakening to dream of life
and love; and He would have you an ardent disciple, a living witness of
His glory.
     
      Lazarus : There is no dream here and there is no awakening.
You and I and this garden are but an illusion, a shadow of the real.
The awakening is there where I was with my beloved and the reality.
     
      Mary : (Rising) Your beloved?
     
      Lazarus : (Also rising) My beloved.
     
      The Madman : Yes, yes. His beloved, the space virgin, the
beloved of everyman.
     
      Mary : But where is your beloved? Who is your beloved?
     
      Lazarus : My twin heart whom I sought here and did not find.
Then death, the angel with winged feet, came and led my longing to her
longing, and I lived with her in the very heart of God. And I became
nearer to her and she to me, and we were one. We were a sphere that
shines in the sun; and we were a song among the stars. All this, Mary,
all this and more, till a voice, a voice from the depths, the voice of
a world called me; and that which was inseparable was torn asunder. And
the thousand thousand years with my beloved in space could not guard me
from the power of that voice which called me back.
     
      Mary : (Looking unto the sky) O blessed angels of our silent
hours, make me to understand this thing! I would not be an alien in
this new land discovered by death. Say more, my brother, go on. I
believe in my heart I can follow you.
     
      The Madman : Follow him, if you can, little woman. Shall the
turtle follow the stag?
     
      Lazarus : I was a stream and I sought the sea where my beloved
dwells, and when I reached the sea I was brought to the hills to run
again among the rocks. I was a song imprisoned in silence, longing for
the heart of my beloved, and when the winds of heaven released me and
uttered me in that green forest I was recaptured by a voice, and I was
turned again into silence. I was a root in the dark earth, and I became
a flower and then a fragrance in space rising to enfold my beloved, and
I was caught and gathered by hand, and I was made a root again, a root
in the dark earth.
     
      The Madman : If you are a root you can always escape the
tempests in the branches. And it is good to be a running stream even
after you have reached the sea. Of course it is good for water to run
upward.
     
      Mary : (To herself) Oh strange, passing strange! (To Lazarus)
But my brother it is good to be a running stream, and it is not good to
be a song not yet sung, and it is good to be a root in the dark earth.
The Master knew all this and He called you back to us that we may know
there is no veil between life and death. Do you not see how one word
uttered in love may bring together elements scattered by an illusion
called death? Believe and have faith, for only in faith, which is our
deeper knowledge, can you find comfort.
     
      Lazarus : Comfort! Comfort the treacherous, the deadly!
Comfort that cheats our senses and makes us slaves to the passing hour!
I would not