Gibran Stories Omnibus

have comfort. I would have passion! I would burn in the
cool space with my beloved. I would be in the boundless space with my
mate, my other self. O Mary, Mary, you were once my sister, and we knew
one another even when our nearest kin knew us not. Now listen to me,
listen to me with your heart.
     
      Mary : I am listening, Lazarus.
     
      The Madman : Let the whole world listen. The sky will now
speak to the earth, but the earth is deaf as you and I.
     
      Lazarus : We were in space, my beloved and I, and we were all
space. We were in light and we were all light. And we roamed even like
the ancient spirit that moved upon the face of the waters; and it was
forever the first day. We were love itself that dwells in the heart of
the white silence. Then a voice like thunder, a voice like countless
spears piercing the ether, cried out saying, “Lazarus, come forth!” And
the voice echoed and re-echoed in space, and I, even as a flood tide
became an ebbing tide; a house divided, a garment rent, a youth
unspent, a tower that fell down, and out of its broken stones a
landmark was made. A voice cried “Lazarus, come forth!” and I descended
from the mansion of the sky to a tomb within a tomb, this body in a
sealed cave.
     
      The Madman : Master of the caravan, where are your camels and
where are your men? Was it the hungry earth that swallowed them? Was it
the simoom that shrouded them with sand? No! Jesus of Nazareth raised
His hand, Jesus of Nazareth uttered a word; and tell me now, where are
your camels and where are your men, and where are your treasures? In
the trackless sand, in the trackless sand. But the moon will always
come again.
     
      Mary : Oh, it is like a dream dreamt upon a mountaintop. I
know, my brother, I know the world you have visited, though I have
never seen it. Yet all that you say is passing strange. It is a tale
told by someone across a valley, and I can hardly hear it.
     
      Lazarus : It is all so different across the valley. There is
no weight there and there is no measure. You are with your beloved.
     
     (A silence)
     
      Lazarus : O my beloved! O my beloved fragrance in space! Wings
that were spread for me! Tell me, tell me in the stillness of my heart,
do you seek me, and was it pain to you to be separated from me? Was I
also a fragrance and wings spread in space? And tell me now, my
beloved, was there a double cruelty, was there a brother of His in
another world who called you from life to death, and had you a mother
and sisters and friends who deemed it a miracle? Was there a double
cruelty performed in blessedness?
     
      Mary : No, no, my brother. There is only one Jesus of one
world. All else is but a dream, even as your beloved.
     
      Lazarus : (With great passion) No, no! If He is not a dream
then He is nothing. If He had not known what is beyond Jerusalem, then
He is nothing. If He did not know my beloved in space then He was not
the Master. O my friend Jesus, you once gave me a cup of wine across
the table, and you said, “Drink this in remembrance of me.” And you
dipped a morsel of bread in the oil, and you said, “Eat this, it is my
share of the loaf.” O my friend, you have put your arm on my shoulder
and called me “son.” My mother and my sisters have said in their
hearts, “He loves our Lazarus.' And I loved you. And then you went away
to build more towers in the sky, and I went to my beloved. Tell me now,
tell me, why did you bring me back? Did you not know in your knowing
heart that I was with my beloved? Did you not meet her in you wandering
above the summits of Lebanon? Surely you saw her image in my eyes when
I came and stood before you at the door of the tomb. And have you not a
beloved in the sun? And would you have a greater one than yourself
separate you from her? And after separation what would you say? What
shall I say to you now?
     
      The Madman : He bade me also to come back but I did not obey,
and now they call me mad.
     
      Mary : Lazarus, Have I a beloved in the sky? Has my longing
created a being beyond this world? And must I die to be with him? Oh,
my brother, tell me, have I a mate also? If this thing be so, how good
it is to live and die, and live and die again; if a beloved awaits me,
to fulfil all that I am, and I to fulfil all that he is!
     
      The Madman : Everywoman has a