Gibran Stories Omnibus

upon the wind cup? Were all those
nights we spent in the moonlight by the jasmine tree, where our souls
united, in vain? Did we fly swiftly toward the stars until our wings
tired, and are we descending now into the abyss? Or was Love asleep
when he came to us, and did he, when he woke, become angry and decide
to punish us? Or did our spirits turn the nights' breeze into a wind
that tore us to pieces and blew us like dust to the depth of the
valley? We disobeyed no commandment, nor did we taste of forbidden
fruit, so what is making us leave this paradise? We never conspired or
practised mutiny, then why are we descending to hell? No, no, the
moments which united us are greater than centuries, and the light that
illuminated our spirits is stronger than the dark; and if the tempest
separates us on this rough ocean, the waves will unite us on the calm
shore; and if this life kills us, death will unite us. A woman's heart
will change with time or season; even if it dies eternally, it will
never perish. A woman's heart is like a field turned into a
battleground; after the trees are uprooted and the grass is burned and
the rocks are reddened with blood and the earth is planted with bones
and skulls, it is calm and silent as if nothing has happened; for the
spring and autumn come at their intervals and resume their work.
      And now, my beloved, what shall we do? How shall we part and when
shall we meet? Shall we consider love a strange visitor who came in the
evening and left us in the morning? Or shall we suppose this affection
a dream that came in our sleep and departed when we awoke?
      Shall we consider this week an hour of intoxication to be replaced
by soberness? Raise your head and let me look at you, my beloved; open
your lips and let me hear your voice. Speak to me! Will you remember me
after this tempest has sunk the ship of our love? Will you hear the
whispering of my wings in the silence of the night? Will you hear my
spirit fluttering over you? Will you listen to my sighs? Will you see
my shadow approach with the shadows of dusk and disappear with the
flush of dawn? Tell me, my beloved, what will you be after having been
magic ray to my eyes, sweet song to my ears, and wings to my soul? What
will you be?”
      Learning these words, my heart melted, and I answered her, “ I will
be as you want me to be, my beloved.”
      Then she said, “ I want you to love me as a poet loves his sorrowful
thoughts. I want you to remember me as a traveller remembers a calm
pool in which his image was reflected as he drank its water. I want you
to remember me as a mother remember her child that died before it saw
the light, and I want you to remember me as a merciful king remembers a
prisoner who died before his pardon reached him. I want you to be my
companion, and I want you to visit my father and console him in his
solitude because I shall be leaving him soon and shall be a stranger to
him.
      I answered her, saying, “ I will do all you have said and will make
my soul an envelope for your soul, and my heart a residence for your
beauty and my breast a grave for your sorrows. I shall love you ,
Selma, as the prairies love the spring, and I shall live in you in the
life of a flower under the sun's rays. I shall sing your name as the
valley sings the echo of the bells of the village churches; I shall
listen to the language of your soul as the shore listens to the story
of the waves. I shall remember you as a stranger remembers his beloved
country, and as a hungry man remembers a banquet, and as a dethroned
king remembers the days of his glory, and as a prisoner remembers the
hours of ease and freedom. I shall remember you as a sower remembers
the bundles of wheat on his threshing flour, and as a shepherd
remembers the green prairies the sweet brooks.”
      Selma listened to my words with palpitating heart, and said
“Tomorrow the truth will become ghostly and the awakening will be like
a dream. Will a lover be satisfied embracing a ghost, or will a thirsty
man quench his thirst from the spring or a dream?”
      I answered her, “Tomorrow, destiny will put you in the midst of a
peaceful family, but it will send me into the world of struggle and
warfare. You will be in the home of a person whom chance has made most
fortunate through your beauty and virtue, while I shall be living a
life of suffering and fear. You