Gibran Stories Omnibus

and
sweetness.
      A tree grown in a cave does not bear fruit; and Selma, who lived in
the shade of life, did not bear children.....
      The nightingale does not make his nest in a cage lest slavery be the
lot of its chicks.... Selma was a prisoner of misery and it was
Heaven's will that she would not have another prisoner to share her
life. The flowers of the field are the children of sun's affection and
nature's love; and the children of men are the flowers of love and
compassion.....
      The spirit of love and compassion never dominated Selma's beautiful
home at Ras Beyrouth; nevertheless, she knelt down on her knees every
night before Heaven and asked God for a child in whom she would find
comfort and consolation... She prayed successively until Heaven
answered her prayers....
      The tree of the cave blossomed to bear fruit at last. The
nightingale in the cage commenced making its nest with the feathers of
its wings.
      Selma stretched her chained arms toward Heaven to receive God's
precious gift and nothing in the world could have made her happier than
becoming a potential mother.
      She waited anxiously, counting the days and looking forward to the
time when Heaven's sweetest melody, the voice of her child, should ring
in her ears....
      She commenced to see the dawn of a brighter future through her
tears.
      It was the month of Nisan when Selma was stretched on the bed of
pain and labour, where life and death were wrestling. The doctor and
the midwife were ready to deliver to the world a new guest. Late at
night Selma started her successive cry... a cry of life's partition
from life... a cry of continuance in the firmament of nothingness.. a
cry of a weak force before the stillness of great forces... the cry of
poor Selma who was lying down in despair under the feet of life and
death.
      At dawn Selma gave birth to a baby boy. When she opened her eyes she
saw smiling faces all over the room, then she looked again and saw life
and death still wrestling by her bed. She closed her eyes and cried,
saying for the first time, “Oh, my son.” The midwife wrapped the infant
with silk swaddles and placed him by his mother, but the doctor kept
looking at Selma and sorrowfully shaking his head.
      The voices of joy woke the neighbours, who rushed into the house to
felicitate the father upon the birth of his heir, but the doctor still
gazed at Selma and her infant and shook his head....
      The servants hurried to spread the good news to Mansour Bey, but the
doctor stared at Selma and her child with a disappointed look on his
face.
      As the sun came out, Selma took the infant to her breast; he opened
his eyes for the first time and looked at his mother; then he quivered
and close them for the last time. The doctor took the child from
Selma's arms and on his cheeks fell tears; then he whispered to
himself, “He is a departing guest.”
      The child passed away while the neighbours were celebrating with the
father in the big hall at the house and drinking to the health of their
heir; and Selma looked at the doctor, and pleaded, “Give me my child
and let me embrace him.”
      Though the child was dead, the sounds of the drinking cups increased
in the hall.....
      He was born at dawn and died at sunrise...
      He was born like a thought and died like a sigh and disappeared like
a shadow.
      He did not live to console and comfort his mother.
      His life began at the end of the night and ended at the beginning of
the day, like a drop of few poured by the eyes of the dark and dried by
the touch of the light.
      A pearl brought by the tide to the coast and returned by the ebb
into the depth of the sea....
      A lily that has just blossomed from the bud of life and is mashed
under the feet of death.
      A dear guest whose appearance illuminated Selma's heart and whose
departure killed her soul.
      This is the life of men, the life of nations, the life of suns,
moons and stars.
      And Selma focused her eyes upon the doctor and cried, “Give me my
child and let me embrace him; give me my child and let me nurse him.”
      Then the doctor bent his head. His voice choked and he said, “Your
child is dead, Madame, be patient.
      Upon hearing her doctor's announcement, Selma uttered a