A hundred and three years ago, in 1923, Kahlil Gibran wove together twenty-six poetic essays on love, marriage, children, work and other themes in his ‘The Prophet’. ‘Almustafa’, who lived in exile in ‘Orphalese’, a fictional city, was bidding farewell to the land. Before he boarded the ship, a prophetess named ‘Almitra’ asked him to speak the final truth to them.
‘The Prophet’ is the answer to all their questions. Translated into more than one hundred languages, the prose-poetry serves as an eternal guide to lost souls.
June 5 is celebrated as World Environment Day across the globe. ‘The Prophet’ has a pervading, all - encompassing presence of nature throughout. Gibran asks his listeners to learn selfless generosity from the trees in the orchard.
“You often say, ‘I would give, but only to the deserving’. The trees in your orchard say not so, nor the flocks in your pasture. They give that they may live, for to withhold is to perish”.
Gibran brings sacredness to the dining table. “When you crush an apple with your teeth, say to it in your heart: ‘Your seeds shall live in my body, and the buds of your tomorrow shall blossom in my heart”.
A very recent translation of ‘The Prophet’ into Malayalam by Fr Boby Jose Kattikad adds to the life at the banquet- ‘your seeds shall sprout in me’. Each fruit which nourishes our body must be celebrated with gratitude. At the table, one must witness the dance of nature, as it bleeds for you.
When asked about prayer, Almustafa says that he cannot teach them “the prayer of the seas and the forests and the mountains”. Those who are born of seas and forests may find their prayer in their hearts. In the chapter ‘On Death', Gibran underlines death as a retreat to the natural elements: ‘For what it is to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt in the sun? And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance’. Even in death, nature embraces you in love.
This year, along with planting fresh sprouts, let us also remember nature as a tutor, facilitating enlightening lessons to us. A patch of greenery must also be a gentle reminder of responsibility towards life and living- yours and of the entire world.
The writer is a poet, translator and assistant professor of English at BCM College, Kottayam