Salome to a woman friend
A desire unfulfilled
- He was like poplars shimmering in the sun;
- And like a lake among the lonely hills,
- Shining in the sun;
- And like snow upon the mountain heights,
- White, white in the sun.
-
- Yea, He was like unto all these,
- And I loved Him.
- Yet I feared His presence.
- And my feet would not carry my burden of love
- That I might girdle His feet with my arms.
-
- I would have said to Him,
- "I have slain your friend in an hour of passion.
- Will you forgive me my sin?
- And will you not in mercy release my youth
- From its blind deed,
- That it may walk in your light?"
-
- I know He would have forgiven my dancing
- For the saintly head of His friend.
- I know He would have seen in me
- An object of His own teaching.
- For there was no valley of hunger He could not bridge,
- And no desert of thirst He could not cross.
-
- Yea, He was even as the poplars,
- And as the lakes among the hills,
- And like snow upon Lebanon.
- And I would have cooled my lips in the folds of His garment.
-
- But He was far from me,
- And I was ashamed.
- And my mother held me back
- When the desire to seek Him was upon me.
-
- Whenever He passed by, my heart ached for his loveliness,
- But my mother frowned at Him in contempt,
- And would hasten me from the window
- To my bedchamber.
- And she would cry aloud saying,
- "Who is He but another locust-eater from the desert?
-
- What is He but a scoffer and a renegade,
- A seditious riot-monger, who would rob us of sceptre and crown,
- And bid the foxes and the jackals of His accursed land
- Howl in our halls and sit upon our throne?
- Go hide your face from this day,
- And await the day when His head shall fall down,
- But not upon your platter."
-
- These things my mother said.
- But my heart would not keep her words.
- I loved Him in secret,
- And my sleep was girdled with flames.
-
- He is gone now.
- And something that was in me is gone also.
- Perhaps it was my youth
- That would not tarry here,
- Since the God of youth was slain.
- --oOo-- -
Khalil Gibran
Introductory biography
Spirits Rebellious
The Broken Wings
A Tear and a Smile
The Madman
The Forerunner
The Prophet
The New Frontier
Sand and Foam
Jesus, The Son Of Man
James the son of Zebedee
Anna the mother of Mary
Assaph called the Orator of Tyre
Mary Magdalen
Philemon, a Greek Apothecary
Simon who was called Peter
Caiaphas
Joanna, the wife of Herod's steward
Rafca
A Persian Philosopher in Damascus
David, one of his followers
Luke
Matthew
John the son of Zebedee
A young priest of Capernaum
A rich levi in the neighborhood of the Nazarene
A shepherd in South Lebanon
John the Baptist
Joseph of Arimathea
Nathaniel
Saba of Antioch
Salome to a woman friend
Rachael, a woman disciple
Cleopas of Bethroune
Naaman of the Gadarenes
Thomas
Elmadam the Logician
One of the Mary's
Rumanous, a Greek poet
Levi, a disciple
A widow in Galilee
Judas the cousin of Jesus
The man from the desert
Peter
Melachi of Babylon, an astronomer
A philosopher
Uriah, an old man of Nazareth
Nicodemus the poet
Joseph of Arimathea
Georgus of Beirut
Mary Magdalen
Jotham of Nazareth to a Roman
Ephraim of Jericho
Barca, a merchant of Tyre
Phumiah, the high Priestess of Sidon
Benjamin the scribe
Zacchaeus
Hannah of Bethsaida
Manasseh
Jephtha of Caesarea
John the beloved disciple
Mannus the Pompeiian, to a Greek
Pontius Pilatus
Bartholomew in Ephesus
Matthew
Andrew on prostitutes
A rich man on possessions
John at Patmos
Peter on the neighbor
A cobbler in Jerusalem
Suzannah of Nazareth
Joseph surnamed Justus
Philip
Birbarah of Yammouni
Pilate's wife to a Roman lady
A man outside of Jerusalem
Sarkis, an old Greek shepherd
Annas the high priest
A woman, one of Mary's neighbors
Ahaz the portly
Barabbas
Claudius a Roman sentinel
James the brother of the Lord
Simon the Cyrene
Cyborea
The woman in Byblos
Mary Magdalen thirty years later
A man from Lebanon
The Earth Gods
The Wanderer
Al-Nay
The Garden of the Prophet
Lazarus and His Beloved
Satan
My Countrymen
I Believe In You
Your Thought And Mine
You Have Your Lebanon
History and the Nation
The Vision
Visual art