The Letters of Kahlil Gibran
A Greater Beauty: The Drawings of Kahlil Gibran features over one hundred drawings by the prolific Lebanese-American artist, poet and essayist, and coincides with the 100th anniversary of Gibran’s world-renowned publication The Prophet. Though best known for his poetry and prose, Gibran viewed himself equally as a visual artist, producing paintings, watercolors, sketches, illustrations, book covers, and other material as a complement to his written work. A Greater Beauty presents an overview of Gibran’s drawings and sketches alongside manuscript pages, notebooks, correspondence, magazine illustrations and essays, and first editions, providing a glimpse into the artist’s production in the context of his work as a whole.
Read and listen to selected letters written by Kahlil Gibran. Read by Palestinian actor Adam Bakri, who rose to prominence with his compelling performance in the film Omar. Showcasing his unique and versatile acting style, he has taken on a variety of roles in international cinema, solidifying his status in the industry. At present, Adam features in the Hulu series Accused. He also shared the screen with Keira Knightley in the film Official Secrets, which is now available for streaming on Netflix.
November 10, 1911
There is an old Arabic song which begins “Only God and I know what is in my heart”— and today after rereading your last three letters, I said out loud “Only God and Mary and I know what is in my heart.” But I would open my heart and carry it in my hand so that others may know also; for there is no deeper desire than the Desire of being revealed— We all want the little light in us be Taken from under the bushel. The first poet must have suffered much when the cave-dwellers laughed at his mad words. He would have given his bow and arrows and lion skin and everything he possessed just to have his fellow-men know the delight and the passion which the sunset had created in his soul. And yet, is it not this mystic pain — the pain of not being known— that gives birth to art and artists? It is surely a noble thing to essay “Art for art’s sake” but is it not nobler to open the eyes of the blind so that they may share the silent joy of your days and night? True art should be made practical by revealing its beauty to people— I said practical because anything that adds to our world of vision is practical……
As to us, seekers of the Absolute, whose loneliness has been made a garden, what is there left for us in Life but the joy of hunger and thirst? Have we not outgrown Realism through our love for the Real? Could we turn our eyes to see the faces of dead things? And who of us has two souls and could send one to the mountain and the other to the valley?
Good night, beloved Mary, dearly beloved Mary. May God bless the air you breathe.
Kahlil
April 22, 1924
Dear Mary,
I hope with all my heart that all is well with you, and that life is singing in your days and your nights.
As for me, I am quite all right. I do some work every day; a little drawing or a little writing— most of it in Arabic. But I walk a great deal up and down this studio, or in the park, and I Think and Think and dream of distant places, and of Things with-out form like the mist. Sometimes I myself feel shapeless. It is a strange consciousness. I feel as if it were the consciousness of a cloud before it becomes rain or snow.
You see, Mary, I am just beginning to live above the ground. I have been nothing but a root in the past, and now I do not know what to do with so much air and light and space. I have heard of men who, after leaving prison, find themselves so lost in the world that they go back and ask to be imprisoned again. I shall not go back, Mary. I shall try to find my way above the ground.
May God bless you, dear Mary, and God is blessing, and God is filling your generous heart with his sacred light.
Kahlil
Please let me know when you are coming north a week or ten days ahead, because I want to be here and because there is something very important that I want to talk over with you.
October 22, 1912
The war between Turkey and the Balkan States is a conflict of two different spirits, Civilization and Barbarism. It is deeper than a Tragedy and much more terrible than what the Christian powers of Europe think. I have been made sick and tired by those passionless statesmen of Europe. Because they are free and Tranquil they think that the whole world should be satisfied. Mary, there is a sort of cruelty in the optimism of happy people. Rich and happy people protest against the young Balkan States because they fear that they might ‘break the peace of the world.’ And why should they not break the hypocritical peace of the world? They have suffered enough under that one sided peace. I hope, and I pray to God, that this war may bring about the dismemberment of the Turkish Empire, so that the poor, crushed nations of the Near East may live again; so that mother Syria may open her sad eyes and gaze once more at the sun. I am not patriotic, Mary; I am too much of an Absolutist and Absolutism has no country— but my heart burns for Syria. Fate has been most cruel to her— O much more than cruel. Her gods are dead, her children left her to seek bread in far away lands, her daughters are dumb and blind, and yet she is still alive— alive and that is the most painful thing. She is alive in the midst of her miseries.
October 23, 1912
And I am writing. I am writing something which may turn the whole arabic world against me. But I am prepared for it! I am getting used to being nailed in the cross. In fact I enjoy it because it makes me certain of myself.
May 26, 1916
Beloved Mary, My people, the people of Mount Lebanon, are perishing through a famine which has been planned by the Turkish government. 80,000 already died. Thousands are dying every day. The same things that happened in Armenia are happening in Syria. Mt. Lebanon, being a Christian country, is suffering the most.
You can imagine, Mary, what I am going through just now, I can not sleep nor eat nor rest. All the Syrians here are being tortured in the same way. We are trying to do our best. We must save those who are still alive. Oh, Mary, it is too much to bear. Too much. Pray for us beloved Mary: help us with your thoughts.
Love from suffering Kahlil
June 29, 1916
Beloved Mary. Things are going on very well and money is coming in all the time. Of course it will take some time and good deal of patience to make all the Syrians of North America work together with united efforts for one thing– and only one thing. But the most difficult thing before us is getting food stuffs into Mount Lebanon. We are quite certain now that the Turkish government wishes to starve our people because some of our leaders there are with the allies in thought and spirit. The American government is the only power in the world that comes help us. I wrote to the State Department in Washington and received an answer which assured me that this government is really using its good offices to alleviate the condition in Syria. But you know how things are in Washington just now. Too many world problems and too many difficulties are being solved.
I have given, in your name, $150 to the Relief Committee. It is the largest contribution from an American so far. The Arabian revolt is indeed a wonderful thing. No one outside of Arabia knows how successful it is and how far it will go. But the fact that there was a movement is a great and mighty thing. A thing which I have dreamt of and worked for during the past ten years. If the Arabs receive help from the Allies they would not only create a kingdom but they would give something to the world. I know, Mary, the reality that lies in the Arabic soul. The Arabs cannot organize without the help of Europe but the Arabs have a vision of Life which no other race possesses.
The Hindu units of measure are very much like those we had in Syria— They are very beautiful. Thank you for reading them to me.
May God bless you and keep you beloved Mary.
Love from Kahlil
January 2, 1917
Beloved Mary,
The meteorite, the precious meteorite, reached me long ago– and I wrote you a word about it the very hour it came to me. I think it was two days before Christmas. But I want to say now, Mary, that it is the most wonderful thing I have ever had in my hand— the most wondrous because it feeds my imagination and it sends my thoughts into space and makes the infinite more and less strange to my soul. I hold it in my hand every day and each time I bless you with all my heart.
Tagore’s antagonism to nationalism is a part of his Indian Transcendentalism. I agree with you, Mary, that nationalism is a step towards world-consciousness. And it is a necessary step too. But what seems to me to be rather strange is Tagore is this; he speaks against nationalism while his work does not show or express a world-consciousness. He is an Indian with all the beauty and charms of India. And though he is sensitive to the blessedness of life, yet he does not see life as an ever-growing-power. God is, to Tagore, a perfect Being. All sophists dwell on the perfection of God. To me, Mary, perfection is a limitation— and I cannot conceive perfection any more than I can conceive the end of space or time.
I am having a hard time with the frames and some of the drawings. But I think I can have everything ready by the 29th. And I am in a working mood, Mary. My heart is full of moving forms. And the note which Turkey sent to the Powers concerning Mt. Lebanon is another thing on my mind. Some kind of protest is necessary, and we, the thinking Lebanese, might be able to bring the matter before the world. So you see, Mary, that I am not sure of coming to Boston on the 10th. I do not want to leave things undone.
And I have not taken the other room yet. But I might do so if it gets colder. The studio has been comfortable enough— and just now I ought not to divide myself between two places. It is so wonderful, Mary, to wake from a deep sleep and go directly to work with a fresh vision and without having to dress.
I am sending you with this a poem— I do not know what else to call it— which I wrote a few days ago. [a note by Mary Haskell here reads “On God (Madman)”] Will you not look it over, Mary, and correct in English? I feel that this poem is the beginning of something which I want to do— and with the help of God I shall do it.
May God bless you and protect you always.
Love from Kahlil
April 19, 1912
I went to sleep at 3.30 this morning. The air was so changed with the horrible sea tragedy that I was not able to go to sleep earlier, At 6.30 I was up. Cold water and strong coffee brought light to my eyes. At 7.30 I was with Abdul-Baha. At 8 we began to work— and then people, mostly women, started to come— but they all sat quietly gazing at us with thirsty eyes. At 9 o’clock the drawing was finished and the noble Abdul-Baha smiled. Then the 25 or 30 personas in that large room began to shake my both hands as if I had done something for each one of them. “It is a miracle”. “You were inspired”. “You have seen the soul of the master”. — and so on and so forth— Miss Thompson said nothing— tears were running down her cheeks. There Abdul-Baha said to me in Arabic “Those who work with the Spirit work well— you have the power of Allah in you.” Then he said, quoting Mohamad, “Prophets and poets see with the light of God” and he smiled again and in his smile there was that mystery of Syria and Arabia and Persia.
And I have a new painting in this studio— but I must not tell you about it now! My eyelids are heavy and I am going to rest my head in yonder corner! Three hours of sleep are not half enough for children—
May the unseen hands of Allah touch you all over, beloved Mary.
Kahlil