On Children by Kahlil Gibran

Hello my dear students. Welcome to S J's

classes.

We shall discuss a poem written by a

Lebanese poet today.

The name of the poet is Khalil Gibran.

I'm sure you have

come across his name earlier.

You might not have learned any of his

poems.

So let's

learn about this particular poet

by reading one of his popular poems.

Let me introduce this poet to you.

Khalil Gibran

was born on the 6th of January, 1883

in Lebanon.

He's

popularly known as a philosophical

essayist, novelist, poet, and also an

artist.

He was a key figure in the romantic

movement that transformed Arabic

literature in the first half of the 20th

century.

He became known for his mystical Arabic

and English works,

earning fame following the 1923

publication of the work The Prophet.

This particular work is made up of 26

prose poems.

And these are delivered as sermons by a

wise man called Al Mustapha.

This wise man named Al Mustapha is about

to set sail from his homeland after 12

years in exile on a fictional island

when the people of the island ask him to

share his wisdom on the big questions of

life like love, family, work, and death.

So, these 26 prose poems are actually

the responses that Almustafa

gives to the people of that particular

island.

This novel has also become one of the

best-selling books of all time and has

also been translated into more than 100

languages.

And that's exactly why he earned fame

and reputation after the publication of

this particular work.

He shifted between Boston and his home

country, Lebanon, between 1895 and 1912.

He immigrated with his parents to Boston

in 1895, but again returned to Lebanon

in 1898.

And he studied in Beirut, where he

excelled in the Arabic language.

Again, he returned to Boston in 1903,

and that's when he published his first

literary essays.

And in 1912, Gibran settled in New York

City and devoted himself to writing

literary essays and short stories both

in Arabic and in English, and also to

painting. And that's why I earlier said

that he is popular not only as an

essayist, novelist, and poet, but also

as an artist.

He was highly influenced by the Bible

and also the German philosopher and

cultural critic critic, Nietzsche.

Friedrich Nietzsche, as well as William

Blake, the English author.

His writings in both languages, which

are English and Arabic, deal with a

variety of themes like love, death,

nature, and also a longing for the

homeland. And all these works are full

of lyrical outpourings and are mostly

expressive of Gibran's deeply religious

and mystic nature.

Some of his important works in Arabic

are Nymphs of the Valley, 1910,

A Tear and a Smile, 1914,

Spirits Rebellious, 1920,

The Broken Wings, 1922,

The Storms, 1923,

and The Procession, 1923.

All these are the translated titles.

These poems were written in Arabic. I

have noted down the English translations

of all those Arabic works.

And some of his important works in

English are The Madman that came out in

1918, The Forerunner, 1920, The Prophet,

which came out in 1923, and also an

adaptation of a visual a screen

adaptation of this particular work was

made in 2014,

Sand and Foam, which came out in 1926,

and finally, Jesus, the Son of Man,

which came out in 1928.

Gibran died on the 10th of April, 1931.

Now, let me also introduce to you the

poem that we are about to discuss today.

This poem is an excerpt from the work

The Prophet, which is one of Gibran's

most popular works.

As I said earlier, this work includes 26

sermons on varied topics like love,

marriage, children, houses, clothes,

laws, crime, punishment, buying,

selling, etc.

The sermons in this work are given by

Almustafa, who speaks in the persona of

the poet.

The name Al Mustapha means the chosen

one.

So, the name also implies that he

possesses spiritual knowledge and divine

characteristics.

Al Mustapha is a man of inner purity and

is believed to be the perfect man or the

universal man. And it's through this

particular persona that the poet speaks.

In the opening sermon, which is titled

The Coming of the Ship, we learn that Al

Mustapha has waited 12 years in the city

of Orphalese, which is the fictionalized

city or the island, for the ship that

was to return and bear him back to the

isle of his birth.

The ship has arrived and he is about to

go on board.

Before he boards the ship, he is met by

a woman named Almitra, who is a seeress.

She prays to him to speak to the people

of the Orphalese about all that he has

been shown about what lies between birth

and death.

Each of the 26 poems prose poems are

sermons.

And these sermons is the reply given by

Al Mustapha to all those who request him

to speak about a particular topic.

This poem on children is a critique of

the usual expectations of parents about

their children.

Through this poem, he offers to guide

parents on the essence of parenting.

Gibran, who speaks through Al Mustapha,

envisions childhood and parenthood as

spiritual journeys in which both child

and parent have a transcendent task

determined by God.

The child, says

Gibran, like an arrow is an aimed at the

future.

The parent, like the bow, must be sturdy

and stable. This is one of the important

metaphors that Gibran has employed in

this particular poem.

He picturizes

children as arrows and parents as bows.

Both

parents and children are in the hands of

God, the divine archer.

Now, there are personal reflections

which one can decipher from from one

from this particular poem.

Uh from his childhood, Gibran understood

the value of stability in the home. His

father was a poor provider, and he also

drank to excess, and you know, he

eventually ended up in jail.

And this left his family in a very poor

condition.

Gibran was about eight at that time.

A few years later, to escape their

hopeless situation, Gibran's mother

uprooted her four children from Lebanon

and moved them to America.

Because of her resourcefulness and

tireless efforts, the family survived.

She was a constant source of love,

strength, stability, and hope, and

provided Gibran with opportunities to

develop his innate gifts.

These qualities are mirrored in

Almustafa's vision of the ideal parent

as the bow able to send the arrow, the

child, flying swift and far into the

future.

So, obviously, there are personal

reflections that uh turn up in this

particular poem.

Now, let's read the poem and try to

understand the verses.

On Children by Kahlil Gibran.

And a woman who held a babe against her

bosom said,

"Speak to us of children."

And he said,

So, from the very first line, we get the

picture of a mother.

The mother who was described as a woman

who held a babe against her bosom. And

she asked to this particular prophet,

Almustafa,

"Tell us of children. Speak to us of

children." So, the mother asked the

prophet Almustafa to speak about

children.

And this is what he says.

He here stands for Almustafa, the

prophet. And he said,

"Your children are not your children."

So, this is an example for an oxymoron

where you have opposing ideas placed

together.

"Your children are not your children."

The prophet says, "Your children, even

though they are yours, they do not

belong to you." And this is indeed a

shocking statement as far as the mother

is concerned.

The prophet continues, "They are the

sons and daughters of life's longing for

itself." So, the prophet says,

"Your children are life's creations.

You might claim them, but they are not

yours.

They are a product of this universe

and natural forces at play.

And you are just biological means to

bring them to life. So, you are only a

medium to bring the children to life.

They come to life because of this, you

know,

because of the

uh works done by the universe as well as

natural forces.

So, they are the sons and daughters of

life's longing for itself.

So, here you have an example for

personification as well. You have life

being, you know, personified here. Life

as someone who has a desire, desire to

come to life, desire for life itself.

They come through you, but not from you.

And though they are with you, yet they

belong not to you.

So, the prophet says that your children

might come through you, but they are not

your possessions. You cannot claim them.

Though they are with you, they do not

belong to you.

You may give them your love, but not

your thoughts.

So, the prophet continues and he says,

your children, they will have their own

thoughts.

So, do not try to fill them with your

own.

Rather, you can do one thing, you can

give them your love.

You may give them your love, but not

your thoughts.

For they have their own thoughts.

So, this is quite customary in our

culture where

parents try to,

you know, impreg- impregnate their

wards, their children with the thoughts

that they have. Their thoughts about the

culture, the society, the religion, the

ideals, the various perceptions that we

have, you know. Parents, they try to

fill their wards, their children with

these thoughts.

And Gibran here says, please do not try

to fill them with your thoughts because

they have their own thoughts.

You may house their bodies, but not

their souls. So, you can keep them in

your houses,

but not their souls. And why? Because

their souls dwell in the house of

tomorrow.

The house of tomorrow is a metaphor and

it stands for future.

So, their souls belong to tomorrow.

Their souls belong to the future. They

belong to the future. So, you cannot

claim them.

And the house of tomorrow is a place

which you cannot visit, not even in your

dreams. So, the prophet says that the

parents won't even be able to witness

it,

which means the future, even in their

dreams. That is the kind of future, that

is the kind of, you know,

time that is the kind of

situation that will arise

tomorrow in the future.

And this particular time, this

particular future, you will not be able

to see it even in your dreams.

You may strive to be like them,

but seek not to make them like you. See

again, we see series of instructions

being given there by the prophet.

Initially, he said, you know, your

children, they might be yours, but they

do not belong to you. They are product

of life longing for itself. They come

through you, but they're they are not

from you. They might be with you, but

they don't belong to you. Then he says,

please don't try to, you know, fill them

with your thoughts. You might you can

house them, but you cannot house their

souls because they belong to tomorrow.

And again, the prophet says, you may

strive to be like them,

but seek not to make them like you. So,

you can try to be like them. You can he

tells the parents, you can try to be

like them,

but do not make them like you.

For life goes not backward, nor tarries

with yesterday. And this is the reason

why he states this.

Because life do not go backward. So, you

have to move ahead. You have to think

about the future. Life does not go

backward. It does not tarry with

yesterday. Tarry means spend time. It

does not tarry with yesterday. It does

not spend time with yesterday. So,

please do not try to make them like you.

But instead, you can try to be like

them.

This is where one of the important

metaphor comes in, the one that I said

earlier.

You are the bows from which your

children as living arrows are sent

forth. So, we have two metaphors here.

One is the bow, which stands for

parents, and the other is arrows, which

stands for children. And the prophet

says, "You are the bows from which your

children as living arrows are sent

forth."

So, you are the cause of their flight.

If they progress in life, if they fly

high in life, then you must be the

cause.

The archer sees the mark upon the path

of the infinite. The archer

sees the mark upon the path of the

infinite.

And who is this archer here? Refers to

the divine,

the divinity.

The archer sees the mark upon the path

of the infinite. Path of the infinite

again is a metaphor, which stands for

future, just like the house of tomorrow

that we came across earlier.

And he bends you with his might that his

arrows may go swift and far. So, he the

first letter has been capitalized, and

that shows that the poet or the

the prophet, Al Mustafa, he refers to

the divinity, the God.

He bends you with his might that his

arrows may go swift and far. You have

symbolism being incorporated into this

particular verse line.

Uh the prophet says, "He bends you."

Bends you means he molds you. He shapes

you. And he shapes you with his might,

his power. And why does he do this? So

that his arrows may go swift and far, so

that you can travel far in the future,

so that you can succeed in your life.

And that's why he molds you with his

power.

Let your bending in the archer's hand be

for gladness. So, whenever you are, you

know, whenever you confront difficulty,

whenever you face hardships in life,

think that the divine archer, the

archer, he's bending you.

And you must be joyful for that. You

must

be quite glad about that.

Let your bending, your molding, your

shaping in the archer's hand be for

gladness.

For even as he loves the arrow that

flies, so he loves also the bow that is

stable. So, finally, the prophet ends

this particular stanza by stating that

the God or God not only loves the arrow

but also the bow which is stable. So, he

likes, he loves both parents and

children. That is where

this particular poem comes to an end.

So, as I said earlier,

the poems that appear in this particular

work titled The Prophet are responses

that Almustafa, the prophet, gives to

the people of that particular fictional

place. And this poem on children is

specifically about children. And to be

quite precise, this is addressed to

parents how to treat your children, how

to, you know, the kind of attitude that

a parent must have for your ward.

Thank you so much for being with me.

I will see you in another video lesson.