Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses
your understanding.
Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that its
heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain.
And could you keep your heart in wonder at the
daily miracles of your life, your pain would not seem
less wondrous than your joy;
And you would accept the seasons of your heart,
even as you have always accepted the seasons that
pass over your fields.
And you would watch with serenity through the
winters of your grief.
Much of your pain is self-chosen.
It is the bitter potion by which the physician within
you heals your sick self.
Therefore trust the physician, and drink his remedy
in silence and tranquillity:
For his hand, though heavy and hard, is guided by
the tender hand of the Unseen,
And the cup he brings, though it burn your lips, has
been fashioned of the clay which the Potter has
moistened with His own sacred tears.
Khalil Gibran
1883-1931
Khalil Gibran var en libanesisk kunstner, poet og forfatter. Han ble født i Libanon og levde mesteparten av sitt produktive liv i USA. Khalil Gibran ble født i den maronittiske byen Bsharri i nåtidens nordlige Libanon, på samme tid del av det osmanske riket, og vokste opp i regionen Bsharri. Hans morfar var en maronittisk-katolsk prest. Som følge av familiens fattigdom, fikk ikke Gibran noen skolering som ung i Libanon. Men presten kom ofte, og lærte ham om Bibelen, og de syriske og arabiske språkene. Gibran begynte, allerede mens presten underviste han, å få ideer til det som senere skulle bli hans store verker. Spesielt gjelder det boken Profeten.