Jalil Gibran: Pensamientos y meditaciones

Vision

From Jalil Gibran’s Thoughts and Meditations

When Night came and Slumber spread its garment upon the face of the earth, I left my bed and walked toward the sea saying, “The sea never sleeps, and in its vigil there is consolation for a sleepless soul”.

When I reached the shore, the mist from the mountains had engauzed the region as a veil adorns the face of a young woman, I gazed at the teeming waves and listened to their praise of God and meditated upon the eternal power hidden within them- that power which runs with the tempest and rises with the volcano and smiles through the lips of the roses and sings with the brooks.

Then I saw three phantoms sitting upon a rock. I stumbled toward them as if some power were pulling me against my will.

Within a few paces from the phantoms, I halted as though held still by a magic force. At that moment one of the phantoms stood up and in a voice that seemed to rise from the depth of the sea said:

“Life without Love is like a tree without blossom and fruit. And love without Beauty is like flowers without scent and fruits without seeds…. Life, Love, and Beauty are three persons in one, who cannot be separated or changed.”

A second phantom spoke with a voice that roared like cascading water and said:

“Life without Rebellion is like seasons without Spring. And Rebellion without Right is like Spring in an arid desert…. Life, Rebellion, and Right are three- in- one who cannot be changed or separated.”

Then the third phantom in a voice like a clap of thunder spoke:

“Life without Freedom is like a body without a soul, and Freedom without Thought is like a confused spirit… Life, Freedom, and Thought are three –in- one , and are everlasting and never pass away.”

Then the three phantoms stood up together, and with one tremendous voice said:

“That which Love begets,

That which Rebellion creates,

That which Freedom rears,

Are three manifestations of God.

And god is the expression

Of the intelligent Universe.”

At that moment Silence mingled with the rustling of invisible wings and trembling of ethereal bodies; and it prevailed.

I closed my eyes and listened to the echoes of the sayings which I had just heard, and when I opened them I saw nothing but the sea wreathed in mist. I walked toward the rock where the three phantoms were sitting, but I saw naught save a column of incense spiralling toward heaven.

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