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Location: Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India

The permanent temptation of life is to confuse dreams with reality. The permanent defeat of life is when dreams are surrendered to reality.

Thursday, May 17, 2007

...we shall build another tower in the sky



'Half of what I say is meaningless, but I say it so that the other half may reach you'.
Sand and Foam - Khalil Gibran

Deceptively simple, these are some of the most beautiful lines I have read in any writings.

MY FRIEND, you are not my friend, but how shall I make you understand
My path is not your path, yet together we walk, hand in hand.

Let there be no purpose in friendship save the deeping of the spirit.

You may sit at your window watching the passersby. And watching you may see a nun walking toward your right hand, and a prostitute toward your left hand.And you may say in your innocence, "How noble is the one and how ignoble is the other."But should you close your eyes and listen awhile you would hear a voice whispering in the ether, "One seeks me in prayer, and the other in pain. And in the spirit of each there is a bower for my spirit."

They say to me in their awakening, "You and the world you live in are but a grain of sand upon the infinite shore of an infinite sea."
And in my dream I say to them, "I am the infinite sea, and all worlds are but grains of sand upon my shore."

The significance of a man is not in what he attains, but rather what he longs to attain.

You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.

Ever has it been that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.

You have your ideology and I have mine.

One day you will ask me which is more important, my life or yours?
I will say mine and you will walk away not knowing that you are my life.

Nothing you become will disappoint me, I have no preconception that I'd like to see you be or do. I have no desire to forsee you, only to discover you. You can't disapoint me.

Farewell to you and the youth I have spent with you.
It was but yesterday we met in a dream.
You have sung to me in my aloneness, and I of your longings have built a tower in the sky.
But now our sleep has fled and our dream is over, and it is no longer dawn.
The noontide is upon us and our half waking has turned to fuller day, and we must part.
If in the twilight of memory we should meet once more,
We shall speak again together and you shall sing to me a deeper song,
And if our hands should meet in another dream,
We shall build another tower in the sky.

I said to my friend:
"See her leaning over his arm?
Yesterday she leaned over my arm."
And he said:
"Tomorrow she will lean over mine."

And I said:
"See her sitting at his side?
And yesterday she sat at my side."
And he said:
"Tomorrow she will sit at mine."

And I said:
"Don't you see her drinking from his cup?
And yesterday she sipped from mine."
And he said:
"Tomorrow she will drink from mine."

And I said:
"Look how she glances at him with eyes full of Love!
and with just such love, yesterday she glanced at me."
And he said:
"Tomorrow she will glance at me, likewise."

And I said:
"Listen to her whispering songs of love in his ears;
And yesterday she whispered the same songs in mine."
And he said:
"Tomorrow she will whisper them in mine."

And I said:
"Look at her embracing him;
and yesterday she embraced me."
And he said:
"Tomorrow she will lie in my arms."

And I said:
"What a strange woman she is!!"
And he said:
"She is life!"

7 Comments:

Blogger Sachin R K said...

Beautiful Rahul...esp loved this one :

"One day you will ask me which is more important, my life or yours?
I will say mine and you will walk away not knowing that you are my life. "

And what about Gibran's version of "Silence is Golden" :

"You talk when you cease to be at peace with your thoughts;

And when you can no longer dwell in the solitude of your heart you live in your lips, and sound is a diversion and a pastime."

May 28, 2007 2:58 PM  
Blogger ReadnRyte said...

Thanks Sachin,

Teh most beautiful aspect of Gibran is that each reading gives you a different take or perspective and the pleasure is dependent on how we are feeling at that particular point in time.

May 29, 2007 10:02 AM  
Blogger redwaterstew said...

didn't know you were in Gibran. here is the prophet http://www.geocities.com/Athens/5484/Gibran.htm

Something which i turn to very frequently

May 30, 2007 4:42 AM  
Blogger ReadnRyte said...

Redwaterstew - I got introduced to Gibran about a decade back and we have been together since. I do have a copy of 'The Prophet' always around me and have listened to him along with the people of Orphalese more than a few times...an immersive experience

May 30, 2007 10:17 AM  
Blogger Pritika Gupta said...

wow i luved.. she is life

June 24, 2007 2:36 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

beautiful... simply beautiful... it is very difficult to express how much you love someone and you find that only when you depart! that is so true...

glad i read these thoughts for it sure did brighten my day... oops noon

July 06, 2007 10:16 AM  
Blogger Cindrella said...

Excellent thoughts....
And i loved "she is life" the most.
Thanks for presenting them here

July 27, 2007 6:14 AM  

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