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| Marianna, Kahlil's Sister. Painting by Kahlil Gibran |
Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your childrenH notes: Now being a parent, i see a new light in perspective on a child. It's a day to day ambition, a day to day achievement...Expectation may be the key of a lot of dissapointment, but I can only do but pray and hope that my step son, the little feet (and insyaAllah, many of our children to come) would grow up as a steady arrow and soar forward...May God guide me to be the best Bow i can be...Amen~
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending 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.
5 comments:
How beautiful :)
Thanks for sharing :)
Ah, I've loved Kahlil Gibran for more than half my life! I keep a copy of "the Prophet" near me most of the time.
I love Gibran's poetry! So much wisdom and truth in it! I've read this one many a times because of lines like "seek not to make them like you" and "they have their own thoughts" and "they come through you but not from you."
Wafa,
It is, isn't it...A great reminder for all of us.
Sophia,
I always wanted my own copy of 'The Prophet'. To my suprise, the book is banned here in Malaysia. i tsk tsk to that...I never got the chance to read it.
Serenity,
Salam sister, thank you for visiting my blog and leaving your thoughts. I appreciate it. Yes sister, i agree with you. Poetry usually does these to us, gives us wisom and truth in different light. And yes, "Seek not to make them like you" is a very powerful line indeed...of course, "They come through you but not from you" is also a great reminder for all parent to feel they don't 'own' a child because they bore them in this world...They are "Life's longing for itself"
Dear Sister,
I appreciate your interest in and respect for the immortal poet Kahlil Gibran. Since you have devoted a considerable portion of your time on Gibran, it would be interesting for you to note that many poems from Gibran's Tears And Laughter have been slightly edited and recast in the true poetic form by Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum and posted on their Blog at http://sahyadribooks-remesh.blogspot.com. Their theorey is that Gibran hid his exquisite tunes behind blank verse so that the dull wits and the half-wits of his times shall not attempt to sing them. Best Wishes.
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