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In this short book of parables and prose poems, Kahlil Gibran writes about the greater self that always walks ahead of us, calling us to become what we are…
In this short book of parables and prose poems, Kahlil Gibran writes about the greater self that always walks ahead of us, calling us to become what we are not yet: 'You are your own forerunner, and the towers you have builded are but the foundation of your giant-self.' Among its twenty-five pieces are the king who became a hermit, the saint and the brigand, the dying man and the vulture, the scholar and the poet, and the last watchman of the night.
Context and significance
Published in New York in 1920, between The Madman and The Prophet, the book belongs to the years when Gibran (1883–1931), born in Bsharri in Lebanon, was finding his voice in English, and it carries his own drawings. See his life.
About the author
Kahlil Gibran (1883–1931) was born in Bsharri in Mount Lebanon and emigrated to Boston with his family at twelve. He first wrote in Arabic, including The Broken Wings, an early Arabic novel, then in English, where The Prophet (1923) became one of the most translated books of the century.
With Mikhail Naimy and Elia Abu Madi he founded the Pen League in New York, which renewed Arabic writing in the diaspora.