[Telisik Literasi] Keinginan Sapardi Dilafaz Cinta Gibran

One of his greatest delights was to cast images in lead using old sardine tins. He used to put the lead on the fire to melt and then fill the two halves of the can with fine moist sand. Then pressing the image in between the two, he would scrape away the sand that squeezed out, put the two halves together again and pour the lead into the mold until the image had cooled.

[Beloved Prophet, 429]

"Dust of the Ages and the Eternal Fire"

[in Nymphs of the Valley, 30. Gibran also wrote "The Poet from Baalbek," a story with the theme of reincarnation (Thoughts and Meditations, 1-8). Ameen Rihani in his magisterial work The Book of Khalid, which was to later influence Gibran's own writings, refers to Baalbek as being the place where Shakib spent much of his childhood.]

His rebellion, no doubt in this instance fired by his own bitter rejection by Hala's powerful family, is evident in "The Broken Wings".

[Man and Poet, Khalil Gibran.]

After the fire, Gibran began painting and writing with renewed resolution. Perhaps in recognition of his indebtedness to Fred Holland Day he wrote "Letters of Fire", beginning his soliloquy with the lines inscribed on Keats' grave in Rome: "Here lies one whose name was writ in water."

[Man and Poet, Khalil Gibran]

"Write upon my gravestone: Here lies the remains of him who wrote his name on Heaven's face in letters of fire."

[A Tear and a Smile]

Three stories written during this period, "Martha," "Yuhanna the Mad," and the "Dust of the Ages and the Eternal Fire," were later published together under the title "Ara'is al-Muruj".