[Telisik Literasi] Keinginan Sapardi Dilafaz Cinta Gibran

[Nymphs of the Valley]

The other story in the trilogy, "Dust of the Ages and the Eternal Fire," deals with the themes of reincarnation and preordained love. The hero appears first as Nathan, the son of a Phoenician priest in Baalbek, and then in his new incarnation as Ali al-Husaini, a Bedouin nomad.

[Nymphs of the Valley, The Husainis were an Arab tribe dwelling in tents around Baalbek]

In January 1912, after much delay, Gibran's Arabic novella al-'Ajnihah al-Mutakassirah (The Broken Wings) was published. He sent Mary a copy in which he had translated the dedication: TO THE ONE who stares at the sun with glazed eyes and grasps the fire with untrembling fingers and hears the spiritual time of Eternity behind the clamorous shrieking of the blind. To M.E.H. I dedicate this book. - Gibran.

[ Kahlil Gibran, dedication in The Broken Wings, 1959 ]

It is true the world will be apt enough to censure thee for a madman in walking contrary to it: And thou art not to be surprised if the children thereof laugh at thee, calling thee silly fool. For the way to the love of God is folly to the world, but is wisdom to the children of God. Hence, whenever the world perceiveth this holy fire of love in God's children, it concludeth immediately that they are turned fools, and are besides themselves. But to the children of God, that which is despised of the world is the greatest treasure.

[ The Perfect World was later published in 1918 in The Madman: His Parables and Poems (1918); quoted in Heinemann edition (1971), 71.]

The name of Arrabitah spread wide and far becoming tantamount to renaissance, to rejuvenation in the minds of the younger generations, and to iconoclasm and hot-headed rebellion in the eyes of the older and more conservative ones. The lines of battle were clearly drawn: the issue was never in doubt. So quickly was the tide turned in favor of Arrabitah that those who hailed it were no less puzzled than those who opposed it...no one knows the "secret" save that hidden power which brought the members of Arrabitah together at a certain spot, in a certain time, and for a certain purpose entirely irrespective of their conscious planning, endowing each with a flame that may be more, or less brilliant than that of another, but all coming from the selfsame fireplace.

[Naimy, A Biography, 157, 158.]

My life has a great deal of seeing people in it, just individuals, one by one, and groups as well. And I want it to be so more and more. I want to live reality. Better than to write ever so truly about fire, is to be one little live coal. I want some day simply to live what I would say, and talk to people. I want to be a teacher. Because I have been so lonely, I want to talk to those who are lonely.

[Beloved Prophet, 356]