Song of Man

Kahlil Gibran

1883 to 1931

Poem Image
Track 1

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For there is no ending to my grief-stricken being.
Then I witnessed the might of Babylon;
Yet here I am, prisoner of bewilderment.
I was on Sinai when Jehovah approached Moses;
I listened to Brahma’s wisdom;
I was here from the moment of the beginning, and here I am still.
I suffered at the hands of despotic rulers;
I sat by Buddha under the Tree of Knowledge.
I heard all that can be heard.
I viewed the warring greatness of Rome.
I conversed with the magicians of Ain Dour;
For there is no ending to my grief-stricken being.
I gleaned depth from the prophets of Palestine.
Yet, my heart is deaf and blind.
I was in Medina when Mohammed visited.
But I pray to grow old and reach the moment of my return to God.
Yet my earlier teachings showed the weakness and sorrow of those achievements.
I suffered hunger imposed by tyranny;
I suffered slavery under insane invaders;
And I shall remain here until the end of the world,
I saw the Nazarene’s miracles at the Jordan;
I debated with the priests of Assyria;
Yet, I am still seeking truth.
I was here from the moment of the beginning, and here I am still.
Only then will my heart fill!
Perhaps in youth my heart will grow,
I heard the teachings of Confucius;
I gathered wisdom from quiet India;
I probed the antiquity of Arabia;
And I shall remain here until the end of the world,
My mind is filled, but my heart is empty;
But here I am, prisoner of measurement.
My body is old, but my heart is an infant.
I learned of the glory of Egypt;
Yet here I am, existing with ignorance and heresy.
Yet, I still possess some inner power with which I struggle to greet each day.
I roamed the infinite sky, and soared in the ideal world, and floated through the firmament.

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