Book THE PROPHET by GIBRAN KHALIL GIBRAN Full Text ON WORK
Khalil Gibran
The Prophet book
On Work
(1923)
Arabic literature
poetry in prose
Original English text
” On Work ” is the ninth prose poem by Gibran Kahlil Gibran contained in his most famous book: “The Prophet”. In the prose poem “On Work” Gibran Kahlil Gibran emphasizes the importance of being proud of one’s work, be it manual or intellectual.
Too often it is believed that the only reason people work is to earn, survive; Kahlil Gibran in the poem “On work” invites you to discover something deeper within all things, especially in what you do every day and for longer … “only if you do your work with passion will you be happy”, the conclusion of Gibran Kahlil Gibran in the poem “On Work” proposed here.
“The Prophet” Book is the most famous text by the Lebanese writer Gibran Khalil Gibran. The book “The Prophet”, published in 1923, was written by Gibran directly in English and is a collection of prose poems.
The Book The Prophet by Khalil Gibran was an inspiration and father of the “New Age”. Below you can read the index of prose poems contained in the book The Prophet by Gibran Khalil Gibran with the link to where you can read them.
Index The Prophet book
by Kahlil Gibran
(with the link on yeyebook to where you can read them)
THE COMING OF THE SHIP
ON WORK
ON HOUSES
ON CLOTHES
ON BUYING AND SELLING
ON LAWS
ON FREEDOM
ON PAIN
ON SELF-KNOWLEDGE
ON TEACHING
ON TALKING
ON TIME
ON PRAYER
ON PLEASURE
ON BEAUTY
ON RELIGION
ON DEATH
THE FAREWELL
Below I propose and you can read the full text of the chapter “On Work” from “The Prophet” book by Khalil Gibran.
In the top or bottom menu you can read the prose poem text “On Work” by Gibran translated into other languages: Italian, French, Spanish, German, Chinese, etc.
Happy reading and good friendship.
Kahlil Gibran All the poems > here
Khalil Gibran
The Prophet
On Work
Arabic literature
Original English text
Then a ploughman said, Speak to us of Work.
And he answered, saying:
You work that you may keep pace with the earth and the soul of the earth.
For to be idle is to become a stranger unto the seasons, and to step out of life’s procession, that marches in majesty and proud submission towards the infinite.
When you work you are a flute through whose heart the whispering of the hours turns to music.
Which of you would be a reed, dumb and silent, when all else sings together in unison?
Always you have been told that work is a curse and labour a misfortune.
But I say to you that when you work you fulfil a part of earth’s furthest dream, assigned to you when that dream was born,
And in keeping yourself with labour you are in truth loving life,
And to love life through labour is to be intimate with life’s inmost secret.
But if you in your pain call birth an affliction and the support of the flesh a curse written upon your brow, then I answer that naught but the sweat of your brow shall wash away that which is written.
You have been told also life is darkness, and in your weariness you echo what was said by the weary.
And I say that life is indeed darkness save when there is urge,
And all urge is blind save when there is knowledge,
And all knowledge is vain save when there is work,
And all work is empty save when there is love;
And when you work with love you bind yourself to yourself, and to one another, and to God.
And what is it to work with love?
It is to weave the cloth with threads drawn from your heart, even as if your beloved were to wear that cloth.
It is to build a house with affection, even as if your beloved were to dwell in that house.
It is to sow seeds with tenderness and reap the harvest with joy, even as if your beloved were to eat the fruit.
It is to charge all things you fashion with a breath of your own spirit,
And to know that all the blessed dead are standing about you and watching.
Often have I heard you say, as if speaking in sleep, “He who works in marble, and finds the shape of his own soul in the stone, is a nobler than he who ploughs the soil.
And he who seizes the rainbow to lay it on a cloth in the likeness of man, is more than he who makes the sandals for our feet.”
But I say, not in sleep but in the over-wakefulness of noontide, that the wind speaks not more sweetly to the giant oaks than to the least of all the blades of grass;
And he alone is great who turns the voice of the wind into a song made sweeter by his own loving.
Work is love made visible.
And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.
For if you bake bread with indifference, you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half man’s hunger.
And if you grudge the crushing of the grapes, your grudge distils a poison in the wine.
And if you sing though as angels, and love not the singing, you muffle man’s ears to the voices of the day and the voices of the night.
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Khalil Gibran On Work
Book: The prophet (1923)
Arabic literature
poetry in prose
Original English text
Kahlil Gibran All the poems > here
