Bring Me the Flute and Sing!

Bring me the flute and sing

Bring me the flute and sing

for song is the secret of eternity...

And the wailing of the flute remains

even after the end of existence...

Have you taken the forest

rather than the palace

to be your home?

Have you climbed up the creeks and the rocks?

Have you bathed in perfume

and then dried yourself with sunlight?

Have you tasted the wine of the early morning

from goblets of ether?

Bring me the flute and sing

that is the secret of eternity...

And the wailing of the flute remains

even after the end of life...

Have you sat alone at dusk among the grapevines...

Among their clusters hanging like chandeliers of gold...?

Have you made the grass your night-time bed?

Have you wrapped yourself in the evening air

with the sky for a blanket?

So that you can allow the future to come

and let go of the past?

Bring me the flute and sing

so our hearts may be in balance...

And the wailing of the flute remains

even after the end of all sins...

Bring me the flute and sing

forget maladies and their cures…

For people are but lines of poetry

written, but with water.

Kahlil Gibran

(1883-1931)

Khalil Gibran (born Gubran Khalil Gubran bin Mikhā'īl bin Sa'ad; Arabic

جبران خليل

جبران بن ميخائيل بن سعد, January 6, 1883 – April 10, 1931) also known as Kahlil Gibran, was a Lebanese American

artist, poet, and writer. Born in the town of Bsharri in modern-day Lebanon (then part of the Ottoman Mount Lebanon mutasarrifate), as a young man he emigrated with his family to the United States where he studied art and began his literary career. He is chiefly known for his 1923 book The Prophet, a series of philosophical essays written in English prose. An early example of Inspirational fiction, the book sold well despite a cool critical reception, and became extremely popular in the 1960s counterculture. Gibran is considered to be the third most widely read poet in history, behind Shakespeare and Lao-Tzu.