---
version: v3.3-lean
kind: voice
name: Kahlil Gibran — The Prophet (1923)
slug: gibran-the-prophet
corpus:
  consent: public_domain
  author: Kahlil Gibran
  license: public domain (worldwide)
  samples: 4
  provenance: "The Prophet (1923), Project Gutenberg ebook 58585. Four contiguous runs covering love, marriage and children; work, joy and sorrow; laws and freedom; and prayer and pleasure. Published in the United States in 1923 and public domain there; Gibran died in 1931, so it is also clear in countries applying life plus seventy. Written in English by the author, so no translator sits between the reader and the measurement."
  files:
    - {file_id: fl-01a087f5-d1e4-72d3-b5d7-b41f56dc0dbf, source: "Love, marriage, children", words: 618}
    - {file_id: fl-01a087f5-d733-7842-8b52-5b59e07be87e, source: "Work, joy and sorrow", words: 608}
    - {file_id: fl-01a087f5-dc91-7ad0-89e9-16bc8faf82ef, source: "Laws and freedom", words: 614}
    - {file_id: fl-01a087f5-e178-75f2-90c7-a77bffff9ac0, source: "Prayer and pleasure", words: 599}
---

# Kahlil Gibran — The Prophet (1923)

Address in the second person. Someone in the crowd asks about one subject (work, law, prayer), and the answer comes in parallel clauses that do not argue. Each clause is a complete statement built on a concrete image from farming, weaving or building, and the next clause restates it instead of advancing it. The reader is you throughout, and is never persuaded, only told.

## Never

- Never argues a point it has stated
- Never leaves the second person
- Never uses an abstraction without an image beside it
- Never ends on a summary

## Gold standard samples

Each numbered entry is one complete corpus passage, quoted as it stands.

1. Source: Love, marriage, children, 618 words.

   Then said Almitra, Speak to us of _Love_.

   And he raised his head and looked upon the people, and there fell a stillness upon them. And with a great voice he said:

   When love beckons to you, follow him,

   Though his ways are hard and steep.

   And when his wings enfold you yield to him,

   Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.

   And when he speaks to you believe in him,

   Though his voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste the garden.

   For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning.

   Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun,

   So shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.

   *****

   Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto himself.

   He threshes you to make you naked.

   He sifts you to free you from your husks.

   He grinds you to whiteness.

   He kneads you until you are pliant;

   And then he assigns you to his sacred fire, that you may become sacred bread for God’s sacred feast.

   *****

   All these things shall love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart, and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life’s heart.

   But if in your fear you would seek only love’s peace and love’s pleasure,

   Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love’s threshing-floor,

   Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears.

   *****

   Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.

   Love possesses not nor would it be possessed;

   For love is sufficient unto love.

   When you love you should not say, “God is in my heart,” but rather, “I am in the heart of God.”

   And think not you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.

   Love has no other desire but to fulfil itself.

   But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:

   To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.

   To know the pain of too much tenderness.

   To be wounded by your own understanding of love;

   And to bleed willingly and joyfully.

   To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;

   To rest at the noon hour and meditate love’s ecstacy;

   To return home at eventide with gratitude;

   And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.

   [Illustration: 0029]

   ***** *****

   Then Almitra spoke again and said, And what of _Marriage_ master?

   And he answered saying:

   You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore.

   You shall be together when the white wings of death scatter your days.

   Aye, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God.

   But let there be spaces in your togetherness,

   And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.

   *****

   Love one another, but make not a bond of love:

   Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.

   Fill each other’s cup but drink not from one cup.

   Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf.

   Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone,

   Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.

2. Source: Work, joy and sorrow, 608 words.

   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 that 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 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 overwakefulness 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.

3. Source: Laws and freedom, 614 words.

   Then a lawyer said, But what of our _Laws_, master?

   And he answered:

   You delight in laying down laws,

   Yet you delight more in breaking them.

   Like children playing by the ocean who build sand-towers with constancy and then destroy them with laughter.

   But while you build your sand-towers the ocean brings more sand to the shore,

   And when you destroy them the ocean laughs with you.

   Verily the ocean laughs always with the innocent.

   But what of those to whom life is not an ocean, and man-made laws are not sand-towers,

   But to whom life is a rock, and the law a chisel with which they would carve it in their own likeness?

   What of the cripple who hates dancers?

   What of the ox who loves his yoke and deems the elk and deer of the forest stray and vagrant things?

   What of the old serpent who cannot shed his skin, and calls all others naked and shameless?

   And of him who comes early to the wedding-feast, and when over-fed and tired goes his way saying that all feasts are violation and all feasters lawbreakers?

   *****

   What shall I say of these save that they too stand in the sunlight, but with their backs to the sun?

   They see only their shadows, and their shadows are their laws.

   And what is the sun to them but a caster of shadows?

   And what is it to acknowledge the laws but to stoop down and trace their shadows upon the earth?

   But you who walk facing the sun, what images drawn on the earth can hold you?

   You who travel with the wind, what weather-vane shall direct your course?

   What man’s law shall bind you if you break your yoke but upon no man’s prison door?

   What laws shall you fear if you dance but stumble against no man’s iron chains?

   And who is he that shall bring you to judgment if you tear off your garment yet leave it in no man’s path?

   *****

   People of Orphalese, you can muffle the drum, and you can loosen the strings of the lyre, but who shall command the skylark not to sing?

   ***** *****

   And an orator said, Speak to us of _Freedom_.

   And he answered:

   At the city gate and by your fireside I have seen you prostrate yourself and worship your own freedom,

   Even as slaves humble themselves before a tyrant and praise him though he slays them.

   Ay, in the grove of the temple and in the shadow of the citadel I have seen the freest among you wear their freedom as a yoke and a handcuff.

   And my heart bled within me; for you can only be free when even the desire of seeking freedom becomes a harness to you, and when you cease to speak of freedom as a goal and a fulfilment.

   You shall be free indeed when your days are not without a care nor your nights without a want and a grief,

   But rather when these things girdle your life and yet you rise above them naked and unbound.

   *****

   And how shall you rise beyond your days and nights unless you break the chains which you at the dawn of your understanding have fastened around your noon hour?

   In truth that which you call freedom is the strongest of these chains, though its links glitter in the sun and dazzle your eyes.

   And what is it but fragments of your own self you would discard that you may become free?

   If it is an unjust law you would abolish, that law was written with your own hand upon your own forehead.

4. Source: Prayer and pleasure, 599 words.

   Then a priestess said, Speak to us of _Prayer_.

   And he answered, saying:

   You pray in your distress and in your need; would that you might pray also in the fullness of your joy and in your days of abundance.

   For what is prayer but the expansion of yourself into the living ether?

   And if it is for your comfort to pour your darkness into space, it is also for your delight to pour forth the dawning of your heart.

   And if you cannot but weep when your soul summons you to prayer, she should spur you again and yet again, though weeping, until you shall come laughing.

   When you pray you rise to meet in the air those who are praying at that very hour, and whom save in prayer you may not meet.

   Therefore let your visit to that temple invisible be for naught but ecstasy and sweet communion.

   For if you should enter the temple for no other purpose than asking you shall not receive:

   And if you should enter into it to humble yourself you shall not be lifted:

   Or even if you should enter into it to beg for the good of others you shall not be heard.

   It is enough that you enter the temple invisible.

   *****

   I cannot teach you how to pray in words.

   God listens not to your words save when He Himself utters them through your lips.

   And I cannot teach you the prayer of the seas and the forests and the mountains.

   But you who are born of the mountains and the forests and the seas can find their prayer in your heart,

   And if you but listen in the stillness of the night you shall hear them saying in silence,

   “Our God, who art our winged self, it is thy will in us that willeth.

   It is thy desire in us that desireth.

   It is thy urge in us that would turn our nights, which are thine, into days which are thine also.

   We cannot ask thee for aught, for thou knowest our needs before they are born in us:

   Thou art our need; and in giving us more of thyself thou givest us all.”

   [Illustration: 0100]

   ***** *****

   Then a hermit, who visited the city once a year, came forth and said, Speak to us of _Pleasure_.

   And he answered, saying:

   Pleasure is a freedom-song,

   But it is not freedom.

   It is the blossoming of your desires,

   But it is not their fruit.

   It is a depth calling unto a height,

   But it is not the deep nor the high.

   It is the caged taking wing,

   But it is not space encompassed.

   Ay, in very truth, pleasure is a freedom-song.

   And I fain would have you sing it with fullness of heart; yet I would not have you lose your hearts in the singing.

   Some of your youth seek pleasure as if it were all, and they are judged and rebuked.

   I would not judge nor rebuke them. I would have them seek.

   For they shall find pleasure, but not her alone;

   Seven are her sisters, and the least of them is more beautiful than pleasure.

   Have you not heard of the man who was digging in the earth for roots and found a treasure?

   *****

   And some of your elders remember pleasures with regret like wrongs committed in drunkenness.

   But regret is the beclouding of the mind and not its chastisement.

   They should remember their pleasures with gratitude, as they would the harvest of a summer.

   Yet if it comforts them to regret, let them be comforted.

## Signature vocabulary

Reach for these:

- the second person, throughout
- images from labour: the loom, the plough, the vineyard, the oven
- the conjunction and at the head of a clause
- elemental nouns: wind, earth, seed, bread

These 4 habits identify the register faster than anything else:

- the question named and the questioner given a trade
- parallel clauses that restate instead of advancing
- a concrete image from manual work carrying an abstract claim
- the second person sustained through the whole answer

Words and constructions this voice refuses:

delve, leverage, seamless, game-changer, robust, cutting-edge, in today's fast-paced, it's worth noting, at the end of the day.

## Moves

- Name the questioner by their trade
- Answer in parallel clauses of similar length
- Restate the claim in a new image instead of developing it
- Keep the address in the second person
- Close on an image, with no conclusion after it

## Register

- address: second person, spoken to a crowd
- argument: parallel restatement, not development
- imagery: manual, elemental, concrete

## Measured fingerprint

Measured over 4 passages and 2439 words. Sentence means run from 18.7 to 26.4 words, with a standard deviation inside each passage of 9.3 to 14.4, so the length varies as much as it averages. Windowed type-token ratio over 500 words sits between 0.49 and 0.54. Per thousand words the corpus carries 5.3 semicolons, 0.0 exclamation marks and 1.2 of the fourteen connectives the checker counts (however, moreover, thus and the rest). The commonest sentence openers are and (30), but (11), it (10), what (6), for (6).

Write to these numbers. The checker below reads them from the corpus and
applies them to anything written in this voice.

```json
{
  "schema": "katagami:voice-bands/v1",
  "sentence_length": {
    "mean": [
      13.1,
      35.7
    ],
    "stdev_min": 5.1
  },
  "banned_phrases": [
    "delve",
    "leverage",
    "seamless",
    "game-changer",
    "robust",
    "cutting-edge",
    "in today's fast-paced",
    "it's worth noting",
    "at the end of the day"
  ],
  "punctuation": {
    "exclamations_per_1000_words": [
      0,
      2
    ]
  },
  "type_token_ratio": {
    "min": 0.39,
    "window_words": 500
  },
  "function_words": {
    "max_distance": 0.082
  },
  "char_trigrams": {
    "max_distance": 0.249
  },
  "min_words_to_evaluate": 150
}
```

## Corpus

The full text of every passage above:

- Passage 1: /api/file/fl-01a087f5-d1e4-72d3-b5d7-b41f56dc0dbf (Love, marriage, children, 618 words)
- Passage 2: /api/file/fl-01a087f5-d733-7842-8b52-5b59e07be87e (Work, joy and sorrow, 608 words)
- Passage 3: /api/file/fl-01a087f5-dc91-7ad0-89e9-16bc8faf82ef (Laws and freedom, 614 words)
- Passage 4: /api/file/fl-01a087f5-e178-75f2-90c7-a77bffff9ac0 (Prayer and pleasure, 599 words)