"Sand and Foam"

[Lebanon] Kahlil Gibran

I will always walk on the sandy shore, between sand and foam. The climax will erase my footprints, and the wind will blow away the foam. But the ocean and the beach will always be there. I once grabbed a handful of smoke. Then I stretched out my hand and looked, ouch, the smoke turned into a bug. I took my hand and stretched it out to see, but there was a bird in my hand. I held my hand again and stretched it out. In my palm stood a man with a melancholy face and his head raised to the sky. I took my hand again, and when I stretched it out, there was nothing but smoke. But I heard a very sweet song. Only yesterday I thought of myself as a mere fragment, quivering without rhythm in the firmament of life. Now I know that I am the sky, and all life is the fragments that move rhythmically within me. When they woke up, they said to me: "You and the world you live in are just a grain of sand on the boundless beach of the boundless ocean." In my dream, I said to them: "I am the boundless ocean, the vast universe." The world is but the grains of sand on my shore.” The only time it left me speechless was when someone asked me, “Who are you?” The first thought that comes to mind of God is an angel. The first word spoken of God is a person. We are creatures that have been fluttering, swimming, and pursuing for thousands of years before the existence of the ocean. The wind in the forest gave us language. So how can we express the ancient times in our hearts with the sounds of yesterday? The Sphinx spoke only once. The Sphinx said: "A grain of sand is a desert, and a desert is a grain of sand; now let us remain silent." I heard what the Sphinx said, but I didn't understand it. I saw a woman's face, and I saw all her unborn children. When a woman looks at my face, she recognizes all the generations of my ancestors who have died before her. I want to complete myself. But unless I can become a planet inhabited by sane beings, what else is possible? Isn't this everyone's goal? A pearl is a temple of pain built around a grain of sand. What desires surround what grains of sand build our bodies? When God cast me, the stone, into the marvelous lake, I disturbed its surface with countless circles. But when I hit the deep end, I became very quiet. Give me silence and I will challenge the night. When my soul and body were married out of love, I was reborn. Once upon a time I knew a man who had extremely keen hearing, but he could not speak. In a battle he lost his tongue. Now I know what kind of battle this man fought before this great silence came. I rejoiced in his death. The world is not big enough for the two of us. I lay for a long time on the Egyptian sand, silent and forgetful of the seasons. Then the sun gave me life, and I got up and walked on the banks of the Nile. Sing with the day, dream with the night. Now the sun has trampled me with a thousand feet, and made me lie down again on the sands of Egypt. But behold a miracle and a mystery! The sun that brings me together cannot scatter me. I am still standing upright, walking on the bank of the Nile with steady steps. Memory is a form of encounter. We measure time by the movements of countless suns; they measure time by the little machines in their pockets. So tell me, how can we meet at the same place and at the same time? For someone looking down from the window of the Milky Way, space is no longer the space between the Earth and the Sun. Human nature is a river of light, flowing from eternity to eternity. Don't the spirits living in the ether envy the suffering of the world?

On the way to the Holy City, I met another pilgrim. I asked him: "Is this the way to the Holy City?" He said: "Come with me. Then We arrived at the Holy City in one day and one night." So I followed him. We walked for several days and nights, but we still had not reached the Holy City. To my surprise, he took me the wrong way and got mad at me.

Although the waves of words are always noisy above us, our depths are always silent. Many theories are like windows through which we see the truth, but which also separate us from the truth. Let's play hide and seek. If you are hidden in my heart, it will not be difficult to find you. But if you hide in your shell, no one can find you. A woman can cover her face with a smile. How noble is the sad heart that can sing joyful songs together with the joyful heart. The man who wants to understand woman, or analyze genius, or solve the mystery of silence, is the man who wants to wake up from a dream and sit down at the breakfast table. I want to walk with those who walk. I didn't want to stand and watch the procession pass by. You owe more than gold to those who serve you. Give your heart to Him or serve Him. No, we have not lived in vain. Didn’t they pile our bones into a fortress? Let’s not be picky and fussy. The poet's mind and the scorpion's tail both rise gloriously from the same land. Every poisonous dragon produces a dragon-slaying Saint George. Trees are poems written by the earth on the sky. We cut them down to make paper so we could record our hollows. If you are to write (and only saints know why you write), you must have knowledge, art, and magic—knowledge of the music of words, art without pretense, and the magic of loving your readers. They dip their pens into our hearts and think they have received inspiration. If a tree wrote an autobiography, it would not be like the history of a nation. If I had to choose between the ability to write poetry and the joy of unwritten poetry, I would choose the joy. Because joy is better poetry. But you, and all my neighbors, agree that it is always not my choice. Poetry is not an expressed opinion. It is a song that springs from a wound or a smile. Words are timeless. You should understand its characteristics when you speak it or write it. The poet is an abdicated king, sitting among the ashes of his palace, trying to make an image out of the ashes. Poetry is a conversation of joy, pain, and surprise interspersed with words. It is in vain for a poet to search for the words of the mother of poetry in his heart.

I once said to a poet, "We won't know your opinion until after you die." He replied, "Yes, death is always a revealer. If you really want to know my opinion Evaluation, that is, I have more in my heart than in my tongue, and I desire more than I have in my hands.” If you sing about beauty, you will have an audience even if you are in the middle of the desert. Poetry is the wisdom that enchants the heart. Wisdom is the poetry sung in the mind. If we can captivate a person's heart and sing in his mind, then he is truly living in the shadow of God. Inspiration always sings; inspiration never explains. We often sing hypnotic songs to our children in order to put ourselves to sleep. All our words are scraps scattered from the banquet of the mind.

Sand and Foam is a collection of prose poems by Gibran. It is one of Gibran's most famous works. The author uses the natural scenery "sand" and "bubble" as metaphors, implying that people in society are as tiny as sand and things are as illusionary as bubbles.

Introduction to the collection of poems

The entire collection of poems is full of philosophy and wisdom. It is a book of aphorisms about life, art, love, and human nature, and is worth reading again and again. In addition to philosophy, the collection of poems is also rich in the beauty of music, just like the sound of nature, conveying the love and true meaning of life, so that those who are troubled and hesitant can be comforted and inspired! Poetry transcends the limitations of time, space and national boundaries. The words and sentences contain profound philosophy, embody the common emotions of human beings, and meet the different needs of different hearts.

"One flower and one world, one grain of sand and one kingdom." In Gibran's story, the seasons pass and the clouds change. The answer to life lies within, as long as you are good at discovering it.

"The Sand and Foam" and Tagore's "The Birds" can be called a pair of masterpieces. Both of them use short but meaningful poems to penetrate into the readers' hearts bit by bit. However, Gibran's "The Sand and the Foam" is more powerful than "The Birds". The agility and freeness of "" are more dignified and rich in imagination. Compared with Tagore's attention to flowers and grass, Gibran often sets his sights on the universe that seems more profound and distant. "For those who look down from the windows of the Milky Way, space is no longer the space between the earth and the sun." "Sand and Foam" is also one of Gibran's most famous works. "Sand and Foam" has been loved by many people .

("Sand and Foam" translated by Bing Xin)