Canon In D-brian Craig
Excerpt from:"Reflections on the path of the heart"
Yesterday I stood by the gate of the temple and asked
passersby about the mysteries and virtues of love.
A man of middle years passed by,his body wasted,his face dark.
Sighing,he said,'Love has made weak the strength I inherited from the First Man.
A youth,his body strong and brawny,passed by.In a voice
of song he said,'Love is resolution added to my being,
linking my present to generations past and future.'
A rosy-cheecked girl passed by and said,smiling,
'Love is a fountain whose waters the spirit brides pour
into the spirits of the strong, making them to ascend
in prayer among the stars of night and to sing songs
of praise before the sun by day.'
A man passed by.His clothes were black,his beard long.
Frowning,he said,'Love is blind ignorance.It begins
at youth's beginning and ends with its end.'
A blind man passed,tapping the earth with his cane,
and weeping,he said,'Love is a thick mist enshrouding
the soul on all sides and veiling the outlines of existence
from it-or allowing it to see only the specters of its
desires wandering among the rocks,deaf to the sounds
of its own cries echoing in the valley.'
A youth carrying a guitar passed and sang out,
'Love is a magical ray of light shining out from the depths
of the sensitive being and illuminating all around it.
You see the world as a procession traveling through green
meadows,life as a lovely dream erected between wakefulness and wakefulness.'
A child of five years passed and laughed back to me,
'Love is my father,love is my mother.Only my father and
my mother know love.'
The day went by.The people passed before the temple,
each describing himself as he spoke of love,revealing
his hopes and telling of the mystery of life.
Chapter:At the gate of the temple
Khalil Gibran
A woman,her eyes melancholy,passed by and,sighing,said,
'Love is a deadly poison, the breath of black adders
writhing in Hell, flowing and swirling through the sky
until it falls covered in dew, only to be lapped up by
thirsty spirits.Then they are drunk for a moment,sober
for a year, dead for eternity.'
A handsome man with open features passed and gaily said,
'Love is celestial knowledge that lights our eyes and
shows us things as the gods see them.'
And old man passed.His back was bent,his feet dragged like
pieces of cloth. In a quavering voice he said,
'Love is rest for the body in the silence of the tomb,
peace for the soul in the depths of eternity.'
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