Work is Love Made Visible | Khalil Gibran

Why do we work? Is it only to pay the bills? Gibran tells us of a different motivation for work.

Mark Rassie explores the concept of work as love made visible looking at The Prophet, by Khalil Gibran, the Lebanese poet, artist, philosopher and mystic.

The Prophet was published in 1923 - a series of meditations on life. It has been published in over 100 languages. Why is it so popular? Gibran didn't translate the Prophet from Arabic but re-wrote it in English. Could it be Gibran's ability to write words of truth in clear and simple language?

From the chapter on work:

“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.”

 

Mark Rassie is a student in the School of Philosophy Auckland: https://www.philosophy.nz