A Few Words, Borrowed from Gibran ...

A Few Words, Borrowed from Gibran ...

"And ever has it been that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation. "

When he was leaving, a sadness came upon him, and he thought in his heart: 

How shall I go in peace and without sorrow? 

Nay, not without a wound in the spirit shall I leave this city. 

Long were the days of pain I have spent within its walls, and long were the nights of aloneness; 

Who can depart of his pain and his aloneness without regret? 

It is not a garment I cast off this day, but a skin that I tear with my own hands. 

Nor is it a thought I leave behind me.

***

And he looked upon HER with exceeding tenderness, for it was she who had first sought and believed in him when he had been but a day in their city. 

And she hailed him, saying:

Deep is your longing for the land of your memories and the dwelling place of your greater desires; 

and our love would not bind you nor our needs hold you. 

In your aloneness you have watched with my days, and in your wakefulness you have listened to the weeping and the laughter of my sleep. 

And he whispered to himself : 

How often have you sailed in my dreams. and now you come in my awakening, which is my deeper dream. 

And ever has it been that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.