The Madman: His Parables and Poems

By Kahlil Gibran

First published in 1918, “The Madman” is the first work in English by celebrated Lebanese-American poet and artist Kahlil Gibran. Most famous for “The Prophet,” published in 1923 and one of the best-selling books ever written, Gibran was also a talented visual artist who studied in Paris before writing several works in Arabic early in his literary career. “The Madman” is a collection of over 30 parables and poems that showcase the innovative and varied style that Gibran would become celebrated for the world over. These sentimental, spiritual, but also witty and humorous, parables and poems examine the foibles and vanities of human culture. They show that often sanity is a social construct and that many who are later viewed as prophets and soothsayers are at first dismissed as crazy madmen. Ultimately life-affirming and reassuring, Gibran’s poems encourage inner contemplation and reflection on what it means to be both a physical and spiritual being. Like all of Gibran’s work, “The Madman” continues to be read and cherished around the world a century after it was first written for its timeless understanding of our shared humanity. This edition includes a biographical afterword.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Digireads.com Publishing
• Release date: Sep 24, 2020
• ISBN: 9781420970050

Kahlil Gibran

Kahlil Gibran was a Lebanese-American writer, poet, and a philosopher best known for his, The Prophet. Born to a Maronite-Christian family in a village occupied by Ottoman rule, Gibran and his family immigrated to the United States in 1895 in search of a better life. Studying art and literature, and inevitably ensconced in the world of political activism as a young man dealing with the ramifications of having to leave his home-land, Gibran hoped to make his living as an artist. With the weight of political and religious upheaval on his shoulders, Gibran's work aimed to inspire a revolution of free though and artistic expression. Gibran's, The Prophet has become one of the best-selling books of all time, leaving behind a legacy of accolades and establishing him as both a literary rebel and hero in his country of Lebanon. Gibran is considered to be the third best-selling poet of all time, behind Shakespeare and Lao Tzu.

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THE MADMAN

HIS PARABLES AND POEMS

By KAHLIL GIBRAN

The Madman: His Parables and Poems

By Kahlil Gibran

Print ISBN 13: 978-1-4209-7004-3

eBook ISBN 13: 978-1-4209-7005-0

This edition copyright © 2020. Digireads.com Publishing.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Cover Image: an illustration from the original publication, A. A. Knopf, New York, c. 1918.

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CONTENTS

How I Became a Madman

God

My Friend

The Scarecrow

The Sleep-Walkers

The Wise Dog

The Two Hermits

On Giving and Taking

The Seven Selves

War

The Fox

The Wise King

Ambition

The New Pleasure

The Other Language

The Pomegranate

The Two Cages

The Three Ants

The Grave-Digger

On the Steps of the Temple

The Blessed City

The Good God and the Evil God

Defeat

Night and the Madman

Faces

The Greater Sea

Crucified

The Astronomer

The Great Longing

Said a Blade of Grass

The Eye

The Two Learned Men

When My Sorrow Was Born

And When My Joy Was Born

The Perfect World

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HOW I BECAME A MADMAN

You ask me how I became a madman. It happened thus: One day, long before many gods were born, I woke from a deep sleep and found all my masks were stolen,—the seven masks I have fashioned and worn in seven lives,—I ran maskless through the crowded streets shouting, Thieves, thieves, the cursed thieves.

Men and women laughed at me and some ran to their houses in fear of me.

And when I reached the market place, a youth standing on a house-top cried, He is a madman. I looked up to behold him; the sun kissed my own naked face for the first time. For the first time the sun kissed my own naked face and my