The Broken Wings | 
pickA romance, a tragedy, a commentary upon political and religious corruption, a condemnation of the oppression of women by patriarchal society, and a meditation upon spiritual love. "The Broken Wings" has the savour of the autobiographical, though how much is history and how much romanticised I'm unsure. The brief narrative is multilayered, metaphorical and allusive in the way of most of Gibran's writing, here laid over a more earthbound framework.
“The poets and writers are trying to understand the reality of woman, but up to this day they have not understood the hidden secret of her heart because they look upon her from behind the sexual veil and see nothing but the externals: they look upon her through a magnifying glass of hatefulness and find nothing except weakness and submission.”
Kahlil and I took a much needed break in Mere Sands Nature Reserve this evening. We encountered a benchful of dragonflies, ducks, geese, herons and cormorrants, fungi and lots of trees, all drenched in the golden light of a late evening in West Lancashire... And, breathe...
“The cup does not entice the lips unless the wine's colour is seen through the transparent crystal.”
#metaphors
"Those to whom love has not given wings cannot fly behind the cloud of appearances to see the magic world in which Selma's spirit and mine existed together in that sorrowfully happy hour. Those whom Love has not chosen as followers do not hear when Love calls. This story is not for them. Even if they should comprehend these pages, they would not be able to grasp the shadowy meanings which are not clothed in words and do not reside on paper."
“Solitude has soft, silky hands, but with strong fingers it grasps the heart and makes it ache with sorrow.”
"The appearance of things changes according to the emotions, and thus we see magic and beauty in them, while the magic and beauty are really in ourselves."
I love these '70s Heinemann editions of Kahlil Gibran's works, which I'm slowly but surely collecting.
"The Broken Wings" was today's serendipitous find, which is looking well at home with its new shelf-mates. ?
