A TEAR AND A SMILE - GIBRAN KAHLIL GIBRAN -Song of Fortune

Song of Fortune

Man and I are sweethearts

He craves me and

I long for him, But alas!

Between us has appeared

A rival who brings us misery.

She is cruel and demanding,

Possessing empty lure.

Her name is Substance.

She follows wherever we go

And watches like a sentinel, bringing

Restlessness to my lover.
I ask for my beloved in the forest,

Under the trees, by the lakes.

I cannot find him, for Substance

Has spirited him to the clamorous

City and placed him on the throne

Of quaking, metal riches.
I call for him with the voice

of Knowledge and the song of Wisdom.

He does not hearken, for Substance

Has enticed him into the dungeon

Of selfishness, where avarice dwells.
I seek him in the field of Contentment,

But I am alone,

for my rival has Imprisoned him

in the cave of gluttony

And greed, and locked him there

With painful chains of gold.
I call to him at dawn, when

Nature smiles,

But he does not hear, for excess has

Laden his drugged eyes with sick slumber.
I beguile him at eventide,

when Silence rules

And the flowers sleep.

But he responds not,

For his fear over what the morrow will

Bring, shadows his thoughts.
He yearns to love me;

He asks for me in this own acts.

But he Will find me not except in God's acts.

He seeks me in the edifices of his glory

Which he has built upon the bones of others;

He whispers to me from among

His heaps of gold and silver;

But he will find me only by coming to

The house of Simplicity

which God has built

At the brink of the stream of affection.
He desires to kiss me before his coffers,

But his lips will never touch mine except

In the richness of the pure breeze.
He asks me to share with him his

Fabulous wealth, but

I will not forsake God's Fortune;

I will not cast off my cloak of beauty.
He seeks deceit for medium;

I seek only

The medium of his heart.

He bruises his heart in his narrow cell;

I would enrich his heart with all my love.
My beloved has learned how to shriek and

Cry for my enemy, Substance;

I would Teach him how to shed tears of affection

And mercy from the eyes of his soul

For all things,

And utter sighs of contentment through

Those tears.
Man is my sweetheart; I want to belong to him.