Prophet (version 5)

The prose poem that became the spiritual compass for a generation. Kahlil Gibran's masterpiece follows Al-Mustafa, a prophet who has lived in exile for twelve years, as he stands at the harbor waiting to return home. Before his ship departs, the people of the city gather to ask him questions: What of love? What of marriage? What of children? What of freedom, of reason, of pain, of death? What of the self? One by one, he answers in luminous, lapidary prose that moves between wisdom and longing. These twenty-six discourses are not lectures but offerings, each one a small excavation of what it means to be human. Gibran writes of love not as possession but as giving, of children not as property but as arrows sent forward, of joy and sorrow as inseparable companions. The book has sold millions of copies worldwide, translated into more than a hundred languages, and remains a touchstone for anyone seeking language adequate to life's deepest experiences. For the reader who wants to be moved, to pause, to return to.