A New Look at Khalil Gibran

by Peter Ryan

Khalil Gibran, famous for his book "the Prophet," is an author that most readers either adore or despise. As one of the best-selling books of all time, "the Prophet" has earned scorn from some Western literary critics, many of whom see it as a new-age novel short on plot and substance. But Gibran's work has also been treasured by millions of others, some of whom go so far as to read passages on their wedding day or to treat the book as if it were a sacred text. Robin Waterfield, in his biography "Prophet: the Life and Times of Khalil Gibran," offers a fresh perspective on the famed Lebanese-American poet-one that may surprise both Gibran's fans and his critics.

Through Waterfield's lens, we discover Khalil Gibran as a man torn between two realities: the man of his poetry, full of ideals and praise for the virtue of nature and romantic love; and the man of his life, a charismatic and self-indulgent egotist who spent most of his years trapped in the confines of the city and whose own love life was more mundane than those of the heroic romantics he depicted in poetry. In his descriptions, we can also sense Waterfield's own dual-perspectives: his love of Gibran's writings and his occasional disappointment regarding the contents of Gibran's life and character. It's not that Gibran was a particularly malevolent human being, it just seems as though anyone so prone to idealizations in their art is naturally going to fall short of those ideals in real life, especially when placed under the microscopic lens of a trained biographer.

Nevertheless, fans of Gibran will undoubtedly flinch when they read Waterfield’s accounts of the poet’s life. Among other things, Gibran is portrayed as a compulsive liar, who fabricates stories about his own life to impress his friends and acquaintances. He also occasionally comes across as heartless. After the death of his 14 year old sister, for example, he fails even to mention his sister when returning home to his family, perhaps because he was unable or unwilling to share his grief. Towards the end of his life, Gibran begins to struggle with alcoholism. Waterfield’s thesis seems to be that Gibran was a man who did not practice what he preached and lived his life torn between the ideals of his poetry and the realities of his life. Through his extensive and well documented scholarship, the biographer makes a very compelling case in this regard—but, despite the contradiction between Khalil’s life and poetry, Gibran’s importance as a literary figure is never diminished by Waterfield. If anything, it is enhanced.

Gibran was a man of the East, born in Lebanon, but he was also very much a man of the West, having lived most of his life in Boston and New York. He has become famous in both the Middle East and the Western world; in the Middle East, for his Arabic poems and in the West, largely for his most successful English publication: “The Prophet.” In a way, Gibran was a intellectual bridge between the cultures and civilizations of the Middle East and the Western world.

Gibran was also outspoken about Syrian and Lebanese politics, though most of his Western fans were ignorant of these views. During World War I, when the Ottoman empire was basically starving out the peoples of Lebanon by cutting off their access to supply lines, Gibran wrote a poem lamenting what he considered to be a genocide of his people—a genocide largely ignored by the Western world. He also encouraged the peoples living in the Syrian province of the Ottoman empire to rise up against their oppressors; to seek liberation and independence. Although he may have lacked the pragmatism of a politician, Gibran clearly had a political agenda for much of his work.

Greater than his political bent was Gibran’s revolutionary perspective on religion and gender. Born as a Maronite Christian in Lebanon, Gibran gradually grew to dislike the institution of the church though he continued to use the image of Jesus as an ideal figure. In fact, like many spiritual poets and mystics, Gibran believed that the rigid institutional orthodoxy of the church was at odds with the figure of Jesus, the champion of the poor and the oppressed. According to Waterfield: “In Gibran’s eyes, the church… was co-operating with the worldly power of governments to oppress the poor” but “the person of Christ, and his original teachings as expounded in the gospels, remained strong sources of inspiration for Gibran throughout his life.”

Though Waterfield restrains from over-moralizing the story of Gibran’s life, reaching the conclusion that Gibran was “not a bad man… He was simply a troubled man,” many fans of Khalil’s poetry will find aspects of the poet’s life troublesome. The reader’s understanding of the poet’s work, however, whether they are fans or critics, will undoubtedly deepen. It is impossible to dismiss Gibran, but it is equally impossible to view him as a Saint. No one should miss the opportunity to read this book. Even those who are unfamiliar with Gibran will be captivated by this biography, which explores the richness and subtleties of a man who, for better or for worse, helped change the way that we see the world.