Letter of Kahlil Gibran to José Mereb, New York, May 16, 1920.
51 West Tenth Street
Dear friend and fellow countryman Mr. José Mereb, I offer you my cordial greetings.
This beautiful morning, I received your kind letter, including three copies of the book A Tear and a Smile translated into Portuguese.
Great was my joy for your noble act of conveying this moral problem from the region of ideas to the world of reality.
As God is my witness, my contentment is not the effect of a particular disorder, for recognizing that in our Arabic language, thousands of literary works are more deserving than A Tear and a Smile to be translated into another language.
However, I am glad to hear that the awakened sons of my race, after spending so many years in exile, withdrawn wholly to material causes, have begun to exhibit something of our valuable intellectual treasures before the Western people.
The grateful emotion I feel for you is a collective emotion; it is not individual; as an entity, I do not deserve any element of your noble initiative, shaped by delicate and altruistic sentimentality.
As for your decision to translate the book The Broken Wings, it is yet another proof of your spiritual energy and your love of work.
Certainly, it makes my soul very happy, the comforting news of your translation of The Broken Wings as it is more attractive to my heart than other writings of mine, because it represents the painful profile of the oriental woman, who sees herself placed between Divine love and worldly duty.
I had written most of the parts of A Tear and a Smile before I turned twenty springs; they came out pale, wrapped in new ones. The Broken Wings, however, was written many years later; although it is not what I wanted, it is, more like a mature branch than a green one.
Allow me to say another word to you concerning The Broken Wings. Here it is…
I know that the moral problems of our days do not materialize and do not have their effects, if not through money, recognizing, that my moral help is not enough. I therefore want to help this noble initiative with something material; I ask you to inscribe my name with twenty pounds sterling in the list of those who signed up for this worthy act of yours; and I am ready to send you this insignificant amount whenever you want.
The book The Tempests, my last work in Arabic, has just been published by «al-Hilāl» Printing Department in Egypt. But I still have not received the copies they were supposed to send me. As soon as they arrive, I will send you one, hoping you will find something in it that will please and satisfy you.
You told me in one of your previous letters that you had sent me your portrait; however, with great regret, I tell you that I did not receive it: nevertheless, I was happy to see it lithographed in the work A Tear and a Smile. In return, I also offer you mine and ask you to accept it as a proof of my esteem and admiration for you.
If possible, I beg you to gift me with six more copies of A Tear and a Smile, as some friends who know Portuguese here are eager to acquire the work; and, if possible, if you could also send me what is said in the press about the beautiful translation, I would be thrice grateful to you.
Please accept my cordial greetings, filled with esteemed gratitude. And may God keep you for your brother,
Ǧubrān Ḫalīl Ǧubrān
New York, May 16, 1920
