By Glen Kalem-Habib (article provided by Amina Zheng Ma) All rights reserved © 2022 Gibran’s 90th Death Anniversary in China, A Seminar Hosted by Peking University In commemoration of the 90th anniversary of the death of Khalil Gibran (1883-1931), Peking University in China hosted a hybrid seminar from September 25th to 26th in 2021. The in-person and online attendees from more than ten universities including Peking University (PKU), University of International Business and Economics (UIBE), Tianjin Normal University (TNU), North China University of Technology (NCUT), Ningxia University (NU), Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU), and Shanghai International Studies University (SISU), exchanged their research works on Gibran. The Ambassador of Leb...
By Glen Kalem-Habib All rights reserved © 2022 Kahlil Gibran's, 1926 work 'Sand and Foam' officially entered the public domain on January 1st, 2022, Ninety-Six years after it was first published. Perhaps it was the eagerness of his publishers Alfred A. Knopf who in 1926 wanted to get Gibran to finish and publish his much-anticipated book, Jesus Son of Man (1928), to capitalize on the rising readership/fame of The Prophet (1923) that Sand and Foam came to fruition first in 1926. Gibran referred to this book as a "
by Philippe Maryssael, retired translator and terminologist, translator of Kahlil Gibran and contributor to the Kahlil Gibran Collective, with the valuable assistance of Glen Kalem-Habib, the founder and administrator of the Kahlil Gibran Collective. Arlon, Belgium, July 26, 2021. The Armed Services Edition of Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet around the world On 4 April 2014, Glen Kalem-Habib, the founder and administrator of the Kahlil Gibran Collective, posted an article titled The Prophet of War. That article was about a special edition of Gibran’s masterpiece The Prophet that was made available to all US military personnel from 1943 onwards. Glen was lucky enough to find and purchase a rare surviving copy of that special edition.
by Francesco Medici All rights Reserved © Francesco Medici “Speak to us of Beauty”... ...is the simple exhortation used by an anonymous poet to address Almustafa, the main character in the celebrated poème en prose by Kahlil Gibran titled The Prophet. What is beauty? It is said that at one time the same question was asked to the Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore, who answered: “I have always been charmed and possessed by it. I have often attempted to use words to communicate what beauty is, yet I have always failed. Beauty is ...
By Richard Mc Sweeney of Ireland © 2 June 2020 RMcS Forward by Glen Kalem-Habib When I first met Richard Mc Sweeney of Ireland at an International Conference on Kahlil Gibran held in Beirut in April 2006, I remember connecting with the 'other' guy who spoke a 'funny' kind of English. Me, the Australian, and he being Irish, we perhaps found ourselves as kindred 'mates' in amongst the cocktail of spoken languages, Lebanese-Arabic, French and American English to name a few. You could say we not only stood out from the crowd, we most definitely sounded different as well. I often looked over towards Richard during the conference, who seemed so transfixed on each speaker, which has to be said; was mainly talking in Arabic! I found myself captivated by his intent lis...
By Glen Kalem - Habib On May 26, 2021, during the opening ceremony of an International Conference organized by the Lebanese House (Al-Bayt Al-Lubnani) in Moscow, a symposium dedicated to the 90th anniversary of Kahlil Gibran's death, a letter by Italian researcher Francesco Medici was read by Dr Mishal Khaddaj, executive secretary of the above-mentioned association. Addressing participants via Zoom the letter was translated for this occasion from the original Russian into Arabic.
by Philippe Maryssael, retired translator and terminologist, translator of Kahlil Gibran and contributor to the Kahlil Gibran Collective. Arlon, Belgium, May 28, 2021. Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet published as a minibook Welcome to the world of miniature books! The true meaning of a miniature book is that it will impress you with its readability and perfect quality right down to the last detail. In 2014, the German publishing house Miniaturbuchverlag in Leipzig published the smallest ever edition of Khalil Gibran’s masterpiece.
By Glen Kalem-Habib and Francesco Medici Announcement: Kahlil Gibran International Conference - Russia (May-June 2021) Where: Al-Bayt al-Lubnany, the Lebanese House in Moscow. Dates: May 26-27 and June 1-2, 2021, at 18:00 (Russian time) Al-Bayt al-Lubnany, the Lebanese House in Moscow is proud to announce the first-ever Kahlil Gibran Conference in Russia. The Lebanese House is an association that celebrates the Lebanese community within Russia and carries...
Interview by Glen Kalem and Francesco Medici Henri Zoghaib is a Lebanese poet and writer, born in the maritime city of Jounieh (10 km north of Beirut). He has taught Arabic literature in many local colleges as well as in American universities while living in the USA (1988-1994). He wrote literary articles in Lebanese and Arab newspapers and journals and has several books of poetry and prose to his credit, among them biographies on Lebanese literary authorities such as Elias Abou Shabaki, Saïd Akl, Rahbani brothers, but he devoted a special part of his writings to Kahlil Gibran...
By Francesco Medici and Glen Kalem-Habib On May 4, 1908, Kahlil Gibran told his patroness Mary Elizabeth Haskell a curious story about his time in Beirut (1898-1902), when he was a student at al-Hikmah College and met a girl who lacked the courage to express her feelings to him. Mary, as she used to do, carefully recorded it on her diary: “I will tell you something in my life [he said.] Something that wi...
by Philippe Maryssael, retired translator and terminologist, Arlon, Belgium, April 10, 2021. Jason Leen completing Kahlil Gibran’s Prophet Trilogy With the support and skills of his friend and benefactress Mary Haskell (1873‑1964), Gibran Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931), the world-famous author, poet and artist from Mount Lebanon published his masterpiece The Prophet in New York In September 1923. The Prophet was supposed to be the first installment of a trilogy that Gibran could not complete before he died on 10 April 1931, 90 years ago. He started work on the second installment but decided not to complete it before he published Jesus the Son o...
Introduction by Glen Kalem-Habib and Francesco Medici Transcription of the original Arabic poem by Nadine Najem Translation into English by Naji B. Oueijan Ninety years ago today on the 10th of April 1931, Kahlil Gibran passed away at St Vincent’s Hospital in New York City around 11 pm. His official cause of death was noted as ‘cirrhosis’ of the liver and some traces of ‘tuberculosis’. Aside from his Boston funeral proceeding, Gibran willed...
Mikhail Naimy: Gibran the Man as I Remember Him An Excerpt from His Autobiography Introduced and Annotated by Francesco Medici In 1934, Lebanese poet, novelist, philosopher and literary critic Mikhail Naimy (1889-1988), official member and secretary of al-Rabitah al-Qalamiyya (The Pen Bond, New York 1920-1931), published in Beirut the first biography of Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931), his associate and friend for sixteen years in the United States (he had already dedicated several pages to Gibran’s literature in al-Ghirbal [The Sieve, Cairo, 1923], a coll...
Gibran: 'How and Why I wrote The Prophet' - a rare interview discovered. International Kahlil Gibran scholar and resident contributor to the Kahlil Gibran Collective Mr. Francesco Medici has unearthed a rare interview made of the poet-artist. Published in a small Alabama newspaper, The Birmingham News under the title: Kahlil Gibran, Syrian Poet-Artist, Tells How, Why He Wrote ‘The Prophet’ – The interview sheds an intimate light amoungst other things, into Gibran’s inner world, his thoughts and feelings about writing "The Prophet’ and 'Jesus Son of Man'. The reporter, Gladys Baker 1900-1957 (born in Jacksonville, FL) was a syndicated columnist-novelist and became a feature writer for the Birmingham News during the 1930's where she wrote a weekly pa...
Amongst the multitude of tombs in the City of the Dead in Cairo, there lies buried a lone Indian — a scholar, writer, debonair statesman and a leader of the freedom movement. Who is he? How did he get there?
by Philippe Maryssael, retired translator and terminologist, Arlon, Belgium, December 20, 2020. Kahlil Gibran’s masterpiece published in French for the 30th time… In 1923, Kahlil Gibran’s third book in English was published by Alfred Abraham Knopf in New York, The Prophet: twenty-eight sermons of wisdom with twelve paintings that add an extra dimension to the text. Way back in 1978, when Philippe Maryssael was 16 years old, he read the second Fr...
by Philippe Maryssael, retired translator and terminologist, Arlon, Belgium, December 15, 2020. Oud music inspired by the poetry of Kahlil Gibran Article based on Joseph Tawadros’ biography from his personal website http://josephtawadros.com/, and the free encyclopaedia Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Tawadros: Born October 6, 1983 in Cairo, Egypt, and a resident of Sydney, Australia, since he was 3 years old, Joseph Tawadros wa...
by Philippe Maryssael, retired translator and terminologist, Arlon, Belgium, November 5, 2020. Dust jacket picture provided by Francesco Medici, Italian specialist and translator of Kahlil Gibran. A book of poems by Barbara Young, illustrated with three rare drawings by Kahlil Gibran Barbara Young (1878‑1961), the pen name of Henrietta Boughton, née Breckenridge, was a literary critic with the New York Times in the early 20th century. She became Kahlil Gibran’s personal secretary in 1925 and it was she who carried the agonizing Gibran to the Saint Vincent Hospital in New York on 9 April 1931. The next day, 10 April 1931, Gibran passed away, diagnosed having liver cirrhos...
by Philippe Maryssael, retired translator and terminologist. Arlon, Belgium, October 31, 2020. Kahlil Gibran’s masterpiece, The Prophet, as told through the eyes of a woman February 14, 2020… The text of Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet has been in the public domain for some time now. February 14, 2020, a new version of Gibran’s masterpiece was published in the United States. In 2007 the authoress of this new book, known by the pen name Be Be, also wrote The Be Attitudes, A Catalog of Life & Light.
by Philippe Maryssael, retired translator and terminologist. Arlon, Belgium, October 28, 2020. Kahlil Gibran’s Classic Text with Newly Discovered Writings… On April 1, 2020, while COVID-19 was hitting hard on all of us, a book was published, a book that reproduced Kahlil Gibran’s masterpiece, The Prophet, which was first published in New York by Alfred A. Knopf in September 1923. Yet again, you might say… Yet another edition of Gibran’s The Prophet… Yes and no. Yes, because indeed the book contains the nth + 1 version of The Prophet. And no, because, in addition to the nth + 1 version of The Pro...
