Poetry · A way to begin
The Prophet
Kahlil Gibran · 1923
Synopsis
For twelve years, Almustafa has lived in the city of Orphalese and waited for the ship that is to take him back to his own country. When the boat at last appears, the inhabitants beg him to stay; Almitra, the seer who was the first to believe in him, asks him to tell them, before leaving, what he knows of life. To those who question him, he answers in poetic prose: on love, marriage, children, giving, work, joy and sorrow, freedom, pain, friendship, religion and death.
Context
The book appears in New York from Alfred A. Knopf in 1923, with twelve illustrations taken from the author's drawings. It consists of twenty-six answers framed by the arrival of the ship and by the farewells. Its author bequeathed to his native city the American rights to his books, which are managed by a national committee founded in the 1930s. The first French translation, by Madeline Mason-Manheim, appears in Paris from the éditions du Sagittaire in 1926; an animated film was made from it in 2014.
Who it is for
A short book, made up of brief answers that can be read separately, in one of the many French translations.
Prizes and reception
Translated into several dozen languages, and retranslated into French from 1926 until 2025.
Sources for this page 6
The pages consulted to check this page.