Do Not Love Half Lovers - Khalil Gibran (Powerful Poetry)

Khalil Gibran had a gift for writing that few have or will ever possess. The most powerful line in this poem for me is: “Half a life is a life you didn’t live.” If we look at the ancient cultures of South and East Asia, we see the ideas throughout their philosophical texts as not standing out from the crowd (Daoism), spending your life meditating in a cave (Buddhism), and restricted travel (Hinduism; kala pani; samudrolanghana; not crossing the seas to foreign lands). In Western literature we really see the opposite, i.e, to stand out from the crowd and do something meaningful and special with your life (trials of Hercules; slaying the dragon; making a name for yourself to last the ages – Achilles) and go to foreign lands (Vikings). There is a powerful dichotomy here between the attitudes and ideas of the East and West. It is clear though on which side Khalil Gibran stood from this poem.

Transcript

Do not love half-lovers.

Do not entertain half-friends.

Do not indulge in works of the half-talented.

Do not live half a life,

And do not die a half-death.

If you choose silence,

Then be silent.

When you speak,

Do so until you are finished.

Do not silence yourself to say something,

And do not speak to be silent.

If you accept,

Then express it bluntly.

Do not mask it.

If you refuse,

Then be clear about it,

For an ambiguous refusal is but a weak acceptance.

Do not accept half a solution.

Do not believe half-truths.

Do not dream half a dream.

Do not fantasize about half-hopes.

Half a drink will not quench your thirst.

Half a meal will not satiate your hunger.

Half the way will get you nowhere.

Half an idea will bear you no results.

Your other half is not the one you love.

It is you in another time,

Yet in the same space.

It is you when you are not.

Half a life is a life you didn't live.

A word you have not said.

A smile you postponed.

A love you have not had.

A friendship you did not know.

To reach and not arrive.

Work and not work.

Attend only to be absent.

What makes you a stranger to them closest to you,

And they strangers to you?

The half is a mere moment of inability.

But you are able,

For you are not half a being.

You are a whole that exists to live a life,

Not half a life.

Reviews

Wow, that was so powerful and exactly what I've been needing to hear in the way I needed to hear it for auch a long time.