The Wanderer

. . The Curse . .

An old man of the sea once said to me. 'It was thirty years ago that a sailor ran away with my daughter. And I cursed them both in my heart, for of all the world I loved but my daughter. Not long after that, the sailor youth went down with his ship to the bottom of the sea, and with him my lovely daughter was lost unto me. Now therefore behold in me the murderer of a youth and a maid. It was my curse that destroyed them. And now on my way to the grave I seek God's forgiveness.' This the old man said. But there was a tone of bragging in his words, and it seems that he is still proud of the power of his curse.

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. . The Pearl . .

Said one oyster to a neighbouring oyster, 'I have a very great pain within me. It is heavy and round, and I am in distress.' And the other oyster replied with haughty complacence, 'Praise be to the heavens and to the sea, I have no pain within me. I am well and whole both within and without.' At the moment a crab was passing by and heard the two oysters, and he said to the one who was well and whole both within and without, 'Yes, you are well and whole; but the pain that your neighbour bears is a pearl of exceeding beauty.'

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from The Wanderer, KAHLIL GIBRAN