The Garden of the Prophet
Almustafa, the chosen and the beloved, who was a noon unto his own day, returned
to the isle of his birth in the month of Tichreen, which is the month of remembrance.
And as his ship approached the harbour, he stood upon its prow, and his mariners
were about him. And there was a homecoming in his heart.
And he spoke, and the sea was in his voice, and he said: "Behold, the isle of our
birth. Even here the earth heaved us, a song and a riddle; a song unto the sky, a riddle
unto the earth; and what is there between earth and sky that shall carry the song and
solve the riddle save our own passion?
"The sea yields us once more to these shores. We are but another wave of her
waves. She sends us forth to sound her speech, but how shall we do so unless we
break the symmetry of our heart on rock and sand?
"For this is the law of mariners and the sea: If you would freedom, you must needs
turn to mist. The formless is for ever seeking form, even as the countless nebulae
would become suns and moons; and we who have sought much and return now to
this isle, rigid moulds, we must become mist once more and learn of the beginning. And what is there that shall live and rise unto the heights except it be broken unto passion and freedom?
"For ever shall we be in quest of the shores, that we may sing and be heard. But
what of the wave that breaks where no ear shall hear? It is the unheard in us that nurses our deeper sorrow. Yet it is also the unheard which carves our soul to form and fashion our destiny."
Then one of his mariners came forth and said: "Master, you have captained our
longing for this harbour, and behold, we have come. Yet you speak of sorrow, and
of hearts that shall be broken."
And he answered him and said: "Did I not speak of freedom, and of the mist which
is our greater freedom? Yet it is in pain I make pilgrimage to the isle where i was
born, even like unto a ghost of one slain come to kneel before those who have slain
him."
And another mariner spoke and said: "Behold, the multitudes on the sea-wall.
In their silence they have fortold even the day and the hour of your coming, and
they have gathered from their fields and vineyards in their loving need, to await you."
And Almustafa looked afar upon the multitudes, and his heart was mindful of
their yearning, and he was silent.
Then a cry came from the people, and it was a cry of remembrance and of entreaty.
And he looked upon his mariners and said: "And what have I brought them? A
hunter was I, in a distant land. With aim and might i have spent the golden arrows
they gave me, but I have brought down no game. I followed not the arrows. Mayhap
they are spreading now in the sun with the pinions of wounded eagles that would not
fall to the earth. And mayhap the arrow-heads have fallen into the hands of those who had
need of them for bread and wine.
"I know not where they have spent their flight, but this I know: they have made
their curve in the sky.
"Even so, love's hand is still upon me, and you, my mariners, still sail my vision,
and I shal not be dumb. I shall cry out when the hand of the seasons is upon my
throat, and I shall sing my words when my lips are burned with flames."
And they were troubled in their hearts because he spoke of these things. And one
said: "Master, teach us all, and mayhap because your blood flows in our veins, and our
breath is of your fragrance, we shall understand."
The he answered them, and the wind was in his voice, ans he said: "Brought you
me to the isle of my birth to be a teacher? Not yet have I been caged by wisdom. Too
young am I and too verdant to speak of aught but self, which is for ever the deep
calling upon the deep.
"Let him who would have wisdom seek it in the buttercup or in a pinch of red clay.
I am still the singer. Still I shall sing the earth, and I shall sing your lost dreaming
that walks the day between sleep and sleep. But I shall gaze upon the sea."
And now the ship entered the harbour and reached the sea-wall, and he came thus
to the isle of his birth and stood once more amongst his own people. And a great cry
arose from their hearts so that the loneliness of his home-coming was shaken within
him.
And they were silent awaiting his word, but he amswered them not, for the sadness
of memory was upon him, and he said in his heart: "Have I said that I shall sing? Nay,
I can but open my lips that the voice of life may come forth and go out to the wind for
joy and support."
Then Karima, she who had played with him, a child, in the Garden of his mother,
spoke and said: "Twelve years have you hidden your face from us, and for twelve
years have we hungered and thirsted for your voice."
And he looked upon her with exceeding tenderness, for it was she who had closed
the eyes of his mother when the white wings of death had gathered her.
And he answered and said: "Twelve years? Said you twelve years, Karima? I
measured not my longing with the starry rod, nor did I sound the depth thereof. For
love when love is homesick exhausts time's measurements and time's soundings.
"There are moments that hold aeons of separation. Yet parting is naught but an
exhaustion of the mind. Perhaps we have not parted."
And Almustafa looked upon the people, and he saw them all, the youth and the
aged, the stalwart and the puny, those who were ruddy with the touch of wind and sun,
and those who were of pallid countenance; and upon their face a light of longing and of questioning.
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