The Broken Wings By Kahlil Gibran

For me "The Broken Wings" is not only a tale of love, separation and agony, but also on the stronghold of religious contractors on the common public and the contraptions they use to play with the credulity of the innocent and gain power ! 

After drenching into Gibran's heart-wrenching quotes on love, separation and meaning of life, I felt his writing is majorly inspired by the "Songs Of Solomon" from the Bible. As King Solomon mentions the gist of life in few words, Everything is useless under the Sun, and at end everything dissipates, Gibran has also ornated the novel on the same lines. 

My poetic soul was brimming with emotions endless, as this Lebanese-American author, dauntlessly offers the world with a story of true love, which changes one's life journey, molds the youth and becomes a prop for the old age. How love takes the shape of sorrow eventually !

The book begins with Gibran defining his tryst with solitude during his youth. It wasn't the lack of friends or amusement, that accounted his propensity for loneliness, but the innate proclivity towards solitude since childhood carried forward to the days of youth, made him to grapple with the sorrow of solitude throughout his life. 

Here, he also mentions the pros and cons of solitude, where on one hand solitude is the ally of sorrow, but is also a companion of spiritual exaltation.  

Gibran's eighteenth year, was the year of change which marked his later understanding of life and vicissitudes of mankind. When he was in Beirut, he was invited by a friend during the month of Nisan. It was here where he meets Mr. Karamy. They eventually discover that Gibran's father and Mr. Karamy were childhood friends. Mr. Karamy reminisces his days of youth with Gibran.

I adore how Gibran relates to the loquacity of Mr. Karamy as  - "An old man likes to return in memory to the days of youth like a stranger longs to go back to his own country".

Post this meeting, Gibran visits Mr. Karamy's house on his invitation where he ends up meeting Mr. Karamy's daughter Selma, his love, his muse !

Love the fact, he names this tempestuous chapter on meetup with Selma as "Entrance to the Shrine"

Gibran uses mind-boggling sentences admiring her beauty. My forever poetic soul was enamored with few descriptions like -" Her beauty was like a gift of poetry", "Sorrow linked her spirit and mine", "she wore a cloak of deep sorrow through life, which increased her strange beauty and dignity"

As the story progresses, a day comes when Mr. Karamy is invited by a Bishop who wants Selma to be married to his nephew. Selma , the only child of the wealthy Mr. Karamy, is the most sought after bait due to her wealth and not beauty.

In Lebanon, no Christian could oppose his religious head. I felt, this story is not only about love but also about religious contractors and the way they play the game of "power and want".

Post Selma's marriage to the nephew, Gibran and Selma kept meeting in a secluded temple between the city of Beirut and Lebanon, remembering the past, discussing the present and fearing the future.

Selma's husband stays oblivious to Selma's routine, as he stays in the company of other needy girls satiating his own need. Five years post marriage, Selma loses her life post childbirth.

Where Selma is buried, Gibran's heart gets buried in the same ditch.

It is sad to see that the contractors of religion, even in today's era, play with the credulity of human beings, with their devotion, faith and fear.

I would like to give 3 stars to this beautiful work, primarily because I found a lot of redundancy in his work with King Solomon's and secondly I liked the freshness and depth of "The Prophet" far more!

Warning - Only someone who can swim in the vast ocean of poetry, spirituality and sorrow, can understand the depth of "The Broken Wings". This book is not for the flippant readers !