The Coming of the Ship

-from The Prophet
by Kahlil Gibran

But as he descended the hill, a sadness came upon him, and he thought in his heart:

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How shall I go in peace and without sorrow? Nay, not without a wound in the spirit shall I leave this city. Long were the days of pain I have spent within its walls, and long were the nights of aloneness; and who can depart from his pain and his aloneness without regret?

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Too many fragments of the spirit have I scattered in these streets, and too many are the children of my longing that walk naked among these hills, and I cannot withdraw from them without a burden and an ache.

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It is not a garment I cast off this day, but a skin that I tear with my own hands.

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Nor is it a thought I leave behind me, but a heart made sweet with hunger and with thirst.