Home

The Prophet

The coming of the ship
On Love
On Marriage
On Children
On Giving
On Eating and Drinking
On Work
On Joy and Sorrow
On Houses
On Clothes
On Buying and Selling
On Crime and Punishment
On Law
On Freedom
On Reason and Passion
On Pain
On Self-Knowledge
On Teaching
On Friendship
On Talking
On Time
On Good and Evil
On Prayer
On Pleasure
On Beauty
On Religion
On Death
The Farewell

 

Links

 

 

On Time

Chapter 21

And an astronomer said, "Master, what of Time?"
      And he answered:
      You would measure time the measureless and the immeasurable.
      You would adjust your conduct and even direct the course of your spirit according to hours and seasons.
      Of time you would make a stream upon whose bank you would sit and watch its flowing.
      Yet the timeless in you is aware of life's timelessness,
      And knows that yesterday is but today's memory and tomorrow is today's dream.
      And that that which sings and contemplates in you is still dwelling within the bounds of that first moment which scattered the stars into space.
      Who among you does not feel that his power to love is boundless?
      And yet who does not feel that very love, though boundless, encompassed within the centre of his being, and moving not form love thought to love thought, nor from love deeds to other love deeds?
      And is not time even as love is, undivided and placeless?
      But if in you thought you must measure time into seasons, let each season encircle all the other seasons,
      And let today embrace the past with remembrance and the future with longing.