Among rocks there is none more beautiful or more noble than this ascending Lebanese rock, as though it had been planted in this earth as dwelling, bounty, and destiny; and in this splendid piece by the great Rihani, this eternal, ascending splendor is revealed to the reader...

The rocks?

Have you ever stood among the rocks, on the mountain heights, contemplating their formation and their shapes and the meanings of their beauty and their majesty?

And have you looked, through the ruined temples of nature, to what lies beyond the columns and the walls — to the soul of being and the hand of time?

Is there in their loftiness anything but glory?

And in their grandeur anything but might?

And in their terror anything but dangers?

And in their steadfastness anything but strength?

And in their ruined places anything but weakness?

And in their ranks anything but chaos? And in their windings anything but bewilderment??

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The towering rocks?... The crouching, the languid, and the toppling rocks,

the forbidding, brooding, warn-ing rocks,

the broken, fissured rocks,

the massed rocks and the crumbling...

Have you ever stood contemplating them, trying to enter into their heart, into the secret hidden within them?

In their heart is the seed that once surged beneath the waves, in the depths of the seas.

In their heart is the germ of eternal, everlasting life.

In their heart is the secret atom that lives by being shattered, becoming food and fragrance in the trees and the flowers.

In their heart is the prison of selfhood and the silence of sorrows.