that is, in elegant appearance, and in a frame of enchanting material luxury.

As for reason, nothing is more hateful to her; and as for wisdom and sobriety, they are two virtues beloved of aging men with narrow imaginations, feeble nerves, and sickly blood.

That is the girl's tragedy: spring says to her, seek the Charming Prince — seek beauty and wealth and strength and security. And society says to her, seek reason and merit and good family — the rich old husband, or the calm, sober man, large of soul and broad of understanding.

But the girl demands the greatest and most precious elements of this world: beauty, and wealth, and strength. And she will not sacrifice one of them for the sake of another. And if she is forced to the sacrifice, she suffers, and life turns its back on her, and she goes on pursuing the search for the beautiful prince in spite of marriage and in spite of old age.

Who, then, can deliver girls from the beautiful prince? From this dream that troubles their sleep and clouds their lives and poisons every girl and every home and every wife?

No one can... For the Charming Prince is the symbol of the all-embracing highest ideal, which we cannot strangle in the human being — least of all in woman: he is the eternal search for happiness. The happiness with a part of which a man may content himself, while woman will accept nothing less than winning the whole of it.

And this is the secret of woman's being stronger than man in the face of life, and more wretched and more miserable. Man builds

everything on the foundation of reason and will; she raises her life with her heart and her imagination... Therefore, in the hell of despair, and the bitterness of regret, and the misery of desertion, and the humiliation of old age, she never cuts off hope, and never ceases searching for the beautiful prince.

The Maiden's Song!!

"To whom shall I offer my life? My heart is a jewel upon whose light no creature's eye has ever fallen! Yet I long to give it to you, my beloved.

"Tenderness pours down from my heart like rain.

"Faithfulness floods from my breast like a torrent gone mad.

"Sacrifice whistles in my ears like the wind, and I do not tremble, nor stir, nor fear.

"My blood yearns to perish in your blood.

"My treasure yearns to be scattered at your feet.

"Where, then, are you?

"I have searched for you in every eye and every light and every smile, and I have not found you!!

"I have asked everyone about you, and they answered me: he is not here!

"I have roamed the streets. I have ranged over the ends of the earth. I have crept deep into the caves... I know no despair, and I shall follow you forever.. and I shall force you to stop and gaze at me. But then — will you value me at my worth?

"Will you grasp the glory of the treasure I bring you?

"Ah, how greatly I fear you!

To whom, to whom shall I offer my life!"

Spring
Jibran Mas'ud
Over the hills, flowers embrace, and the moist breeze takes them by the waist in a dance of rapture to the melodies of the forenoon...
On the slopes, flocks of sheep scattered in innocence upon hope, and the moan of a flute singing memory beneath the oak...
And in the valley, a baptized river goes its swaying way, glorifying the Creator with murmurings among the grasses, and a beating of the breast upon the rocks; and a wild dance at the feet of the abyss...
And in the sky, tufts of carded cotton, and a maiden awaiting the beloved's return...
In the open expanse, on the boughs, on the rims of the pools, in the meadows, flocks of birds have gathered—some straying off into space... some courting upon the branches, some playing on the water's brow, bathing, then wrapping themselves in sunbeams beside their mates...
And in the evening, on the path to a spring, a boy beside a girl, the two weaving hopes in the moonlight, mingling breaths sent up by breasts warmed by the fires of passion...
And among the pine trees, between the whisper of night and the pallor of the light, a bewildered poet sends his gaze far into the stillness, digging for an image that has slipped away from imagination, calling back a beloved phantom, sending out into the world the prayer of beauty, and burning incense before a maiden who draws away whenever he comes near, and yearns whenever he draws away...
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