The Broken Wings

*cries*

This book repeats a lot of phrases, rephrases sentences. This one part sounded like misogyny. Could not connect with anyone.

Sayap-Sayap Patah (The Broken Wings) adalah sebentuk cerita dari seorang laki-laki yang patah hati, lantaran gadis kecintaannya direnggut oleh orang lain. Tentu, Gibran tidak menyederhanakan semuanya dalam kata "direnggut", ia melayangkan kritik ke institusi pernikahan dan agama di Lebanon, lebih tepatnya masyarakat yang ia sebut sebagai masyarakat timur (timur tengah), tempat di mana Gibran menghabiskan masa ranum remajanya. Pendapat paling umum menyebut bahwa novel ini adalah autobiografi diri Gibran sendiri. Selma, tokoh wanita dalam cerita adalah nama fiktif dari Nona Hala Daher, sang gadis yang ditakdirkan menjadi cinta pertama Gibran. Selma dinikahpaksakan seorang pendeta kepada keponakannya yang serampangan dan brengsek. Selma tidak bahagia, hingga akhirnya ia menutup hidup ketika melahirkan anaknya—yang juga meninggal saat dilahirkan. "Demikianlah takdir merundung Selma dan menuntunnya sebagai budak sahaya hina dalam iringan perempuan timur (tengah) yang sengsara ..." "Para penyair dan penulis sedang mencoba memahami kenyataan kaum wanita, namun sampai hari ini orang-orang itu belum mengetahui segala rahasia terpendam dalam hati nuraninya karena orang-orang itu memandang mereka dari balik selubung seksual dan tak melihat apa-apa selain bagian luarnya, orang-orang memandangnya lewat kaca pembesar kebencian dan tak menemukan apa-apa selain kelemahan dan pengabdian." Akibat aktivitas kritiknya tersebut, Gibran dikucilkan oleh pemerintah dan tokoh agama setempat, bahkan buku-bukunya yang kedapatan dijual di Beirut disita lalu dibakar. Gibran, dengan segala ketajaman sensitifitas dan ujung penanya menjadi musuh publik, hingga ia dijuluki sebagai "anak kufur". Gibran tidak membenci pernikahan, ia hanya bersikap kritis terhadap institusi pernikahan yang membukakan pintu kepada orang-orang yang menyelewengkan cinta dan kesakralan, yang memperbudak wanita dalam rumahnya sendiri.

"I am a tree, grown in the shade, and today I stretched my branches to tremble for awhile in the daylight. I came here to tell you good-bye, my beloved, and it is my hope that our farewell will be great and awful like our love. Let our farewell be like fire that bends the gold and makes it more resplendent."

4.5

This one has shattered me. Normally I don't show such sentiments to a work of fiction, but this one touched my heart. I don't know whether this is a fiction or a real-life story woven into fiction but if you have ever sipped from that cup, then I am sure this will hurt you. "What human being is he who has never sipped the wine from the cup of love, and what spirit is it that has never stood reverently before that lighted altar in the temple whose pavement is the hearts of men and women and whose ceiling is the secret canopy of dreams? What flower is that on whose leaves the dawn has never poured a drop of dew; what streamlet is that which lost its course without going to the sea?" "Braving obstacles and hardships is nobler than retreating to tranquillity." "Solitude has soft, silky hands, but with strong fingers, it grasps the heart and makes it ache with sorrow. Solitude is the ally of sorrow as well as a companion of spiritual exaltation." "I want you to love me as a poet loves his sorrowful thoughts. I want you to remember me as a traveller who remembers a calm pool in which his image was reflected as he drank its water. I want you to remember me as a mother remembers her child that died before it saw the light, and I want you to remember me as a merciful king who remembers a prisoner who died before his pardon reached him." "The butterfly that hovers around the lamp until it dies is more admirable than the mole that lives in a dark tunnel." I can't add more Annotations. Just read the book, this is for those who have ever felt the ecstasy.

The kind of language Gibran uses opens chambers in our heart we didn't know existed💕