A century after The Madman — the first book Gibran wrote in English — Belgian translator Philippe Maryssael has rendered it into classical French as Le Fol : Ses Paraboles et Poèmes.
By Philippe Maryssael
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KAHLIL GIBRAN COLLECTIVE
By Philippe Maryssael · Kahlil Gibran Collective · 2019 · kahlilgibran.com
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A century ago, in October 1918, the very first book that Kahlil Gibran wrote in English was published in New York: The Madman. It is an anthology of thirty-five texts of variable length — parables and poems — in which he tries, at the end of the Great War, to give significance and morality to life.
Composed of texts that Gibran originally wrote in Arabic and translated into English, and also of texts he wrote directly in English, this book is in essence an oriental work, with no influence of the Western world. In it Gibran expresses the inner life with passion, while his subsequent works would be characterised by a form of subtle restraint and a true mastery of vast wisdom and profound compassion.
Themes are developed that would also be the subject matter of his next two books — in the form of blossoming buds full of promise in The Forerunner, and of flowers in full bloom in The Prophet.
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Tinged with typically oriental poetry, Gibran's form of English is peppered with archaisms and dated phrases. The translation Maryssael delivers is an attempt at conveying the poetry, the rhythm and the breath of the original by resorting to classical French.
For more information and to purchase a copy, see maryssael.eu (French) and maryssael.eu/en (English), or the publisher at demdel-editions.com.
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