This sentence from the chapter On Love describes love as a self-sufficient movement that neither draws from nor returns to any object outside itself. Gibran's claim that love gives only itself and takes only from itself belongs to the mystical strand of his thought, which owes something to Sufi writings on divine love that he had encountered in his Arabic reading. Suheil Bushrui has shown how Gibran's treatment of love in The Prophet draws on a synthesis of Christian, Islamic, and Romantic sources, and this line displays that synthesis clearly. Mikhail Naimy's biography describes Gibran's early immersion in Arabic and in the Bible, which furnished the rhythm and imagery of the book. Virginia Hilu's letters reveal a writer preoccupied with the meaning of disinterested affection. Some readers find the sentence paradoxical, since giving and receiving seem to be separate acts, but the paradox is deliberate and reflects the chapter's argument that love is its own fulfilment. The English wording is stable across editions.
Commentary
This sentence from the chapter On Love describes love as a self-sufficient movement that neither draws from nor returns to any object outside itself. Gibran's claim that love gives only itself and takes only from itself belongs to the mystical strand of his thought, which owes something to Sufi writings on divine love that he had encountered in his Arabic reading. Suheil Bushrui has shown how Gibran's treatment of love in The Prophet draws on a synthesis of Christian, Islamic, and Romantic sources, and this line displays that synthesis clearly. Mikhail Naimy's biography describes Gibran's early immersion in Arabic and in the Bible, which furnished the rhythm and imagery of the book. Virginia Hilu's letters reveal a writer preoccupied with the meaning of disinterested affection. Some readers find the sentence paradoxical, since giving and receiving seem to be separate acts, but the paradox is deliberate and reflects the chapter's argument that love is its own fulfilment. The English wording is stable across editions.