How I became a Madman - Khalil Gibran

How I became a Madman - Khalil Gibran
My voice :P

You ask me how I became a madman. It happened thus: One day, long before many gods were born, I woke from a deep sleep and found all my masks were stolen -- the seven masks I have fashioned and worn in seven lives, -- I ran maskless through the crowded streets shouting, "Thieves, thieves, the curséd thieves."
Men and women laughed at me and some ran to their houses in fear of me.
And when I reached the market place, a youth standing on a house-top cried, "He is a madman." I looked up to behold him; the sun kissed my own naked face for the first time. For the first time the sun kissed my own naked face and my soul was inflamed with love for the sun, and I wanted my masks no more. And as if in a trance I cried, "Blessed, blessed are the thieves who stole my masks."
Thus I became a madman.
And I have found both freedom and safety in my madness; the freedom of loneliness and the safety from being understood, for those who understand us enslave something in us.
But let me not be too proud of my safety. Even a Thief in a jail is safe from another thief.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• How
• became
• Madman
• Khalil
• Gibran

[megansspark]

Beautiful work on this, I love it!! Congrats on a fine presentation. :) +

[Shamoosa1989]

Thank you Megan!! x

[Jnoob1989]

Shams, your sweet voice reflects your even sweeter soul. :P I LOVE YOU!

[Shamoosa1989]

I love you too! :P

[oscard1113]

if the thieves stole the masks and exposed the madman to the warm sun what was keeping him enslaved i did not understand that part how does the people keep him enslaved or is it his own self

[Shamoosa1989]

The way I see it Oscard1113 is what was keeping him enslaved was society. And now that he was lost his "mask" - he is thus free, he doesn't have to conform to their specific rules. He suddenly has freedom. And because he doesn't follow their rules, they see him as mad.

[NewOrleansWoman]

OMG this is your voice Mary ??  You sound so cool --and so young LOL For some reason I did not think you sounded like this at all ! I have read some of Gibran but I have never read this before--- Liked it--but have to think about it a little bit now.. the ending in particular :-)) it's late.. LOL great job on this Mary !

[DrGeary]

I've liked this poem for a long time, but this beautiful reading with great inflection makes it even more moving. Fantastic work, Shamoosa

[91FroSt91]

"For those who understand us enslave something in us" I love that part... for it might be the truest line I've ever heard in my life ... such a charming poem and most of all ... your voice and the way you narrated it and the music in the back ground gave it a soul of its own ... giving it the ability to entice and charm those whom God blessed with the ability to hear for this particular moment to hear such a beautiful poem narrated in such a beautiful amazing way :)

[91FroSt91]

and thus his rules won't belong to him anymore

It will just be like the society from which he ran away in the first place.

People never understood him and called him a mad man, but in fact in his own mind he was the only sane man of all. And who knows maybe it's not only in his mind. Maybe it's the truth as it is

With being understood and somewhat accepted for who he truly is for the first time ever that must have been both amazing and yet frightening at first..

[91FroSt91]

I can't stop listening to this ... it just keeps playing over and over and over again..

Such a beautiful poem narrated by such a beautiful angelic voice, with that beautiful music in the back ground, it gave the poem a life of its own.

I find it sad though that this guy have lived alone all that time, with the fear of being a member of society... paranoid of having people understand him thus joining him or having him joining them thus -from his own POV- enslaving him.

[IandYou0]

What an enchanting voice.

[IandYou0]

 Who?

[SoaringEleven]

what a great poem.. 5***** =)

[God4Dunoon]

ooooh way too close to the bone...:)

[sjhannigan1]

I like that poem alot,thanks.