Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.
As I was looking up Kahlil Gibran tonight on Google, I noticed the first link was to a page of quotes with a big animated ad for a dating site. It’s interesting to me that passages from a book written in 1923 are being used as a loss leader to attract attention to an advertisement. I suppose that using a famous Lebanese-American author’s quotes to sell ads isn’t that much different than network television, but it feels wrong to me for some reason. The hidden meaning in all of this is that the majority of people who look up Kahlil Gibran on Friday nights probably need to get laid.
Trackbacks
Use this link to trackback from your own site.
Did you start researching that quote/author after hearing it in “The Boondocks”?
It’s a refreshing quote to my ears, i now feel peaceful but does that mean i don’t want to understand anymore?
No, I made the quote up independently after I did some mushrooms. I was so mad Kahlil had written it down first that I stole a bottle of milk from a Circle K and threw it on the ground outside.
Was it a glass bottle? Did it break? Then the milk would have understood.
no no no no no….
the milk is the understanding of HoyHoy and the broken bottle is his pain…i should know, i’m an expert! Can’t you tell by my accent?
You made it up independently? You really think people will believe that shit? I’m sorry JTAxx but the simple fact that
your username is JTAxx tells me you that you can barley remember your address let alone write poetry. Get over yourself.
I heard it on the Boondocks and it had inspired my music for some reason, I dont know. I dont know much about poetry but I do know pain, well a little. oh yeah WHAT WOULD CHE DO?
has any1 found the really boondocks quote coz i couldn’t find it
Not that the Boondocks isn’t a kickass show, but… You guys really need to get out more. Seriously.
By the way, Huey quoted “it is the bitter potion by which your inner physician attempts to heal yourself. Therefore trust the physician and drink his remedy in silence and tranquility. -Kahlil Gibran”, the version i know has the same starting (your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.) but ends “As the stone of the fruit must break so that the heart may stand in the sun, so too must you feel pain.” Are there two versions or is one incorrect? I actually like Huey’s better.
I heard it on boondocks now normally i dont listen alot of poetry but after watching boondock and akila and the bee i looked up two poems the one that says
our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate of deepest fear is the we ar epowerful beyond measure
then i looked up the one on boondocks
still havent find it as yet
Best educated guess on why the one is in Boondocks is different from the actual Kahlil poem.
The creators of Boondocks didnt want to pay “Kahlil” for the use of the poem. Boondocks took the first line only and changed the rest, giving Kahlil credit for just line 1.
Its kinda similar to the birthday song, the lady that created wanted to be paid each time some1 song…movies, books, etc. the producers of the media would take the song and spin it off. For example, “Happy Happy Birthday to youuuuuuuuuuuuu” or of that nature. Media people didnt have to pay the lady for her song
the full poem is here, on the Boondocks they just took a couple excerpts instead of the whole thing.
http://www.ladymaggic.mastersitebuilder.com/page/page/3722242.htm
The full Boondocks quote is this
“Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding, it is the bitter potion by which the physician within you heals your sick self, therefore, trust the physician and drink his remedy in silence and tranquility.”
I sampled this from the show and was going to use it in a song I’m writing but when I began editing I noticed that there were piano and orchestal instruments playing in the background so I rendered it unusable.
So, if I wanted to quote the Huey version, who would I reference?
a nevermind I get it now, they just cut out parts. I like the Huey version.
Huey does quote Khalil Gabrin. The part about healing your sick self is also said by Khalil. They took MULTIPLE pieces of his various quotes to make that one quote. Just in case anyone hasn’t noticed yet. Check. You can find them.
I researched the quote after hearing it on the Boondocks….for me it came at an appropriate time seeing as how a person i know just lost her boyfriend….it helped her so it didnt matter where i heard it im just thankful i heard it!!!!
Yall Nigga’s Is Gay
you guys should really read the posts above before you say the same stupid shit. it is all from the same poem, just different parts.
The full quote is from The Prophet; Pain, in 1923.
“Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.
Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that its heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain.
And could you keep your heart in wonder at the daily miracles of your life, your pain would not seem less wondrous than your joy;
And you would accept the seasons of your heart, even as you have always accepted the seasons that pass over your fields.
And you would watch with serenity through the winters of your grief.
Much of your pain is self-chosen.
It is the bitter potion by which the physician within you heals your sick self.
Therefore trust the physician, and drink his remedy in silence and tranquillity:
For his hand, though heavy and hard, is guided by the tender hand of the Unseen,”
In all seriousness, I think that any sort of argument occurring between whether its better to quote the poet precisely, or to find different verses from the same work that boil his point down to its essence are, frankly, pointless. The information in its entirety is available. The information, as it was assembled by another artist, is available. People are at a crossroads where they may view either and decide whether they prefer the wine or the brandy. That is, whether they prefer a product with subtlety and tiny touches of flavor (the wine, or the original poem), or a product that makes one bold point, instead of many quiet ones (the brandy, being distilled wine, or the quote by Huey).
Fact is, though y’all niggaz is fake niggaz, y’all niggaz are illustrating a very relevant point, both in terms of the original meaning of the work, and in terms of whether it is the right of an artist to have his work viewed either in full, or not at all. After all, without the guy in the middle, da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” is merely “Some Jews Grab Something to Eat”.
“Yall Nigga’s Is Gay”- Riley Freeman
give credit where it is due.
Credit is due to both…
If it wasn’t for Riley, a lot of ignorant ass cartoon watchin mutha fuckas would have never heard of it…
I was a ignorant ass cartoon watchin mutha fucka, heard it while watching boondocks,
Searched it, now im educated on Khalil Gibran!
damn totally agree with Vicki……
Well dammit CJ, both you and Vicki are wrong, it was Huey that quoted it!