Here and there, betwixt the cradle and the coffin, I meet your silent brothers,
The free men, unshackled,
Sons of your mother earth and space.
They are like the birds of the sky,
And like the lilies of the field.
They live your life and think your thoughts,
And they echo your song.
But they are empty-handed,
And they are not crucified with the great crucifixion,
And therein is their pain.
The world crucifies them every day,
But only in little ways.
The sky is not shaken,
And the earth travails not with her dead.
" - Meaning and context.">
A Man From Lebanon: Nineteen Centuries Afterward

Here and there, betwixt the cradle and the coffin, I meet your silent brothers,
The free men, unshackled,
Sons of your mother earth and space.

They are like the birds of the sky,
And like the lilies of the field.
They live your life and think your thoughts,
And they echo your song.
But they are empty-handed,
And they are not crucified with the great crucifixion,
And therein is their pain.
The world crucifies them every day,
But only in little ways.
The sky is not shaken,
And the earth travails not with her dead.

— Kahlil Gibran

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Here and there, betwixt the cradle and the coffin, I meet your silent brothers,
The free men, unshackled,
Sons of your mother earth and space.

They are like the birds of the sky,
And like the lilies of the field.
They live your life and think your thoughts,
And they echo your song.
But they are empty-handed,
And they are not crucified with the great crucifixion,
And therein is their pain.
The world crucifies them every day,
But only in little ways.
The sky is not shaken,
And the earth travails not with her dead.
" in the context of "A Man From Lebanon: Nineteen Centuries Afterward" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Quote Image
Source: Wikiquote: "Kahlil Gibran" (Quotes, Jesus, The Son of Man (1928): Full text online) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Kahlil Gibran

About Kahlil Gibran

Gibran Khalil Gibran (6 January 1883 – 10 April 1931), usually referred to in English as Kahlil Gibran, was a Lebanese-American writer, poet and visual artist.