Birth of Kahlil Gibran

Kahlil Gibran was born on 6 January 1883 in Bsharri. A Lebanese-American poet, painter and essayist, Gibran wrote in both Arabic and English. His best-known work, The Prophet, a series of poetic essays on love, work, freedom and death spoken by a wise man leaving an island, was published in 1923 and has been translated into dozens of languages. Born in a village in what is now Lebanon, he emigrated with his family to Boston as a boy and later studied art in Paris. He was a leading figure of the Arab literary renaissance in North America and also painted symbolic, mystical portraits.

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