in their mist-veiled garden

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In the town where I was born lived a woman and her daughter, who walked in their sleep.

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One night, while silence enfolded the world, the woman and her daughter, walking, yet asleep, met in their mist-veiled garden.

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And the mother spoke, and she said: "At last, at last, my enemy!  You by whom my youth was destroyed - who have built up your life upon the ruins of mine!  Would I could kill you!"

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And the daughter spoke, and she said: "O hateful woman, selfish and old!  Who stand between my freer self and me!  Who would have my life an echo of your own faded life!  Would you were dead!"

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At that moment a cock crew, and both women awoke.  The mother said gently, "Is that you, darling?"  And the daughter answered gently, "Yes, dear."

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~ Kahlil Gibran

from Poems, Parables and Drawings
art by gail kirtz

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