The Prophet

The Lojban community needs texts that are famed and globally prestigious to promote the language. The list of the top 1000 titles most often owned by OCLC member libraries ranked The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran #315. The Prophet is a suitable candidate for several reasons. For purposes of demonstrating the thorough day-to-day applicability of Lojban, this novella portrays basic activity in the physical world involving ships, hills, cities, walking, and conversation. Inspirational literature offers boundless opportunity to demonstrate the astounding emotional range of the attitudinal system. Although Gibran wrote in English in early twentieth-century Boston, he seemed to style his use of language to give the impression of an ancient Middle-Eastern holy book, as if it were a simplistic translation into English from his native Lebanese. As a result, it appears to be optimized for translation: it contains no jargon, very little idiom, nothing that needs a cultural context to be understood, and no highly stylized uses of language for humor or pronunciation-dependent effect. Not only is The Prophet short enough to be translated in an efficient amount of time, it is also divided up conveniently into bite-sized verses. It is in the public domain. It also does not hurt that the worst that can be said about the content is that it is mostly inoffensive platitudes. This is a prose poem, a work of simple beauty. This translation will make a visually pleasant physical artifact with beautiful calligraphy and professional page layout when one or two copies are published through a vanity press.
- Matt Arnold
AKA la epkat

"If aught I have said is truth, that truth shall reveal itself in a clearer voice, and in words more kin to your thoughts."

The Prophet le prije ctuca / le pijyctu (the wise teacher)
The Prophet: The Coming of the Ship .i nu selklama le bloti
The Prophet: On Love lo ka prami
The Prophet: On Marriage lo nu speni
The Prophet: On Children lo panzi
The Prophet: On Giving lo nu dunda
The Prophet: On Eating and Drinking lo nu citka je pinxe
The Prophet: On Work sera'a lo zu'o gunka
The Prophet: On Joy and Sorrow lo li'i gleki je badri
The Prophet: On Houses lo zdani
The Prophet: On Clothes lo taxfu
The Prophet: On Buying and Selling lo nu tevecnu je vecnu
The Prophet: On Crime and Punishment lo zekri .e lo nu sfasa
The Prophet: On Laws lo flalu
The Prophet: On Freedom lo za'i zifre
The Prophet: On Reason and Passion lo nu krinu pensi .e lo se cinmo
The Prophet: On Pain lo nu dunku
The Prophet: On Self-Knowledge lo nu sevzi djuno
The Prophet: On Teaching lo nu ctuca
The Prophet: On Friendship lo nu pendo
The Prophet: On Talking lo nu tavla
The Prophet: On Time lo temci
The Prophet: On Good and Evil lo ka vrude .e lo ka pacna
The Prophet: On Prayer lo nu jdaselsku
The Prophet: On Pleasure lo za'i pluka
The Prophet: On Beauty lo ka melbi
The Prophet: On Religion lo lijde
The Prophet: On Death lo nu morsi
The Prophet: The Farewell le nu cusku zo co'o


A list of dubious places in the translation (and also suggestions) is available here.

A concordance of common words in the story and their preferred translation is available here.


Created by Eppcott. Last Modification: Monday 08 of May, 2006 23:24:30 GMT by kitsu.