MUTIARA
Karya: Kahlil Gibran

Seekor tiram berkata pada sahabatnya, “Ada sesuatu dalam diriku yang membuat aku merasa pedih. Terasa berat dan membuatku menderita.”

Tiram sahabatnya menimpali dengan bangga dan angkuh, “Terima kasih pada surga dan lautan, aku tidak pernah merasa kesakitan. Aku merasa sehat dan segar.”

Saat itu seekor kepiting lewat dan mendengar percakapan kedua tiram itu, dan berkata pada yang sehat dan segar bugar, “Kesakitan yang dirasakan sahabatmu adalah mutiara dengan keindahan yang tak terlukiskan.”

Kahlil Gibran
Buku: Sang Pengembara (1932) – Kahlil Gibran

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THE PEARL
By: Kahlil Gibran

Said one oyster to a neighbouring oyster, “I have a very great pain within me. It is heavy and round and I am in distress.”

And the other oyster replied with haughty complacence, “Praise be to the heavens and to the sea, I have no pain within me. I am well and whole both within and without.”

At that moment a crab was passing by and heard the two oysters, and he said to the one who was well and whole both within and without, “Yes, you are well and whole; but the pain that your neighbour bears is a pearl of exceeding beauty.”

Kahlil Gibran
Book: The Wanderer (1932) – Kahlil Gibran