Gibran Khalil Gibran was an American-Lebanese author, poet, and artist. He was born in the village of Bsharri in Lebanon in 1883 to a poor family. At the age of twelve, he immigrated with his mother and siblings to the USA, where he studied English and painting. At the age of fourteen, he returned to Lebanon to improve his Arabic. In 1908 he traveled to Paris and studied painting with the renowned painter and sculptor Auguste Rodin. Four years later, he moved to New York, where he dedicated his time to painting and writing. At first, Gibran wrote in Arabic, but from 1918 onward he shifted to writing in English. He translated his own works from English into Arabic and vice versa. Alongside poems, he also wrote collections of stories and fables, the most famous of which is the collection The Prophet, which was highly influential in American popular culture during the 60’s and was translated into more than 20 languages. Gibran died in the US in 1931 from Cirrhosis of the liver.
