*Pity the nation*
Kahlil Gibran
*Pity the nation* that is full of beliefs and empty of religion.
*Pity the nation* that wears a cloth it does not weave
and eats a bread it does not harvest.
*Pity the nation* that acclaims the bully as hero,
and that deems the glittering conqueror bountiful.
*Pity a nation* that despises a passion in its dream,
yet submits in its awakening.
*Pity the nation* that raises not its voice save when it walks in a funeral, boasts not except among its ruins, and will rebel not save when its neck is laid between the sword and the block.
*Pity the nation* whose statesman is a fox,
whose philosopher is a juggler, and whose art is the art of patching and mimicking
*Pity the nation* that welcomes its new ruler with trumpeting, and farewells him with hooting, only to welcome another with trumpeting again.
*Pity the nation* whose sages are dumb with years
and whose strongmen are yet in the cradle.
*Pity the nation* divided into fragments, each fragment deeming itself a nation.
Kahlil Gibran, The Garden of The Prophet
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