The Broken Wings (Arabic: al-Ajniha al-Mutakassira) was published in Arabic in 1912 by the newspaper Mir’at al-Gharb in New York, and later translated into English (the most widely available translation appeared in 1957). It is Gibran’s most directly autobiographical work — a novella of youthful love, loss, and the corruption of institutional religion that established his reputation in the Arabic literary world.
The narrator (transparently Gibran himself) falls in love at eighteen with Selma Karamy, a beautiful, intelligent young woman in Beirut. Their love is mutual and intense, but Selma is forced into marriage with the nephew of a corrupt Maronite bishop who wants her family’s wealth. The marriage is loveless; the bishop is a tyrant who uses religious authority to serve his material greed; and Selma withers under the oppression of a union she never chose. She and the narrator continue to meet — their love now tinged with impossibility and sorrow — until her death in childbirth.
The novella’s power lies not in its plot (which is melodramatic by modern standards) but in its passionate sincerity and its critique of religious hypocrisy. The bishop is one of Gibran’s most damning portraits: a man who uses spiritual authority to acquire worldly power, who corrupts the institution he represents, and who destroys the lives of those he claims to serve. This critique of organized religion — its distance from genuine spiritual truth — would remain central to all of Gibran’s work.
Collecting The Broken Wings
First Arabic edition (Mir’at al-Gharb, New York, 1912): Rare.
Market values:
- First Arabic edition: $300–$1,000 (extremely scarce)
- First English translation (Heinemann, 1957): $30–$80
- Illustrated editions: $15–$40