Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup. / Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf / Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone, / Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.

These lines come from Kahlil Gibran’s prose-poem sequence The Prophet (1923), spoken by Almustafa in the chapter “On Marriage.” Written in English during Gibran’s New York years, The Prophet reflects his synthesis of Arabic literary sensibility, Romantic-era individualism, and a spiritual universalism shaped by his Maronite background and wide reading. In the “On Marriage” address, Almustafa counsels couples to balance intimacy with personal integrity. The imagery of cups, bread, and lute strings frames marriage not as fusion into a single self, but as a companionship that preserves distinct identities while creating harmony.

Gibran argues that love thrives when partners nourish one another without erasing boundaries. “Fill each other’s cup” suggests mutual care and generosity, yet “drink not from one cup” warns against possessiveness, dependency, or the loss of selfhood. The progression from shared sustenance (bread) to shared joy (song and dance) culminates in the lute metaphor: separate strings produce one music precisely because they remain distinct and properly tensioned. The passage elevates marriage as a spiritual and ethical practice—unity of purpose without sameness—implying that genuine harmony requires space, autonomy, and respect for the other’s inner life.

1) “Fill each other’s cup but drink not from one cup.” (often quoted alone)
2) “Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone…” (frequently excerpted without the bread/cup lines)
3) “Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.” (sometimes quoted as a standalone aphorism about relationships)