When in the market-place I stopped one day
To watch a potter pounding his fresh clay,
The clay addressed him in a mystic tongue
“Once I was man, so treat me gently, pray!”Omar Khayyám (1048-1123) Persian poet, mathematician, philosopher, astronomer [عمر خیام]
Rubáiyát [رباعیات], Bod. # 89 [tr. Roe (1906), # 85]
(Source)
Alternate translations:For in the Market-place, one Dusk of Day,
I watch'd the Potter thumping his wet Clay:
And with its all obliterated Tongue
It murmur'd -- "Gently, Brother, gently, pray!"
[tr. FitzGerald, 1st ed. (1859), # 36]For I remember stopping by the way
To watch a Potter thumping his wet Clay:
And with its all-obliterated Tongue
It murmur'd -- "Gently, Brother, gently, pray!"
[tr. FitzGerald, 2nd ed. (1868), # 40; 4th ed. (1879), # 37; 5th ed. (1889), # 37]For I remember stopping by the way
To watch a Potter thumping his wet Clay,
And with its all-obliterated Tongue
It murmur'd -- "Gently, Brother, gently, pray?"
[tr. FitzGerald, 3rd ed. (1872), # 37]Yesterday I beheld at the bazaar a potter smiting with all his force the clay he was kneading. The earth seemed to cry out to him, "I also was such as thou -- treat me therefore less harshly."
[tr. McCarthy (1879), # 245]I saw a busy potter by the way
Kneading with might and main a lump of clay;
And, lo! the clay cried, "Use me gently, pray,
I was a man myself but yesterday!"
[tr. Whinfield (1883), # 252]I saw a Potter at his Work to-day,
With rudest Hand he shaped his yielding Clay,
"Oh gently Brother, do not treat me thus,
I too, was once a Man," I heard it say.
[tr. Garner (1887), 7.9]I saw a potter at his work to-day,
Shaping with rudest hand his whirling clay, --
"Ah, gently, brother, do not treat me thus,
I too was once a man," I heard it say.
[tr. Garner (1898), # 57]A potter I saw in the market yesterday
With many a buffet belabour a lump of clay.
The which, with the tongue of the case, "Thy like I've been;
Have some regard for me, prithee!" to him did say.
[tr. Payne (1898), # 434]I saw a potter in the bazaar yesterday,
he was violently pounding the fresh clay,
and that clay said to him, in mystic language,
"I was once like thee -- so treat me well."
[tr. Heron-Allen (1898), # 89]In the bazaar, I saw but yesterday
A potter hitting hard at his wet clay;
And it, as best it could, cried out; "Let be;
"I was as thou art once, be good to me."
[tr. Cadell (1899), # 93]In the Bazaar I saw but yesterday
A potter pounding hard a lump of clay;
The clay cried out to him in mystic tones,
"I once was like thee, treat me gently, pray!"
[tr. Thompson (1906), # 295]In the Bazaar I saw, but yesterday,
A potter rudely pounding the fresh clay;
The clay in mystic language made complaint --
"I too was once like thee: thy hand then stay!"
[tr. Talbot (1908), # 89]Yesterday I saw a potter in the bazar. He beat the
fresh clay with many strokes,
and that clay said to him in its own language: "Once
I was [a being] like thee; so treat me gently."
[tr. Christensen (1927), # 68]Yesterday I saw a potter in the market-place
Trampling down fresh clay with many a kick.
And this clay seemed to say to him:
"I was as you; deal gently with me."
[tr. Rosen (1928), # 161]I saw a potter working in the mart,
He kicked a clod of earth which made it smart;
I heard the clay beseach him: "Master! please!
Like thee I once have been, be kind at heart."
[tr. Tirtha (1941), # 5.28]
Quotations about:
dust to dust
Note not all quotations have been tagged, so Search may find additional quotes on this topic.
Go, sit in the shade of the rose, for every rose
That springs from the earth, again to earth soon goes away!Omar Khayyám (1048-1123) Persian poet, mathematician, philosopher, astronomer [عمر خیام]
Rubáiyát [رباعیات], Bod. # 135, ll. 3-4 [tr. M. K. (1888)]
(Source)
Alternate translations:And look -- a thousand Blossoms with the Day
Woke -- and a thousand scatter'd into Clay
[tr. FitzGerald, 1st ed. (1859), # 8]Morning a thousand Roses brings, you say;
Yes, but where leaves the Rose of yesterday?
[tr. FitzGerald, 2nd Ed (1868), # 9]Each Morn a thousand Roses brings, you say:
Yes, but where leaves the Rose of Yesterday?
[tr. FitzGerald, 3rd ed. (1872), # 9; same in later editions]Sit in the shade of the rose, for many times this rose from earth has come, and unto earth has gone.
[tr. McCarthy (1879), # 463]Sit we beneath this rose, which many a time
Has sunk to earth, and sprung from earth again.
[tr. Whinfield (1883), # 414]Sit in the shade of the rose, for, by the wind, many roses
have been scattered to earth and have become dust.
[tr. Heron-Allen (1898), # 135]Sit we 'neath this rose shade, for many a rose
Wind strewn in earth has turned to earth again!
[tr. Thompson (1906), # 522]Sit in her fragrant bower, for oft the wind
Hath strewn and turn'd to dust such flowers as these.
[tr. Talbot (1908), # 135]Rest in the shadow of the rose, for many of its leaves will the rose
Shed on the earth while we lie under the earth.
[tr. Rosen (1928), # 270]Stay, Dearest One! beneath the rosy shade,
The roses bloom for Thee but soon would blight.
[tr. Tirtha (1941), # 3.7]Rest in the rose's shade, though winds have burst
A world of blossoml petals fall to dust --
[tr. Graves & Ali-Shah (1967), # 74, ll. 1-2]Sit in the rose's shadow, for oftentimes this rose shall spill upon the dust, when we are dust.
[tr. Bowen (1976), # 5a]The Rosetree spills her petals in the dust,
And nothing of her fragrant harvest saves;
And yet this Rose, a plaything of the breeze,
Will bloom each year when we are in our graves.
[tr. Bowen (1976), # 5b]
