ʿUrwa ibn al-Ward عروة بن الورد
6th century · Arabia · Said to be his answer to a well-fed man who mocked him. “Dividing my body” means sharing his own food among many people.
I am a man whose bowl is shared by many; you are a man whose bowl is for one. Do you mock me because you have grown fat, and see on my face the pallor of duty? Duty wears a man down. I divide my body among many bodies, and sip plain water, though the water is cold.
إني امرؤ عافي إنائي شركة
وأنت امرؤ عافي إنائك واحد
اتهزأ مني أن سمنت وأن ترى
بوجهي شحوب الحق، والحق جاهد
أقسم جسمي في جسوم كثيرة
وأحسو قراح الماء والماء باردA poem of ʿUrwa ibn al-Ward, known by its first line
More from ʿUrwa ibn al-Ward · #mindset
In the same thread
Ovid Publius Ovidius Naso
c. AD 9 · Roman Empire · After his friends turned their backs when the emperor banished him
As long as you are safe, you will count many friends. If the weather turns cloudy, you will be alone.
donec eris sospes, multos numerabis amicos:
tempora si fuerint nubila, solus eris.Tristia (Sorrows) 1.9
Mark Twain
1894 · Missouri, USA · Connecticut
The holy passion of Friendship is of so sweet and steady and loyal and enduring a nature that it will last through a whole lifetime, if not asked to lend money.
Pudd'nhead Wilson, epigraph to chapter 8, from "Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar"
Bak Inro 朴仁老
1611 · Joseon Korea · The evening he went to borrow an ox for ploughing and came home without one
"I'll lend you the ox some time," he had said, offhandedly, and I took his house for a kind one. In the moonless dusk I hurried there, stumbling, and stood alone in the dark outside the tight-shut gate, and coughed a loud "ahem" for a long while, until: "Well, who is that?" "It is I, who have no shame."
쇼 ᄒᆞᆫ 젹 듀마 ᄒᆞ고 엄섬이 ᄒᆞᄂᆞᆫ 말삼
친절(親切)호라 너긴 집의
달 업슨 황혼(黃昏)의 허위허위 다라 가셔
구디 다ᄃᆞᆫ 문(門) 밧긔 어득히 혼자 서셔
큰 기ᄎᆞᆷ 아함이를 양구(良久)토록 ᄒᆞ온 후(後)에
어화 긔 뉘신고 염치(廉恥) 업산 ᄂᆡ옵노라The gasa "Nuhangsa" (Song of a Poor Alley), Nogye jip, book 3
Nameless people 詩經 無名氏
c. 7th century BC · Zhou China
You threw me a quince, and I gave you a fine jade in return. Not to repay you, but so that we may be dear to each other for ever.
投我以木瓜，報之以瓊琚。
匪報也，永以爲好也！"The Quince" (Mu gua), Airs of Wey, in the Book of Songs
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