Bede Beda

731 · Jarrow, Northumbria, England · Given as the words of one of King Edwin's men, asked whether to accept the new faith: a comparison drawn from a feast by the fire on a winter night

A single sparrow comes and flies swiftly through the hall. It comes in by one door and soon goes out by another. While it is inside, the winter storm does not touch it; but after the briefest moment of calm it slips from your sight, returning from winter into winter. So this life of man appears for a little while.

adueniens unus passerum domum citissime peruolauerit; qui cum per unum ostium ingrediens, mox per aliud exierit. Ipso quidem tempore, quo intus est, hiemis tempestate non tangitur, sed tamen paruissimo spatio serenitatis ad momentum excurso, mox de hieme in hiemem regrediens, tuis oculis elabitur. Ita haec uita hominum ad modicum apparet

Ecclesiastical History of the English People, book 2, chapter 13

In the same thread

Wolmyeong 月明師

mid-8th century · Seorabeol (Gyeongju), Silla · For the sister who died before him

The road of life and death is here, and you faltered, and went without even finishing the words "I am going." Like leaves that fall here and there in an early autumn wind, we were born on one branch, and I do not know where you have gone.

生死路隱此矣有阿米次肹伊遣吾隱去內如辭叱都毛如云遣去內尼叱古於內秋察早隱風未此矣彼矣浮良落尸葉如一等隱枝良出古去奴隱處毛冬乎丁

"Song for a Dead Sister" (Jemangmaega), in the Samguk yusa

Open this post

1 in 100 Billion · The social network of those who came before us