[INDOLOGY] Pseudo-Kālidāsa

[Patrick Olivelle]

There is a couple of verse in the Pitā-Putra-Saṃvāda in the Mahābhārata, translated by Winterniz: “Ascetic Literature in Ancient India,” Culcutta Review, October 1923: 1–21. These seem to parallel the ones cited.

Patrick

MBh 12.169.13–14:

adyaiva kuru yac chreyo mā tvā kālo ’tyagād ayam |
akṛteṣv eva kāryeṣu mṛtyur vai saṃprakarśati ||
śvaḥkāryam adya kurvīta pūrvāhṇe cāparāhṇikam |
na hi pratīkṣate mṛtyuḥ kṛtaṃ vāsya na vā kṛtam |
ko hi jānāti kasyādya mṛtusenā nivekṣyate ||

This very day do what’s good.
Let not this moment pass you by,
For surely death may strike you
Even before your duties are done.

Tomorow’s task today perform.
Evening’s work finish before noon.
For death does not wait to ask
Whether your duties are done.
For who knows whom death’s legions may seize today.






On Dec 12, 2024, at 5:51 AM, Christophe Vielle via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info> wrote:

Note here the interesting "reverse translations in Sanskrit" of this popular (untraced) "Salutation of the Dawn":
https://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_deities_misc/salutedawn.html

and the following similar (also untraced) popular stanza here:
https://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_z_misc_subhaashita/subhaashhita_kedar.html

na kaścid api jānāti kiṃ kasya śvo bhaviṣyati |
ataḥ śvaḥ karaṇīyāni kuryād adyaiva buddhimān ||

quoted for instance in Huet's Sanskrit dictionary s.v. śvas


Le 11 déc. 2024 à 21:38, Herman Tull via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info<mailto:indology at list.indology.info>> a écrit :

I think that attribution means Ed M. DeLoach offered up this supposed pearl of Sanskrit wisdom, but not that he was the author. The poem appears even earlier than the 1917 "DeLoach" version (the earliest I found was 1904, in the first volume of a church magazine), and in the early appearances it is generally attributed to "Sanskrit" not to Kalidasa (although this attribution appears later).

I'm afraid the mystery remains. The terrible irony here is that far more people know Kalidasa through this fairly awful poem than they do through his actual works.

Herman Tull, PhD
Princeton, NJ


On Wed, Dec 11, 2024 at 8:29 AM Valerie Roebuck via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info<mailto:indology at list.indology.info>> wrote:
Thank you so much!

Valerie J Roebuck
Manchester, UK

Sent from my iPhone

On 11 Dec 2024, at 13:14, Peter Wyzlic via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info<mailto:indology at list.indology.info>> wrote:


Am 11.12.2024 um 13:29 schrieb Valerie Roebuck via INDOLOGY:
‘Look to this day:
For it is life, the very life of life.
In its brief course…’

that the internet always attributes to Kālidāsa, even though it bears no resemblance to his style.

Did we ever find out where it really came from? I’m trying to convince a friend, and I think it would help to be able to point to a real author.

In the magazine "The Rotarian", vol. 11, no. 4 (Oct. 1917), page 312 it is attributed to Ed M. DeLoach, Oklahoma City
See <https://books.google.de/books?id=oFgEAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA299&hl=de&pg=PA312#v=onepage&q&f=false><https://books.google.de/books?id=oFgEAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA299&hl=de&pg=PA312#v=onepage&q&f=false>

Hope it helps,
Peter Wyzlic

--
Universität Bonn
Institut für Orient- und Asienwissenschaften
Bibliothek
Brühler Str. 7
D-53119 Bonn
Tel.: 0228/73-62436

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Christophe Vielle<https://uclouvain.be/en/directories/christophe.vielle>
Louvain-la-Neuve








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