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@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@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>

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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