May 21, 2006

Publius Syrus



You cannot put the same shoe on every foot.

The way we talk and reason today, a lot of times started somewhere, by someone at one point in time. We often use sayings that were coined more than two millennia ago without knowing it, thinking it's a very contemporary and "fresh" way to look at things.
A rolling stone gathers no moss.

I guess people have always been people, and thus sayings will always have some sort of bearing in our everyday life, even a millennium from now.

Prosperity makes friends, adversity tries them.
Publius Syrus, a Syrian man who lived during the 1st century BC and was later taken to Italy as a slave, is one of those silent figures whose thoughts remain with us in our languages. His masters freed him though and educated him after being struck by his wit and talent.

I have often regretted my speech, never my silence.

What remains of his works in Latin today are a series of sentences and moral maxims. What brought me to read a bit more about him was a saying in French I heard from a friend, that to me was what one would call a verbal slap:

Amitié qui finit n'avait point commencé
tr: Friendship that ends had no point in beginning

13 comments:

Boo! said...

Wish I has such clarity in thought. I sometimes do feel like a rolling stone... don't exactly know where my thoughts and beliefs lie so just adapt to the environment.

*hmmmm*

anyway... interesting post :)

BuJ said...

beautiful!

how come i never heard of him? i think a gentle reminder to all the bujis out there to read more!

thanks for writing about this.. cannot say much about this except the plural of millenium is millenia :P

and a big MOOO goes out to all the old-school syrians!

Shaykhspeara Sha'ira said...

Boo, we can't always have clarity in thought but we should try to achieve some sort of clarity in what we stand for... even so, that doesn't mean we cannot change our ideas as time passes. :)

Introducing Buj, my spelling and language teacher. lol

You are welcome, moooooooooo!

Tainted Female said...

I want so bad to comment.. but just can't think of what to say... so...

Anyone want a cookie?

Boo! said...

tainted, do you have any fresh-from-the-oven chocolate chip cookies?

(=

Shaykhspeara Sha'ira said...

comment comment comment. Ok fine Tainted, give me the cookie instead. I am still waiting for one from Arabized.

Boo bhai, lol yaar that sounds funny. Yeh boo kya hai? khush boo ya koi aur boo?

Anonymous said...

hmmm... I've been asked that question a few times now. Maybe I'll put it on my blog one of these days.

That reminds me, I'm not sure if I told you that I have moved from MSN Spaces to Blogger. Well... now I have. Drop by some time :)

BuJ said...

tainted i am so proud u decided to give a cookie instead of swear..uhmmm..*cought* ..sorry.. i meant.. comment :)

Shaykhspeara Sha'ira said...

Boo, welcome to the blogger world, yaar it's about time you switched. Msn spaces is annoying.

Buj, how's that throat of yours? You seem to have a cold?

BuJ said...

hehehehe :)

Blogger said...

nice :) if it were in Latin it would have been kool :) very nice indeed

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