— Meditations, Book 4 (tr. George Long, 1862)
About this quote
हिन्दी में
एक ही वेदी पर लोबान के कई दाने: एक पहले गिरता है, दूसरा बाद में; पर इससे कोई फ़र्क़ नहीं पड़ता।
What it means
Notice how far the image goes. The grains are not merely headed for the same end — they are indistinguishable from one another to begin with. The line withholds any quality that would make one grain the interesting one, and that withholding is the argument. Marcus is writing to himself, and he is one of the grains.
It is often quoted as if it meant life is short, so seize it. It says nearly the reverse: since the gap between early and late is negligible, there is no urgency to be manufactured out of it. And it offers no comfort past the flat clause it makes no difference — the consolation is the levelling itself, which is exactly what some readers find unbearable about it.
What it teaches you
Watch for the arithmetic in your own grief and your own planning — only forty-two, at least he had a full life, I still have twenty good years. Each of those sentences treats a number of years as a quantity of worth. You do not have to agree with Marcus, but you should notice when you are ranking people by how long they lasted, because you almost certainly are.
अर्थ और सीख
वेदी पर पड़े लोबान के दाने एक जैसे होते हैं — कोई पहले सुलगता है, कोई बाद में, और इस क्रम का कोई मतलब नहीं। मार्कस यह अपने ही लिए लिख रहा है, यानी वह भी उन्हीं दानों में से एक है। सीख यह है कि हम अनजाने में जीवन को बरसों की गिनती से तौलने लगते हैं — बहुत जल्दी चला गया, पूरी उम्र जी ली — और यह पंक्ति उसी गिनती पर सवाल उठाती है।
Where it comes from
Grains of incense dropped on a fire: one catches early, one catches late, and the difference between them is nothing. The image is about the vanity of counting years. A long life and a short one end the same way and in the same fire, so the sequence in which people go is not a ranking, and dying sooner is not being cheated.
From Book 4 of the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, in George Long’s English translation of 1862. Frankincense burned on an altar was an everyday religious sight in the world the original was written in, which is why the comparison is offered without explanation.
