— Romeo and Juliet (1597), Act 2, Scene 6
About this quote
हिन्दी में
ऐसे प्रचंड सुखों का अंत भी प्रचंड ही होता है।
What it means
Read violent in its older sense — vehement, headlong, fast-burning — rather than cruel. The sentence is then a claim about rate, not about morality, and the argument is carried by putting the same adjective on both sides: the manner of the beginning is already the manner of the end. Nothing here says the delight is wrong, forbidden, or being punished.
That makes the usual use of it — a fatalistic slogan about love doomed from the outset — slightly off. No fate is invoked and no curse. The claim is narrower and more mechanical: whatever consumes itself at that speed will finish at that speed, and the finish will have the same temperature as the start.
What it teaches you
When something new is delighting you at an unusual intensity — a person, a job, a project you are still thinking about at 2 a.m. — measure the rate instead of judging the thing. How much of your week, your attention and your other relationships has it eaten in the last month, and is that figure still climbing? The line’s real use is that it forecasts the ending from the burn, which means the forecast is available now, while everything is still pleasant.
अर्थ और सीख
यहाँ ‘प्रचंड’ का अर्थ क्रूर नहीं, तीव्र और तेज़ी से जलने वाला है—बात नैतिकता की नहीं, रफ़्तार की है। दोनों ओर एक ही विशेषण रखकर वाक्य कहता है कि जो चीज़ जिस वेग से जलती है, उसी वेग से ख़त्म भी होती है; इसमें भाग्य या अभिशाप का कोई ज़िक्र नहीं। इसलिए किसी नए सुख को आँकने के बजाय उसकी रफ़्तार नापिए: पिछले महीने में उसने आपके समय, ध्यान और बाक़ी रिश्तों का कितना हिस्सा खाया, और क्या यह बढ़ता जा रहा है।
Where it comes from
Friar Laurence, warning Romeo just before marrying him to Juliet. It is the play’s clearest statement of its own mechanics, delivered by the character who then ignores his own advice.
The full speech compares the love to fire and powder consuming each other in a kiss, and counsels moderation — three scenes before the plan that kills them both.
