Ancient Wisdom Atlas

Motif

present life wasted like a spun thread

present_life_wasted_like_a_spun_thread

A motif of the Fate Figures and Cosmic Weaving family, within the sub-family Fate Threads and Life-Span Measures. Every row below is a tagged passage; each rests on a quote in its source text.

1 occurrences

1 traditions


sufi

  • The Sufistic Quatrains of Omar Khayyam IN THE FIRST EDITION. / XXXIII. / XXXVII. / IN THE SECOND EDITION.; lines 4516-4537 confidence: medium

    “Were it not Folly, Spider-like to spin / The Thread of present Life away to win-- / What? ... Breathe out the very Breath we now breathe in!”

    The quatrain explicitly compares folly to spinning the thread of present life away in a spider-like manner.

    read in the book