SOME THOUGHTS ON TIME

            Dictionaries  define time  as (i) what is measured in minutes, hours, days, etc. (ii) the indefinite continued progress of existence and events in the past, present, snd future regarded as whole. (iii) a point of time as measured in hours and minutes past midnight or noon. (iv). The measured or measurable period during which an action, process, or condition exists or continues.                  

            What is timely is well-timed; and what is timeless is ageless, unending, permanent, and eternal.

 

            Here are some famous and relevant quotes  (i}. There is a time to be born, and a time to die. (ii). Time is the greatest of all tyrants. As we go on toward age, he taxes our health, limbs, faculties, strength, and features. (iii) . Time is lent us to be laid out in God’s service, and we cannot be too diligent in it, if we consider that time is precious, short, passing, uncertain, irrevocable when gone, and that for which we must be accountable. Iv). Time is short, art is long. (v). He lives long that lives well, and time misspent is not lived, but lost. (vi). There is not a single moment in life that we can afford to lose. (vii). Time is what we want most, but what alas! we use worst.  

 

            According to the Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi (Mohandas Karamchand  Gandhi) 1869-1948:  Man-made divisions of time are a mere drop in the ocean of eternity. The period in which a man functions is a mere bagatelle (trivial), no matter how important he may think himself to be.

 

             Finally, a short poem Time, You Old Gypsy Man written by the English poet Ralph Hodgson (1871-1962) :

 

Time, You Old Gypsy Man
Will you not stay,
Put up your caravan
Just for one day?
All things I'll give you
Will you be my guest,
Bells for your jennet
Of silver the best,
Goldsmiths shall beat you
A great golden ring,
Peacocks shall bow to you,
Little boys sing.
Oh, and sweet girls will
Festoon you with may,
Time, you old gypsy,
Why hasten away?
Last week in Babylon,
Last night in Rome,
Morning, and in the crush
Under Paul's dome;
Under Pauls' dial
You tighten your rein —
Only a moment,
And off once again;
Off to some city
Now blind in the womb,
Off to another
Ere that's in the tomb.
Time, you old gypsy man,
Will you not stay,
Put up your caravan
Just for one day?

                                      ***********

G.R.Kanwal

12 October 2025