Sir Edwin Arnold (1832–1904) was an English poet, journalist, and translator, who is best remembered for his work The Light of Asia (1879,) a poetic rendering of the life of the Buddha. He is also known for The Song Celestial (1885,) a metrical translation of the Bhagavadgītā it was this version of the Bhagavad Gītā that Mahatma Gandhi first became familiar with.
Born in Gravesend, Kent, and educated at Oxford, Arnold served as the principal of the Government Sanskrit College in Poona, India, 1856–61. He not only studied Indian languages and published translations from Sanskrit but also collected material for his future works. After returning to England, he worked for The Daily Telegraph as a writer and an editor.
Arnold based The Light of Asia, subtitled The Great Renunciation, on a French translation of the Lalitavistara Sūtra, one of the more elaborate and belletristic accounts of the life of Prince Gautama, the founder of Buddhism. The Light of Asia became instantly famous as the foundational text for anyone in the English-speaking world interested in the history and the belief systems of Buddhism.
Arnold’s other major volumes of poetry include Indian Song of Songs (1875,) Pearls of the Faith (1883,) With Sadi in the Garden (1888,) Potiphar’s Wife (1892,) Adzuma or The Japanese Wife (1893,) and Indian Poetry (1904.)
In his later years, Arnold resided for some time in Japan. He produced such interesting studies of Japanese life as In Seas and Lands (1891) and Japonica (1891) that contributed to the late 19th-century “cult of Japan” in Britain.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Edwin Arnold
Within yourself deliverance must be searched for, because each man makes his own prison.
—Edwin Arnold
Topics: Freedom
Nor (shall one) lay Upon the brow of innocent bound beasts One hair’s weight of that answer all must give For all things done amiss or wrongfully.
—Edwin Arnold
Oft times while he mused as motionless As the fixed rock his seat the squirrel leaped Upon his knee, the timid quail led forth Her brood between his feet, and blue doves pecked The rice-grains from the bowl beside his hand.
—Edwin Arnold
Gentle and true, simple and kind was she, Noble of mien, with gracious speech to all, And gladsome looks a pearl of womanhood.
—Edwin Arnold
There is no caste in blood.
—Edwin Arnold
One can be a soldier without dying, and a lover without sighing.
—Edwin Arnold
Topics: Love, Lovers
Loving all things which live even as themselves.
—Edwin Arnold
Pity makes the world soft to the weak and noble to the strong.
—Edwin Arnold
Topics: Sympathy
For death,
Now I know, is that first breath
Which our souls draw when we enter
Life, which is of all life center.
—Edwin Arnold
Topics: Death
Radiant with heavenly pity, lost in care For those he knew not, save as fellow-lives.
—Edwin Arnold
But offer loving thoughts and acts to all.
—Edwin Arnold
That thou mayst know What others will not that I love thee most Because I loved so well all living souls.
—Edwin Arnold
Lo! as the wind is, so is mortal life; a moan, a sigh, a sob, or a storm, a strife.
—Edwin Arnold
Unto the dumb lips of his flock he lent Sad pleading words, showing how man, who prays For mercy to the gods, is merciless.
—Edwin Arnold
The birds and beasts and creeping things ’tis writ Had sense of Buddha’s vast embracing love, And took the promise of his piteous speech.
—Edwin Arnold
If one draw near to God with praise and prayer even half a cubit foot, God will go twenty leagues to meet him.
—Edwin Arnold
Topics: Prayer
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