AndrewHay.es

Remember you must die

The Salutation of the Dawn

Listen to the exhortation of the dawn!

Look to this day!

For it is life, the very life of life.

In its brief course lie all the

verities and realities of your existence;

the bliss of growth,

the glory of action,

the splendor of beauty;

for yesterday is but a dream,

and tomorrow is only a vision;

but today well lived makes

every yesterday a dream of happiness,

and every tomorrow a vision of hope.

Look well, therefore, to this day!

Such is the salutation of the dawn.

Kālidāsa

Philippe de Champaigne, Still Life with a Skull (c. 1671): a tulip in a glass vase, a human skull and an hourglass on a stone ledge, in candlelight

Memento mori