Thursday, June 30, 2011
The More Idle, the More Deserving
Edward FitzGerald (1809-1883), letter to Bernard Barton (July 24, 1839):
ALAS!
THE HOURS WE WASTE
IN WORK
AND SIMILAR
INCONSEQUENCE!
FRIENDS,
I BEG YOU,
DO NOT SHIRK
YOUR DAILY
TASK
OF INDOLENCE!
GIVE ME RUM
AND GIVE ME REST!
THAT IS ALL I ASK OF LIFE.
THOSE WHO THINK
THAT WORK IS BEST
ARE WELCOME TO THE TOIL AND
STRIFE!
GIVE ME REST AND GIVE ME RUM,
A PIPE,
AND TIME TO GO A-FISHIN';
I'LL ENTERTAIN THE DREAMS THAT
COME
AND MURMUR
"DEVIL TAKE AMBITION!"
I LOATHE THE MORAL
APHORISMS
THAT BID ME WORK AND NEVER PLAY!
I'D FLING THEIR WRITERS DOWN
ABYSYMS
COULD I BUT HAVE
MY GENTLE WAY!
WHO LOVES TO SOIL
HIS HANDS WITH TOIL
LET HIM STRAIGHTWAY GO TO IT!
MYSELF, I CAN'T ADMIRE THE ANT,
AND SHALL NOT TRY
TO DO IT!
I WILL NOT DRUDGE!
INDEED, I GRUDGE
THE TIME WORK TAKES — 'TIS SILLY!
I WILL NOT SHIRK MY NOBLER WORK
OF BEING JUST A LILY!
THE GOLDEN-DAYS
WE WASTE IN TOIL
WILL NEVERMORE RETURN!
THE PROPER SORT OF MIDNIGHT OIL
WAS MADE TO DRINK,
NOT BURN!
IN SUMMER, SPRING, AND ALSO FALL
I DO NOT LIKE
TO WORK AT ALL.
IN WINTER,
AS YOU MAY HAVE GUESSED,
MY FAVORITE INDOOR SPORT
IS REST.
HEED NO MAXIMS
STALE AND OLDEN
THAT BID YOU GARNER
WORLDLY SPOIL!
SHAME UPON YOU FOR THE GOLDEN
HOURS YOU WASTE
IN SELFISH TOIL!
Related posts:
Newer› ‹Older
For all which idle ease I think I must be damned. I begin to have dreadful suspicions that this fruitless way of life is not looked upon with satisfaction by the open eyes above. One really ought to dip for a little misery: perhaps however all this ease is only intended to turn sour by and bye, and so to poison one by the very nature of self-indulgence. Perhaps again as idleness is so very great a trial of virtue, the idle man who keeps himself tolerably chaste, etc., may deserve the highest reward; the more idle, the more deserving. Really I don't jest: but I don't propound these things as certain.In the same spirit, these mottoes, suitable for display on your cubicle wall, are scattered throughout Don Marquis' The Almost Perfect State (1927):
ALAS!
THE HOURS WE WASTE
IN WORK
AND SIMILAR
INCONSEQUENCE!
FRIENDS,
I BEG YOU,
DO NOT SHIRK
YOUR DAILY
TASK
OF INDOLENCE!
GIVE ME RUM
AND GIVE ME REST!
THAT IS ALL I ASK OF LIFE.
THOSE WHO THINK
THAT WORK IS BEST
ARE WELCOME TO THE TOIL AND
STRIFE!
GIVE ME REST AND GIVE ME RUM,
A PIPE,
AND TIME TO GO A-FISHIN';
I'LL ENTERTAIN THE DREAMS THAT
COME
AND MURMUR
"DEVIL TAKE AMBITION!"
I LOATHE THE MORAL
APHORISMS
THAT BID ME WORK AND NEVER PLAY!
I'D FLING THEIR WRITERS DOWN
ABYSYMS
COULD I BUT HAVE
MY GENTLE WAY!
WHO LOVES TO SOIL
HIS HANDS WITH TOIL
LET HIM STRAIGHTWAY GO TO IT!
MYSELF, I CAN'T ADMIRE THE ANT,
AND SHALL NOT TRY
TO DO IT!
I WILL NOT DRUDGE!
INDEED, I GRUDGE
THE TIME WORK TAKES — 'TIS SILLY!
I WILL NOT SHIRK MY NOBLER WORK
OF BEING JUST A LILY!
THE GOLDEN-DAYS
WE WASTE IN TOIL
WILL NEVERMORE RETURN!
THE PROPER SORT OF MIDNIGHT OIL
WAS MADE TO DRINK,
NOT BURN!
IN SUMMER, SPRING, AND ALSO FALL
I DO NOT LIKE
TO WORK AT ALL.
IN WINTER,
AS YOU MAY HAVE GUESSED,
MY FAVORITE INDOOR SPORT
IS REST.
HEED NO MAXIMS
STALE AND OLDEN
THAT BID YOU GARNER
WORLDLY SPOIL!
SHAME UPON YOU FOR THE GOLDEN
HOURS YOU WASTE
IN SELFISH TOIL!
Related posts:
- Work and Leisure
- Praise of Laziness
- Lazy Man's Song
- Exquisite Pregnant Idleness
- How Can I Work?
- Dolce Far Niente
- Weekdays of Unfreedom
- The Dreary Vacuum of Idleness
- Idleness and Business
- Archilochus on the Idle Life
- Idleness
- Futile Work
