Do the Years Wait for Me?

first asked by Confucius (in words Yang Huo pressed on him)

기원전 5세기 (춘추시대)

THE QUESTION ITSELF

If the years flow on and do not wait for me, when shall I begin what I have kept putting off?

THE QUESTION · ORIGINAL

日月逝矣，歲不我與

📜 WHERE THE QUESTION WAS BORN

The days and months flow on; the years do not wait for me.

🌿The Lineage — How the Answers Split

The words "the years do not wait for me" became a wellspring in the East of exhortation to prize the season. Tao Yuanming carried the spirit into verse — "youth does not come again, nor a day two dawns; strive while the time is yours" — and Zhu Xi's exhortation to learning, "youth grows old easily and learning is hard to complete," grew from the same root. Remarkably, this resonates exactly with Horace's "seize the day" and Seneca's "postponement is the greatest waste" on the other side of the earth. This exhortation not to miss the season before flowing years continues, indifferent to East or West, as an old urging finite humans give themselves.

♾️ WHY IT STILL LIVES

For us, quick to put our aims off to the next time, this ancient urging — that the years do not wait — hands us again the courage to begin now.

💡 TL;DR

Yang Huo, pressing Confucius to take office, urges him thus: the days and months keep flowing, and the years will not wait for you.

📝I, Too, Stand Before It

Yang Huo, pressing Confucius to take office, urges him thus: the days and months keep flowing, and the years will not wait for you. It is a push not to miss the season if one holds an aim. That the words came within an argument meant to persuade only adds to their weight — for that the years do not wait is a truth none can deny. I sense this question is among the oldest warnings against delay. Before the years that flow on and will not return, I too take out again the aims I had put off.

— ONGO · Curator

✍️Your Answer

The lineage of the ancients ends here. Now it is your turn before the question. There is no right answer — only how you, today, would answer.

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📖 Source: Confucius, "Analects," Yang Huo 1. Ancient text in the public domain; rendered and interpreted independently by ONGO.
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