"My spirit is tossed with a thousand tormenting things, and my thoughts destroy one another the same moment they are conceived, to make way for more; and so long as my body suffers by the impressions of my mind, how shall I be able to hold paper, or a reed to write."
— Anonymous
Author
Date
1706, 1715 [1706-1721]
Metaphor
"My spirit is tossed with a thousand tormenting things, and my thoughts destroy one another the same moment they are conceived, to make way for more; and so long as my body suffers by the impressions of my mind, how shall I be able to hold paper, or a reed to write."
Metaphor in Context
The prince of Persia was not satisfied to read the letter once; he thought he had read it with too little attention, and therefore read it again with more leisure; and as he read, sometimes he uttered sighs, sometimes he wept, and sometimes he discovered transports of joy and affection, as one who was touched with what he read. In a word, he could not keep his eyes off those characters drawn by so lovely a hand, and therefore began to read it a third time. Then Ebn Thaher told him that the confidant could not stay, and that he ought to think of giving an answer. Alas! cries the prince, how would you have me answer so kind a letter? In what terms shall I express the trouble that I am in? My spirit is tossed with a thousand tormenting things, and my thoughts destroy one another the same moment they are conceived, to make way for more; and so long as my body suffers by the impressions of my mind, how shall I be able to hold paper, or a reed to write. Having spoke thus, he took out of a little desk, paper, cane, and ink.
(I, p. 163; cf. V, p. 111 in ECCO; pp. 326-7 in Mack's ed.)
Categories
Provenance
Reading
Citation
81 entries in ESTC (1706, 1712, 1713, 1715, 1717, 1718, 1721, 1722, 1725, 1726, 1728, 1730, 1736, 1744, 1745, 1748, 1753, 1754, 1763, 1767, 1772, 1776, 1777, 1778, 1781, 1783, 1785, 1789, 1790, 1792, 1793, 1794, 1796, 1797, 1798, 1800).
See Antoine Galland's Mille et une Nuit (1704-1717); translated into English from 1706 to 1721 (six volumes published in French and translated into English by 1706; 1717 vols. xi and xii published and translated).
Some text from Tales of the East: Comprising the Most Popular Romances of Oriental Origin, ed. Henry Weber, 3 vols. (Edinburgh: Ballantyne, 1812). <Link to Google Books>
Reading Arabian Nights Entertainments, ed. Robert L. Mack (Oxford: OUP, 1995). [Mack bases his text on Weber's Tales of the East]
Confirmed in ECCO.
See Antoine Galland's Mille et une Nuit (1704-1717); translated into English from 1706 to 1721 (six volumes published in French and translated into English by 1706; 1717 vols. xi and xii published and translated).
Some text from Tales of the East: Comprising the Most Popular Romances of Oriental Origin, ed. Henry Weber, 3 vols. (Edinburgh: Ballantyne, 1812). <Link to Google Books>
Reading Arabian Nights Entertainments, ed. Robert L. Mack (Oxford: OUP, 1995). [Mack bases his text on Weber's Tales of the East]
Confirmed in ECCO.
Date of Entry
06/20/2014
