At the age of ten, I set my heart upon learning,
And at twenty planted my feet firmly on the ground.
At thirty, I no longer suffered from perplexity.
At forty, I knew the order of Heaven,
And at fifty heard it receptively.
At sixty, I could muse on the dictates of my heart.
And now at SEVENTY, no longer in fragment,
I see the best is yet to be, the last of life,
For which the first was made;
That fairly and freely, I may reflect,
Of all what I have learnt,
And of all what I have missed.
by: Mirza Iqbal Ashraf
August 11, 2012
Thinkers' Forum USA
A Site for Intellectual Empowerment and Exchange of Ideas
ADDENDUM:
It was my 70th birthday on August 11, 2012. A day before I was reading Confucius’ Analects searching for a reference. I stumbled across one of his saying about growing old. The philosophy of growing up and the meaning of life by Confucius touched my heart and on the morning of my 70th birthday I had this poetic composition of my autobiography as well as the “Philosophy of my Life” before me. It is an exposition of the purpose of life which is good for any one of us that before we leave, “A drop of knowledge bestowed upon us should be put back into the sea.”
Mirza