Note 43 — Life and Death.
Reading edition
A German journal proposed that the following lines should be translated into any other language, so that the number of lines and words should not exceed those in the original (twenty words).
Sohn! Du weintest am Tage der Geburt, es lachten die Freunde;
Tracht, dass am Todestag, wæhrend sie weinen, du lachst.
The English response thus complied with the conditions (seventeen words):—
When I was born I cried, while others smiled;
Oh, may I dying smile, while others weep.