Yesterday is gone, and yesterday's word has passed like yesterday.
Today a fresh word must be spoken.
دی رفت و حدیث دی چو دی هم بگذشت
امروز حدیث تازه باید کردنDî reft u hadîs-i dî çü dî hem begzeşt
Emrûz hadîs-i tâze bâyed kerden
Rumi, Divan-i Kabir, Quatrains, no. 1519 (13th century).
Yesterday is gone.
Yesterday's word went with it.
Still, people carry old sentences.
Old resentments,
answers no one asks for anymore.
The same quatrain gives water as its example:
flowing water does not freeze.
Whoever wakes each morning with the same word
has frozen somewhere.
Today's word has not yet been said.
It is said by the one who can let yesterday's word go.