A thousand arrows pierce him and he still survives;
But when the moment fixed in heaven's eternal will
Comes round, a single blade of yielding grass may kill.
—From the Mahabharata, tr. by Frederic Rowland Marvin.
———
God gives to man the power to strike or miss you;
It is not thy foe who did the thing.
The arrow from the bow may seem to issue,
But we know an archer drew the string.
—Saadi, tr. by James Freeman Clarke.