THE
WASTE
LAND
::
T. S.
ELIOT
POEM MAP ENDNOTES SOURCES ABOUT

The Waste Land

Lines 399-401

Then spoke the thunder
Da
Datta: what have we given?

Eliot's Note

401. “Datta, dayadhvam, damyata” (Give, sympathise, control). The fable of the meaning of the Thunder is found in the Brihadaranyaka—Upanishad, 5, 1. A translation is found in Deussen's Sechsig Upanishads des Veda, p. 489.

Context

The Upanishads are a collection of Hindu scriptures. A translation of the fable of the Thunder is available on the reference page.

References