Man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward

“Man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward” is a proverb-like expression that treats hardship not as an isolated accident but as a condition bound up with human life. Its image gives that claim a physical direction: trouble rises as naturally and repeatedly as sparks fly upward.

Wording and Image

The saying follows a rejection of the idea that affliction comes from dust or trouble springs from the ground. Against those images of trouble as something merely lying in the world, it declares that people are born into it. The comparison with upward-flying sparks makes the thought vivid without naming a particular cause or kind of suffering.

Place in the Passage

Immediately after the maxim, the speaker turns toward God, saying that he would seek God and commit his cause to God. That movement places the saying beside an appeal for divine help: acknowledging the persistence of trouble does not, in this passage, end the search for a response to it. The expression’s lasting force lies in this pairing of stark recognition with continued recourse to God.