What’s the origin of the phrase ‘The moving finger writes’?
This line originates in English in Edward Fitzgerald’s translation of the poem The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam, 1859:
The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.