Have always wondered about this. This is such an enormously famous quote although the exact choice of words has always perplexed me. Initially figured it is an artifact of translation, but then, wouldn’t you translate it into the new language in a way that is grammatical? Or maybe there is some intention behind this weird phrasing that is just lost on me? I’m not a linguist so eli5
In: 1806
As others have said, [it is an archaic construction of the present tense from Early Modern English](https://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2020/03/now-i-am-become-death.html), as Oppenheimer was ~~likely quoting the 1785 translation of Bhagavad Gita. (Even though 1785 was well into the Modern English period,~~ it was still fashionable to use older-style constructions in literature, just as it is today.) Oppenheimer apparently knew the original Sanskrit, and that’s how he “originally” quoted it during the atomic test, only saying the “official” translated version in the media afterwards. [Source: [TOI 2014-06-10](https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/satyam-bruyat/bhagavad-gita-and-the-first-atomic-explosion/)]
[*Edit: Wilkins’s 1785 translation reads “I am Time, the destroyer of mankind, matured”; the [1855 Cockburn translation](https://archive.org/details/dli.ministry.10209/page/79/mode/2up) reads “I am Death, that causes the destruction of mankind, (already) mature.”; [Davies 1882 and later](https://archive.org/details/hinduphilosophyb00daviuoft/page/124/mode/2up) reads “Lo, I am old and world-destroying Time”; [Telang 1882](https://www.rarebooksocietyofindia.org/book_archive/196174216674_10154419998761675.pdf) reads “I am death, the destroyer of the worlds, fully developed”; [Besant & Das 1906](http://www.vivekananda.net/PDFBooks/bhagavadgitawith00londiala.pdf) reads “Time am I, laying desolate the world”; [Arnold 1885](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2388)’s poetic interpretation (and apparently one of Gandhi’s inspirations) reads “Thou seest Me as Time who kills, // Time who brings all to doom, // The Slayer Time, Ancient of Days, come hither to consume;”. Thanks to u/Tuva_Tourist below for alerting me to this. I’m looking more into the [history of translations of the BG](https://beezone.com/beezones-main-stack/the-early-history-of-translation-of-the-bhagavad-gita-1785-1945.html) to try to find who Oppenheimer was actually reading, but it may be that Oppenheimer’s archaic wording was entirely his own translation.*]
I was curious, however, what the actual Sanskrit text was, and whether this translation was faithful, or if it was even trying to convey one of the [many unusual Sanskrit tenses and moods](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanskrit_verbs) that are absent in English. The [full line from the text](https://bhagavadgita.io/chapter/11/verse/32/) is
>कालोऽस्मि लोकक्षयकृत्प्रवृद्धो [kālo ’smi loka-kṣhaya-kṛit pravṛiddho]
Where “asmi” is “I am” — the boring old first person present indicative, nothing more. Now there are [lots of alternate translations to “death” and “destroyer” according to some randos on the internet](https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-original-meaning-of-the-quote-from-the-Bhagavad-Gita-Now-I-am-become-Death-the-destroyer-of-worlds), but overall the translation would be accurate, even if it adds an archaic flourish even for its time. [The final link is for casual reference only; I do not endorse that site’s reliability and I recommend avoiding its use as much as possible and never contributing content to it.]
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