What exactly is the comparison between time being a traitor and a scale that GRA is making?
והזמן בוגד והוא כמאזנים יגביה הקל וישפיל הכבד
Answer
This text of the Gra (Elijah of Vilna) is from his last will. It is brought in the collection of Israel Abraham's 'Hebrew Ethical Wills' (vol. 2 p. 313). He translates it as follows:
Time deceives, resembling a balance which raises the light and lowers the heavy
My understanding of the aphorism is: With his use of time the "light" (swift, diligent) is "lifted" - he acts and accomplishes. The "heavy" (passive, idle) is "weighed down" by time - he squanders the moment.
Note: The Gra probably borrowed this from Abraham Hisdai's Ben Ha-melech Ve-ha'nazir (ibid, ch. 5). There, its form is somewhat different:
הזמן הרע עם בני הנבלים. בדמותם למאזנים אשר ירימו החסרים וישפילו השלמים היתרים. ואמר המשורר... כמאזנים מרימים החסרים ומשפילים עדי ארץ שלמים
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