16 Aban 1404
Quatrain 75 of 75
“Heav'n but the Vision of fulfill'd Desire,
And Hell the Shadow of a Soul on fire;
And that is what I saw, and what I heard,
And all beside is Emptiness—or Ire!”
Reflection · Autumn 1404
In autumn this verse is the year's summation. Heaven but the Vision of fulfilled Desire — and the autumn is full of such visions, in retrospect: the spring morning that was fully inhabited, the summer evening that was completely present, the exact moment when the cup was full and the beloved was present. Those were heaven. Those happened.
Hell the Shadow of a Soul on fire — and the autumn knows this too: the moments of burning without satisfaction, the desires that did not find their object, the seasons squandered in the fretfulness of the unborn tomorrow. This is what Khayyam saw. This is what he heard.