8 Azar 1404
Quatrain 22 of 75
“And we, that now make merry in the Room
They left, and Summer dresses in new Bloom,
Ourselves must we beneath the Couch of Earth
Descend, ourselves to make a Couch—for whom?”
Reflection · Autumn 1404
In autumn this verse arrives at its most direct. The summer bloom has come and is now departing. The merry-making of the long year is winding toward its close. The couch of earth is more visible in autumn — in every falling leaf, in every garden retreating, in the general downward movement of things toward the ground. For whom? The autumn asks this with particular force.
Khayyam's deepest acceptance: not acceptance of personal death but acceptance of anonymous contribution. The ground you make will hold people who will not thank you because they will not know. The bloom will dress in new colors over your dissolved self. This is enough. It has always been enough.