13 Dey 1404
Quatrain 56 of 75
“And this I know: whether the one True Light,
Kindle to Love, or Wrath consume me quite,
One Glimpse of It within the Tavern caught
Better than in the Temple lost outright.”
Reflection · Winter 1404
In winter the one True Light is at its most conditional — the winter light is pale and brief. The glimpse in the Tavern is harder to catch in Dey and Bahman. But Khayyam says this I know. He knows it. The glimpse in the Tavern — the firelit winter room, the warm cup, the specific quality of winter's compressed beauty — is better than the Temple's promise of a fuller Light that the Temple cannot quite deliver.
Better in the hand than in the promised heaven. The winter glimpse is small and warm and real. Khayyam chooses the small real glimpse every time.