16 Dey 1404
Quatrain 59 of 75
“Listen again. One Evening at the Close
Of Ramazan, ere the better Moon arose,
In that old Potter's Shop I stood alone
With the clay Population round in Rows.”
Reflection · Winter 1404
In winter the potter's shop is quiet — the wheel not turning, the clay cold and stiff, the rows of forms patient in the dark. Khayyam stands alone among them at the close of the season, at the threshold between the old year and the new. The clay population round in rows — winter rows, cold and still, each one containing whatever it has been made to contain.
Listen again. There is something in the winter silence of the potter's shop that is more audible than the summer's noise. The clay speaks most clearly when everything else has stopped. The close of one year is the threshold of another. The moon will arise.