23 Bahman 1404
Quatrain 21 of 75
“Lo! some we loved, the loveliest and the best
That Time and Fate of all their Vintage prest,
Have drunk their Cup a Round or two before,
And one by one crept silently to Rest.”
Reflection · Winter 1404
In winter this verse is most fully itself. The loveliest and the best are very present in winter — the season of memory, of the long dark in which faces return with particular clarity, in which you can feel the specific weight of a specific absence. Crept silently to rest — the winter rest, the deep one. Cold ground above them. But also: rest. Khayyam acknowledges it is rest.
There is something respectful in the way he describes it: silently, quietly, without the noise of the world following them. Your round is continuing. The cup is not yet finished. They went before you and they did not complain of the going. You are not alone in the round. You are where the loveliest and the best also were.