30 Bahman 1404
Quatrain 28 of 75
“With them the Seed of Wisdom did I sow,
And with my own hand labour'd it to grow:
And this was all the Harvest that I reap'd—
"I came like Water, and like Wind I go."”
Reflection · Winter 1404
In winter the harvest is in. The season of inquiry has completed another cycle and arrived at the same harvest it always arrives at: water and wind. Origin and destination unknown. The labour real and the result honest. I came like Water — winter water, deep in aquifers and frozen in mountain ice, invisible and present. Like Wind I go — winter wind, cold and directionless.
Khayyam's harvest is perfectly winter-colored: stripped of decoration, present without pretense, true in the way that only cold things are truly true. Hold this harvest in winter as what it is — the product of genuine inquiry, honestly pursued, faithfully reported. Not a consolation, not an evasion. An actual result. You came like water. You will go like wind.