16 Esfand 1404
Quatrain 43 of 75
“The Grape that can with Logic absolute
The Two-and-Seventy jarring Sects confute:
The subtle Alchemist that in a Trice
Life's leaden Metal into Gold transmute.”
Reflection · Winter 1404
In winter the grape has become wine and the wine has been aging since autumn and the subtle Alchemist has had months to work. The two-and-seventy sects are still jarring, as they always have. The grape confutes them not by defeating their arguments but by providing an alternative that requires no argument. Life's leaden metal in winter is particularly leaden — the darkness, the cold, the year's end pressing in.
And in a trice the cup does its transmutation. Not forever — the gold doesn't last until morning. But for the hour or two, the transmutation is real and complete. This is what Khayyam loved: not an eternal alchemy but a real one.