24 Farvardin 1405
Quatrain 20 of 75
“Ah! my Beloved, fill the Cup that clears
TO-DAY of past Regrets and future Fears—
To-morrow?—Why, To-morrow I may be
Myself with Yesterday's Sev'n Thousand Years.”
Reflection · Spring 1405
Ah, my Beloved — the address itself is spring, is the exact quality of a feeling new enough to still be in its first intensity. Fill the cup that clears today. Let the spring morning be fully spring, not weighted with what was or anxious about what comes. The past regrets are thin in Farvardin — the year just started, the account nearly empty. The future fears are abstract. What Khayyam is asking for is the simple gift of the present, cleared of its surrounding noise.
Seven thousand years of yesterday — this is Khayyam's astronomical time entering the love poem. The astronomer who calculated the length of the solar year to a precision not matched for centuries is here in the same poem as the beloved with the cup. Tomorrow I may be myself with yesterday's seven thousand years: dissolved into the ancient matter of the world. Today I am here, in spring, with the cup, with the beloved.