26 Ordibehesht 1405
Quatrain 52 of 75
“And that inverted Bowl we call The Sky,
Whereunder crawling coop't we live and die,
Lift not thy hands to IT for help—for It
Rolls impotently on as Thou or I.”
Reflection · Spring 1405
The inverted bowl in spring is blue and bright and convincingly benevolent — the spring sky looks like something that could be addressed, that might hear. Khayyam says: it isn't. Rolls impotently on as Thou or I — the spring sky is rolling through its Khayyam-calculated courses, mechanically completing the orbit that produces the equinox, which produces the Nowruz, which feels like divine intention but is celestial mechanics. Beautiful celestial mechanics.
Lift not thy hands — in spring this is not despair. It is clarity. The spring is beautiful and real, and it produces its beauty from the same impotent rolling that Khayyam measures.