3 Khordad 1405
Quatrain 59 of 75
“Listen again. One Evening at the Close
Of Ramazan, ere the better Moon arose,
In that old Potter's Shop I stood alone
With the clay Population round in Rows.”
Reflection · Spring 1405
The clay population in rows — waiting, patient, shaped and fired and shelved, each one a life compressed into form. Khayyam stands alone among them at the close of Ramazan, in the threshold moment before the new moon, and listens. In spring this verse is planted early as a reminder of what the clay population is. Every person in the spring festival — these are the clay population, currently animated, making the noise and warmth that the shelved pots can no longer make.
Listen again — this is Khayyam's instruction for spring. Not just to the celebration. To what underlies it.