SpringWednesday, June 3, 2026
13 Khordad 1405
Quatrain 69 of 75
“Alas, that Spring should vanish with the Rose!
That Youth's sweet-scented Manuscript should close!
The Nightingale that in the Branches sang,
Ah, whence, and whither flown again, who knows!”
Omar Khayyamtr. Edward FitzGerald, 1859
Reflection · Spring 1405
Alas — this is Khayyam's only sustained lamentation, the one verse where the defense breaks down and the loss is simply felt. Alas, that spring should vanish with the rose. In spring, this verse is prophetic — you are reading it while the very thing it mourns is still here. The rose is still open. The nightingale is still in the branches. And Khayyam says: alas. Alas that this will close.
The verse is a gift if you can receive it in spring: full knowledge of the preciousness of what you have, while you have it.