3 Tir 1405
Quatrain 14 of 75
“The Worldly Hope men set their Hearts upon
Turns Ashes—or it prospers; and anon,
Like Snow upon the Desert's dusty Face
Lighting a little Hour or two—is gone.”
Reflection · Summer 1405
By summer the worldly hopes of spring have resolved into two camps: ash and prosperity. Khayyam observes both with the same calm. Those that prospered are not more permanent than those that became ash — they are just further along, the snow still visible but thinning at the edges, the desert showing through.
Anon — and anon, says FitzGerald, one of his best choices: the archaic word carrying the exact speed of the thing. The prosperous hope is already in its anon. Stand in the summer of your hope's fruition. Notice the white brightness. The anon will come; it always comes. Let it find you present in what is, rather than already reaching for the next hope, the next snow, the next white hour or two on the dusty face.