22 Tir 1405
Quatrain 33 of 75
“Then to the rolling Heav'n itself I cried,
Asking, "What Lamp had Destiny to guide
Her little Children stumbling in the Dark?"
And—"A blind understanding!" Heav'n replied.”
Reflection · Summer 1405
The rolling heaven in summer is at its brightest — the lamp of Destiny as lit as it gets. And still: blind understanding. The summer answer to Khayyam's question is no different from the winter one, but it is harder to hear against the summer brightness. Her little children stumbling in the dark — in summer the dark is compressed into the short nights, and the stumbling is harder to notice. But it is there.
Khayyam found this funny in a dark way and useful in a liberating way. If the understanding that guides us is blind, then the confidence of summer's decisions is not founded on superior sight but on superior light that still illuminates nothing fundamental.