12 Mordad 1405
Quatrain 54 of 75
“I tell Thee this—When, starting from the Goal,
Over the shoulders of the flaming Foal
Of Heav'n Parwin and Mushtari they flung,
In my predestin'd Plot of Dust and Soul”
Reflection · Summer 1405
Parwin and Mushtari in summer are different stars than in winter — lower in the sky, visible only briefly. But they are the same stars. The astronomical fact of your birth is constant through the seasons. The flaming Foal is at its highest and fastest in summer — the solar horse at full gallop, the year racing toward its own goal.
Dust and Soul — summer makes the Soul feel ascendant and the Dust very far away. But Khayyam binds them together in the same Plot: the soul is a condition of the dust, the dust a vehicle for the soul. Both constant in the predestined configuration.