SummerTuesday, August 18, 2026
27 Mordad 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 · Summer 1405
Alas, that spring should vanish with the rose — in summer the vanishing has begun. The spring is gone, the specific spring of this year, with its specific nightingale in its specific branches. Where did it go? Whence and whither — the nightingale has flown and who knows where. Youth's sweet-scented manuscript is being written right now, in summer, and it is already partial past.
This is Khayyam allowing himself, briefly, to feel the loss rather than analyze it.