3 Shahrivar 1405
Quatrain 1 of 75
“Awake! for Morning in the Bowl of Night
Has flung the Stone that puts the Stars to Flight:
And Lo! the Hunter of the East has caught
The Sultan's Turret in a Noose of Light.”
Reflection · Summer 1405
Read this verse in the long heat of Tir or Mordad and the command shifts register. In spring it is an invitation disguised as an order. In summer it is a reminder that you accepted that invitation months ago — did you follow through? The morning light in summer is harder, arrives earlier, stays longer. The Hunter of the East no longer hesitates. He owns the sky.
Khayyam was writing to everyone who oversleeps their own life. The bowl of night fills and empties every twenty-four hours whether or not you witness it. Summer mornings press this question: you have been awake for months now since the year opened in spring — what have you done with the light you were given? The Turret glows. The stars have fled. Whatever you were going to do with this season, you are running out of mornings to begin.