9 Shahrivar 1405
Quatrain 7 of 75
“Come, fill the Cup, and in the Fire of Spring
The Winter Garment of Repentance fling:
The Bird of Time has but a little way
To fly—and Lo! the Bird is on the Wing.”
Reflection · Summer 1405
In summer this verse is read as fulfilled or as accusation. You filled the cup in spring, you flung the winter garment — good. Or you hesitated, kept the penitence, waited for a safer moment to be alive, and now the Bird of Time is further along its short flight and the fire of spring has mellowed into the ember-heat of Mordad. But summer has its own fire — different, slower, more amber than orange. The cup can still be filled.
The Bird is on the wing always. That is the point. Not that you missed your chance in spring. The Bird does not circle back. But you are always, at any moment, exactly here — and from here, right now, the Bird is flying, and the cup is still in your hand. The garment can still be flung into whatever fire the season offers. The wing-beat is audible. Be quick.