13 Shahrivar 1405
Quatrain 11 of 75
“Here with a Loaf of Bread beneath the Bough,
A Flask of Wine, a Book of Verse—and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness—
And Wilderness is Paradise enow.”
Reflection · Summer 1405
In summer this verse is lived rather than aspired to. Spring promised it; summer delivers. The bough is now in full leaf, the bread is warm from the summer heat, the wine is cool from the shade. The person beside you has been singing since spring and knows the words now. The Wilderness of summer is abundant and unruly — fuller, louder, more alive, less arranged. It is wilderness with confidence, wilderness that doesn't need to explain itself.
The book of verse is important here. Khayyam includes poetry as one of the four necessities, not as luxury. Bread feeds the body, wine loosens the mind, the person feeds the soul, and poetry holds all three of them still for a moment so you can see what you have. Enow — enough. The wilderness is paradise enough. Not paradise forever, not paradise at its most extravagant. Enough.