Quatrain 37
Quatrain 37 of 75
“Ah, fill the Cup:—what boots it to repeat
How Time is slipping underneath our Feet:
Unborn TO-MORROW and dead YESTERDAY,
Why fret about them if TO-DAY be sweet!”
Reflection · Summer
What boots it — what is the use, what does it gain you? Khayyam is a man who spent his life measuring the slip of time to the nearest fraction of a second. He knows more about time slipping than anyone. And he asks: what boots it to repeat this fact while the cup sits empty? Unborn Tomorrow and dead Yesterday are both unavailable to you. Between these two absences: today. Here. Sweet.
In summer, if to-day is sweet — and summer gives you the most convincing version of sweet that the year offers — the fretting about the dead and unborn is not just futile but a waste of the sweetness. The cup is full. The day is here. Time slips whether or not you fret. Fill the cup.