Quatrain 49
Quatrain 49 of 75
“'Tis all a Chequer-board of Nights and Days
Where Destiny with Men for Pieces plays:
Hither and thither moves, and mates, and slays,
And one by one back in the Closet lays.”
Reflection · Autumn
The Chequer-board of Nights and Days — black squares and white squares, the alternation of dark and light that Khayyam has been watching and measuring his whole life. Destiny moves the pieces according to rules the pieces cannot see. Hither and thither moves, and mates, and slays — the moves are not random but they are not ours. We feel ourselves choosing, but the choice is within the square we are placed on.
One by one back in the Closet lays — and when the game is over, the pieces go back. Into the box, into the dark, undifferentiated. This is autumn's central fact.