Page:Quatrains of Omar Khayyam (tr. Whinfield, 1883).djvu/228

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172
THE QUATRAINS OF

255.

Though you should live to four, or forty score,
Go hence you must, as all have gone before;
    Then, be you king, or beggar of the streets,
They'll rate you all the same, no less, no more.


256.

If you seek Him, abandon child and wife,
Arise, and sever all these ties to life;
    All these are bonds to check you on your course.
Arise, and cut these bonds, as with a knife.


257.

O heart! this world is but a fleeting show,
Why should its empty griefs distress thee so?
    Bow down, and bear thy fate, the eternal pen
Will not unwrite its roll for thee, I trow!


255.   L.

256.   L. B.   So Gulshan i Ráz, l. 944.