Page:Quatrains of Omar Khayyam (tr. Whinfield, 1883).djvu/384

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THE QUATRAINS OF

489.

Cheer up! your lot was settled yesterday!
Heedless of all that you might do or say,
    Without so much as "By your leave" they fixed
Your lot for all the morrows yesterday!


490.

I never would have come, had I been asked,
I would as lief not go, if I were asked,
    And, to be short, I would annihilate
All coming, being, going, were I asked!


491.

Man is a cup, his soul the wine therein.
Flesh is a pipe, spirit the voice within;
    O Khayyam, have you fathomed what man is?
A magic lantern with a light therein!


489.   C. L. A. B. I.   Predestination.

490.   C. L. N. (in part) A. B. I. J.   So the Ecclesiast, "Therefore I hated life," &c.