Plain of pains

Before a person is forced into this plain of pains,

Everything about him has been decided without his consent,

Today they have offered an excuse for what

They have already determined for tomorrow.

Omar Khayyam

translated by R. Saberi

(Picture: Summer night, Albert Bloch) 

We come and go, but for the gain, where is it?

We come and go, but for the gain, where is it?

And spin life's woof, but for the warp, where is it?

And many a righteous man has burned to dust

In heaven's blue rondure, but their smoke, where is it?


Omar Khayyam

(Translated by Edward Henry Whinfield)

(Picture: Allegory of Prudence, Titian)