Rubaiyat - Verses LXVI-LXIX

Listen to:

Rubaiyat - Verses LXVI-LXIX (1:13)

by Omar Khayyam 

translated by Edward Fitzgerald

performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode

    LXVI

    I sent my Soul through the Invisible,

    Some letter of that After-life to spell:

    And by and by my Soul return'd to me,

    And answer'd "I Myself am Heav'n and Hell:"

    LXVII

    Heav'n but the Vision of fulfill'd Desire,

    And Hell the Shadow from a Soul on fire,

    Cast on the Darkness into which Ourselves,

    So late emerged from, shall so soon expire.

    LXVIII

    We are no other than a moving row

    Of Magic Shadow-shapes that come and go

    Round with the Sun-illumined Lantern held

    In Midnight by the Master of the Show;

    LXIX

    But helpless Pieces of the Game He plays

    Upon this Chequer-board of Nights and Days;

    Hither and thither moves, and checks, and slays,

    And one by one back in the Closet lays.