Reading Omar Khayyám

I just read the Rubáiyát from Omar Khayyám - the Edward Fitzgerald translation. The admirer of Avicenna had a good understanding of time and the shortness of life. 

Ah, make the most of what we yet may spend. Before we too into the Dust descend;
Dust into Dust, and under Dust, to lie. Sans Wine, sans Song, sans Singer, and — sans End!

He also understood the importance of living in the present. 

Alike for those who for To-day prepare, And those that after a To-morrow stare, A Muezzin from the Tower of Darkness cries ' Fools! your Reward is neither Here nor There!'

Ah, fill the Cup - what boots it to repeat How Time is slipping underneath our Feet -.Unborn To-morrow. and dead Yesterday, Why fret about them if Today be sweet! 

And he thought that we don't get it because...

The secret must be kept from all non-people;
the mystery must be hidden from all idiots

The polymath knew how to solve cubic equations in the times of the First Crusade. How many of us can say the same? - Not me.

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