batch.motif.sufi-omar-khayyam-sufistic-quatrains-gutenberg-l14821-l15012
---
record_id: batch.motif.sufi-omar-khayyam-sufistic-quatrains-gutenberg-l14821-l15012
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/sufi/project-gutenberg/sufistic-quatrains-omar-khayyam.md
passage_locator:
label: QUATRAINS OF OMAR KHAYYAM / MONSIEUR J.B. NICOLAS / THE QUATRAINS OF KHAYYAM
/ THE QUATRAINS OF OMAR KHAYYAM; lines 14821-15012
start: '14821'
end: '15012'
translation: The Sufistic Quatrains of Omar Khayyam
notes: Generated from OpenAI Batch run motif-extraction-2026-04-28-high-priority;
human review required.
canonical_text:
quote: ''
summary: A sequence of quatrains gives counsel on grief, poverty, destiny, wine,
companionship, mortality, ignorance, tavern life, paradise imagery, bodily limitation,
and the end of all ranks in tomb and coffin. It repeatedly invokes the cupbearer,
wine, tavern, friend or divinity, earth, and transience, and includes scenes with
a wise man, a cock at dawn, and a potter shaping pitchers.
language: English
quote_policy: summarized
literal_observations:
- id: obs:1
text: The speaker advises resignation to grief, non-complaint about suffering, and
thankfulness to Providence in poverty.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: obs:2
text: A wise man in the house of a drunken man answers a question about the absent
by advising the speaker to drink wine, saying many have gone out and not returned.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: obs:3
text: The speaker seeks ruby wine, a book of verse, peace, bread, a friend, and
a lone resting place, calling this happier than a Sultan's joy.
category: object
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- id: obs:4
text: The speaker repeatedly addresses a cupbearer and asks for wine, music, and
a treatise on the tavern rather than other named religious topics.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- id: obs:5
text: The speaker says people are of earth and like wind, and tells the addressee
to act as one upon the earth rather than beneath it.
category: attribute
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- ev:7
- id: obs:6
text: The speaker warns not to step outside destiny while the body has bones, veins,
and nerves, and gives examples of a powerful enemy and a generous friend.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: obs:7
text: The speaker lists lips, wine, drum, harp, and flute as trifles unless the
bonds of the dark world are broken.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: obs:8
text: The passage presents Paradise, the brook of Koocer, land outside Hell transformed
into a celestial place, and a celestial fair.
category: setting
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- id: obs:9
text: The speaker instructs the hearer to follow the way of the Kalendar, seek the
tavern, attend to wine, song, and the friend identified parenthetically as the
Divinity, and carry a cup and gourd.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:9
- id: obs:10
text: The world is called a house of pilferers, and the hearer is told to bear suffering
without seeking a remedy there or sharing it with another.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:10
- id: obs:11
text: 'Two unproclaimed foundations of wisdom are stated: not eating anything that
eats other things, and remaining unsullied by all that lives.'
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:10
- id: obs:12
text: The passage asks how vine juice changes from sharp to sweet to bitter wine,
and compares shaped wood becoming different instruments.
category: sequence
evidence_refs:
- ev:11
- id: obs:13
text: A cock at daybreak is said to announce that one more night has passed from
the hearer's life while the hearer remains ignorant.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:12
- id: obs:14
text: Wine is repeatedly described as ruby-colored, tulip-colored, blood-like, nectar-like,
and capable of giving new life to the soul or making the speaker a stranger to
himself.
category: attribute
evidence_refs:
- ev:13
- id: obs:15
text: The passage names philosophers and rulers and says that even such figures
end in the tomb or coffin.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:14
- id: obs:16
text: In a potter's studio, the speaker sees a potter at a wheel shaping pitchers
with necks and handles, some like heads of kings and some like feet of beggars.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:15
figures:
- id: fig:1
name_or_label: speaker or poetic counselor
description: The first-person and imperative voice that gives counsel, asks questions,
and requests wine from the cupbearer.
role_refs:
- role:1
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:4
- ev:13
- id: fig:2
name_or_label: cupbearer
description: Repeatedly addressed as the one who should bring wine, pour wine, strike
the harp, and provide the cup.
role_refs:
- role:2
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- ev:13
- id: fig:3
name_or_label: friend identified as the Divinity
description: Named in the instruction to occupy oneself with wine, song, and the
friend, with the bracketed gloss '[the Divinity]'.
role_refs:
- role:3
evidence_refs:
- ev:9
- id: fig:4
name_or_label: Kalendar
description: Presented as the model whose way should be followed.
role_refs:
- role:4
evidence_refs:
- ev:9
- id: fig:5
name_or_label: wise man
description: Seen in the house of a drunken man at evening and questioned about
the absent.
role_refs:
- role:5
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: fig:6
name_or_label: drunken man
description: Owner or occupant of the house in which the wise man is seen at evening.
role_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: fig:7
name_or_label: cock
description: An early-rising cock whose voice is interpreted as announcing the passing
of another night.
role_refs:
- role:6
evidence_refs:
- ev:12
- id: fig:8
name_or_label: potter
description: A worker in a studio, actively moulding pitchers at a wheel.
role_refs:
- role:7
evidence_refs:
- ev:15
- id: fig:9
name_or_label: exemplary sages, heroes, and rulers
description: Named figures used as examples of wisdom, power, enmity, generosity,
or mortality, including Rustum, Hatim-tai, Aristotle, Bouzourdj-mehr, a Roman
emperor, a potentate of China, and Bahram.
role_refs:
- role:8
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- ev:14
roles:
- id: role:1
label: counseling speaker
assigned_to:
- fig:1
basis: The voice gives repeated imperatives and advice about grief, destiny, wine,
suffering, and wisdom.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:4
- ev:10
- id: role:2
label: wine-giver and ritual addressee
assigned_to:
- fig:2
basis: The cupbearer is repeatedly asked to bring or pour wine and associated with
music and the cup.
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- ev:13
- id: role:3
label: divine companion
assigned_to:
- fig:3
basis: The friend is explicitly glossed in the passage as '[the Divinity]'.
evidence_refs:
- ev:9
- id: role:4
label: model path-follower
assigned_to:
- fig:4
basis: The hearer is told to follow no way other than that followed by the Kalendar.
evidence_refs:
- ev:9
- id: role:5
label: answering sage
assigned_to:
- fig:5
basis: The wise man answers the speaker's question about the absent.
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: role:6
label: dawn messenger
assigned_to:
- fig:7
basis: The cock's voice at daybreak is said to tell the hearer that a night has
passed.
evidence_refs:
- ev:12
- id: role:7
label: maker of vessels
assigned_to:
- fig:8
basis: The potter moulds pitcher necks and handles at his wheel.
evidence_refs:
- ev:15
- id: role:8
label: exemplars of status or mortality
assigned_to:
- fig:9
basis: Named heroic, generous, philosophical, and royal figures are invoked to illustrate
destiny, obligation, power, and the tomb.
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- ev:14
symbols:
- id: sym:1
label: ruby wine
literal_form: Wine in flask, cup, or poured by the cupbearer; described as ruby,
tulip-colored, blood, nectar, and liquid rubies.
associated_figures:
- fig:1
- fig:2
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- ev:4
- ev:13
- id: sym:2
label: cup, flask, and gourd
literal_form: A flask of ruby wine, cup of wine, incomparable cup, and gourd carried
on the back.
associated_figures:
- fig:1
- fig:2
- fig:4
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- ev:9
- ev:13
- id: sym:3
label: tavern
literal_form: A tavern sought as the proper place and made the subject of a desired
treatise.
associated_figures:
- fig:1
- fig:2
- fig:4
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- ev:9
- id: sym:4
label: earth, tomb, and coffin
literal_form: Human beings described as earth; the tomb and coffin named as final
sojourns.
associated_figures:
- fig:1
- fig:9
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- ev:7
- ev:14
- id: sym:5
label: dark world and bonds
literal_form: The bonds of this dark world that must be broken.
associated_figures:
- fig:1
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: sym:6
label: brook of Koocer
literal_form: A brook associated with Paradise and celestial sojourn.
associated_figures: []
taxonomy_refs:
- water
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- id: sym:7
label: cock at daybreak
literal_form: An early-rising cock making its voice heard at the break of day.
associated_figures:
- fig:7
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:12
- id: sym:8
label: potter's wheel and pitchers
literal_form: A potter's wheel and pitchers shaped with forms like royal heads and
beggars' feet.
associated_figures:
- fig:8
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:15
- id: sym:9
label: vine transformation
literal_form: Vine juice becoming sharp, sweet, and then bitter wine.
associated_figures: []
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:11
- id: sym:10
label: cup of Djem
literal_form: A named cup from which even philosophers and rulers are told to drink
wine before the tomb.
associated_figures:
- fig:9
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:14
scenes:
- id: scene:1
label: counsel on grief and poverty
summary: The speaker presents resignation to grief and thankfulness in poverty as
proper responses to suffering.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
symbol_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: scene:2
label: wise man in the drunken man's house
summary: At evening, the speaker encounters a wise man in a drunken man's house
and receives the answer that one should drink wine because many who departed did
not return.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:5
- fig:6
symbol_refs:
- sym:1
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: scene:3
label: cupbearer and tavern instruction
summary: The speaker addresses the cupbearer, dismisses prolonged argument, asks
for wine and music, and prefers the tavern as a place and topic.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:2
symbol_refs:
- sym:1
- sym:2
- sym:3
- sym:4
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- id: scene:4
label: Kalendar path and divine friend
summary: The hearer is told to follow the Kalendar's way, seek the tavern, occupy
himself with wine, song, and the friend identified as the Divinity, and carry
a cup and gourd.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:3
- fig:4
symbol_refs:
- sym:1
- sym:2
- sym:3
evidence_refs:
- ev:9
- id: scene:5
label: celestial place near Paradise imagery
summary: The speaker says he sees the sod of Paradise and the brook of Koocer, and
speaks of a field outside Hell transformed into a celestial sojourn.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
symbol_refs:
- sym:6
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- id: scene:6
label: dawn cock and lost night
summary: The cock's morning voice is explained as a reminder that another night
has passed from the hearer's existence while ignorance remains.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:7
symbol_refs:
- sym:7
evidence_refs:
- ev:12
- id: scene:7
label: potter shaping ranked human forms
summary: The speaker enters a potter's studio and observes a potter shaping pitchers
with forms resembling kings' heads and beggars' feet.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:8
symbol_refs:
- sym:8
evidence_refs:
- ev:15
- id: scene:8
label: mortality of sages and rulers
summary: The speaker names philosophers and rulers and states that the end of all
is the tomb and that the coffin is the last sojourn.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:9
symbol_refs:
- sym:4
- sym:10
evidence_refs:
- ev:14
candidate_motifs:
- id: motif:1
label: wisdom through counsel on suffering, restraint, and ignorance
taxonomy_refs:
- wisdom
basis: Multiple quatrains frame practical or paradoxical counsel as wisdom, including
resignation to grief, foundations of wisdom, warnings about ignorance, and choosing
bliss.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:10
- ev:12
- ev:16
confidence: high
cautions: The passage presents many sayings rather than a single narrative wisdom
episode.
- id: motif:2
label: mystical tavern path with wine, cupbearer, Kalendar, and divine friend
taxonomy_refs:
- mystical_quest
- divine_beloved
basis: The speaker directs the hearer toward the Kalendar's way, the tavern, wine,
song, and the friend glossed as the Divinity; the cupbearer mediates repeated
requests for wine.
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- ev:9
- ev:13
confidence: medium
cautions: The mystical reading is supported by the bracketed gloss '[the Divinity]'
and Sufi anthology context, but the literal imagery remains tavern and wine imagery.
- id: motif:3
label: release from the dark world and self-estrangement
taxonomy_refs:
- annihilation_union
basis: The speaker says one is nothing unless the bonds of the dark world are broken
and asks for nectar that may make him a stranger to himself and free him briefly
from worldly vicissitudes.
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- ev:13
confidence: medium
cautions: The passage does not explicitly describe union; the motif label is inferred
from release from world-bonds and self-estrangement.
- id: motif:4
label: universal mortality of all ranks
taxonomy_refs:
- death_rebirth
basis: The passage says humans are earth, urges action before being beneath the
earth, and states that philosophers, rulers, and Bahram himself end in tomb and
coffin.
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- ev:7
- ev:14
confidence: medium
cautions: Death is explicit, but rebirth is only indirectly present in the separate
claim that wine gives new life to the soul.
- id: motif:5
label: afterlife and celestial geography imagery
taxonomy_refs:
- afterlife_journey_map
basis: Paradise, the brook of Koocer, Hell, celestial sojourn, drinkers of eternity,
tomb, and coffin are named in close proximity across the passage.
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- ev:14
- ev:16
confidence: low
cautions: The passage names afterlife locations and states but does not narrate
an actual journey through them.
- id: motif:6
label: natural transformation into wine
taxonomy_refs:
- seasonal_cycle
basis: The vine's product is described changing from sharp to sweet to bitter wine,
and shaped wood is compared to different musical instruments.
evidence_refs:
- ev:11
confidence: medium
cautions: The passage's transformation imagery is explicit, but the seasonal cycle
is only suggested by the reference to springtime.
comparison_claims: []
evidence:
- id: ev:1
type: summary
locator: lines 14821-14825; quatrain 411
quote_or_summary: The speaker counsels resignation to grief, non-complaint about
suffering, and thankfulness to Providence in poverty.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/sufi/project-gutenberg/sufistic-quatrains-omar-khayyam.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:2
type: summary
locator: lines 14827-14832; quatrain 412
quote_or_summary: A wise man in a drunken man's house tells the questioner to drink
wine because many like him have gone out and never returned.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/sufi/project-gutenberg/sufistic-quatrains-omar-khayyam.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:3
type: summary
locator: lines 14834-14839; quatrain 413
quote_or_summary: The speaker desires ruby wine, a book of verse, momentary peace,
bread, a lone place, and a friend, calling this joy greater than a Sultan's.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/sufi/project-gutenberg/sufistic-quatrains-omar-khayyam.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:4
type: summary
locator: lines 14841-14852; quatrains 414-415
quote_or_summary: The cupbearer is addressed in relation to arguments, earth and
wind, harp, wine, Yassin, Berat, and a treatise on the tavern.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/sufi/project-gutenberg/sufistic-quatrains-omar-khayyam.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:5
type: summary
locator: lines 14854-14860; quatrain 416
quote_or_summary: The speaker warns not to leave the limits of destiny and invokes
Rustum son of Zal and Hatim-tai as examples of enemy and friend.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/sufi/project-gutenberg/sufistic-quatrains-omar-khayyam.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:6
type: summary
locator: lines 14862-14869; quatrain 417
quote_or_summary: Lips, wine, drum, harp, and flute are called trifles unless the
bonds of the dark world are broken.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/sufi/project-gutenberg/sufistic-quatrains-omar-khayyam.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:7
type: summary
locator: lines 14871-14876; quatrain 418
quote_or_summary: Under a tyrannic vault and in a world of woe, the speaker urges
wine and says humans are earth and should act as upon the earth, not beneath it.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/sufi/project-gutenberg/sufistic-quatrains-omar-khayyam.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:8
type: summary
locator: lines 14883-14888; quatrain 420
quote_or_summary: The speaker sees the sod of Paradise and the brook of Koocer and
says the field outside Hell is transformed into a celestial sojourn.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/sufi/project-gutenberg/sufistic-quatrains-omar-khayyam.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:9
type: summary
locator: lines 14890-14897; quatrain 421
quote_or_summary: The hearer is told to follow the Kalendar, seek the tavern, attend
to wine, song, and the friend [the Divinity], and hold a cup while carrying a
gourd.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/sufi/project-gutenberg/sufistic-quatrains-omar-khayyam.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:10
type: summary
locator: lines 14905-14916; quatrains 423-424
quote_or_summary: The world is called a house of pilferers; the hearer is told to
bear suffering, and two foundations of wisdom are stated regarding not eating
living eaters and remaining unsullied by life.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/sufi/project-gutenberg/sufistic-quatrains-omar-khayyam.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:11
type: summary
locator: lines 14918-14926; quatrain 425
quote_or_summary: Spring vine juice is described as sharp, then sweet, then bitter
wine; shaped wood is compared as a source of different instruments.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/sufi/project-gutenberg/sufistic-quatrains-omar-khayyam.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:12
type: summary
locator: lines 14928-14933; quatrain 426
quote_or_summary: The early cock's voice at daybreak is explained as saying that
another night has passed from one's life while ignorance remains.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/sufi/project-gutenberg/sufistic-quatrains-omar-khayyam.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:13
type: summary
locator: lines 14935-14951; quatrains 427-429
quote_or_summary: The speaker asks for ruby or tulip-colored wine, pure blood from
the flask, nectar that may estrange him from himself, and a cup of liquid rubies
to give new life to the soul.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/sufi/project-gutenberg/sufistic-quatrains-omar-khayyam.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:14
type: summary
locator: lines 14953-14960; quatrain 430
quote_or_summary: Philosophers and rulers are told to drink wine from the cup of
Djem because the end of all is the tomb and Bahram's last sojourn is the coffin.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/sufi/project-gutenberg/sufistic-quatrains-omar-khayyam.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:15
type: summary
locator: lines 14962-14967; quatrain 431
quote_or_summary: The speaker enters a potter's studio and sees the potter at a
wheel moulding pitcher necks and handles like heads of kings and feet of beggars.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/sufi/project-gutenberg/sufistic-quatrains-omar-khayyam.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:16
type: summary
locator: lines 14969-14975; quatrain 432
quote_or_summary: The speaker says to choose bliss and perhaps drink wine from the
hand of the drinkers of eternity, while also addressing ignorance and joy.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/sufi/project-gutenberg/sufistic-quatrains-omar-khayyam.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
confidence:
extraction: high
motif_candidates: medium
comparison_claims: high
notes: Literal extraction is based directly on the supplied passage. Motif candidates
are cautious because the passage is aphoristic and symbolic rather than a continuous
mythic narrative. No comparison claims were added because the passage itself does
not establish an external comparison.
reviewer_status:
status: needs_review
reviewer: ''
reviewed_at: ''
notes: Machine-generated draft from OpenAI Batch; not human-reviewed.
extracted_by: openai_batch:gpt-5.5
extracted_at: '2026-04-28'
notes: |-
Only supplied passage text and metadata were used. Taxonomy references were limited to the provided motif families and symbols.
batch_run_id=motif-extraction-2026-04-28-high-priority
custom_id=motif_extract:sufi-omar-khayyam-sufistic-quatrains-gutenberg__l14821-l15012
passage_sha256=3aa10d8ba5f856bdb28786553e3fd704bbacf3e805b96696fa47c3be033e83ac