batch.motif.sufi-omar-khayyam-sufistic-quatrains-gutenberg-l5045-l5111
---
record_id: batch.motif.sufi-omar-khayyam-sufistic-quatrains-gutenberg-l5045-l5111
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/sufi/project-gutenberg/sufistic-quatrains-omar-khayyam.md
passage_locator:
label: STANZA / STANZA / STANZA / STANZAS WHICH APPEAR IN THE SECOND EDITION ONLY;
lines 5045-5111
start: '5045'
end: '5111'
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: The passage gives editorial variants for one stanza and then lists several
quatrains appearing only in the second edition. The quatrains treat the passing
of life, uncertain breath, voices speaking of a flower that opens and dies, embracing
a cypress before being folded and dissolved by the Mother, doubts about Paradise,
human beings as links in an eternal chain, refusal to call injustice grace, a
faint whisper becoming living word, old acquaintances meeting under a blossoming
branch, and the wish to cancel one suffering soul rather than enlarge a flood
of anguish.
language: English
quote_policy: summarized
literal_observations:
- id: obs:1
text: An editorial note records variant wording involving a silver Foot, a changed
step, and a blissful errand reaching a spot.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: obs:2
text: One stanza compares wasting present life to a spider spinning a thread away
in order to win an unknown result.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: obs:3
text: The stanza questions whether the speaker or human beings will breathe out
the breath currently being breathed in.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: obs:4
text: A voice cries while the speaker is sleeping that the flower should open with
the morning skies.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- id: obs:5
text: A retreating whisper says as the speaker wakes that a flower once blown dies
forever.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- id: obs:6
text: An addressee is urged, within a little hour of grace, to embrace the waving
cypress before the Mother folds and dissolves the addressee in a final embrace.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- id: obs:7
text: A stanza says that if a vine and a love-abjuring band stand in the Prophet's
Paradise, the speaker doubts that Paradise would be empty.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: obs:8
text: Philosopher and Doctor are described as preaching, while each is only one
link in an eternal chain that no one can slip, break, or overreach.
category: relationship
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: obs:9
text: The speaker swears that fear of a wrathful Face will not make him call injustice
grace.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- id: obs:10
text: Good Fellows of the Tavern are said to reject such a poor coward from the
place.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- id: obs:11
text: A scarcely heard whisper among a group is compared to stirred ashes of an
almost extinguished tongue, and the speaker's ear kindles it into living word.
category: sequence
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- id: obs:12
text: Old acquaintances are imagined greeting one another under a branch leaning
above a wall and shedding blossoms overhead and underfoot.
category: setting
evidence_refs:
- ev:9
- id: obs:13
text: A stanza says it would be better to cancel one luckless human soul from the
Scroll of Universe than to enlarge, drop by drop, a flood that grows hoarser with
anguish through the ages.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:10
figures:
- id: fig:1
name_or_label: Poetic speaker
description: First-person voice who reports sleeping, waking, hearing, doubting,
and swearing in several stanzas.
role_refs:
- role:1
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- ev:5
- ev:7
- ev:8
- id: fig:2
name_or_label: Unspecified addressee
description: A second-person figure addressed with 'yourself' and 'you' in the variant
stanza and in the cypress stanza.
role_refs:
- role:2
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:4
- id: fig:3
name_or_label: Another Voice
description: A voice heard when the speaker is sleeping.
role_refs:
- role:3
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- id: fig:4
name_or_label: Retreating Whisper
description: A whisper heard as the speaker wakes.
role_refs:
- role:3
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- id: fig:5
name_or_label: Mother
description: A Mother who folds the addressee back into her arms and dissolves the
addressee in a last embrace.
role_refs:
- role:4
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- id: fig:6
name_or_label: Prophet
description: The Prophet is named in connection with the Prophet's Paradise.
role_refs:
- role:5
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: fig:7
name_or_label: Philosopher and Doctor
description: Preaching figures who are each described as links in an eternal chain.
role_refs:
- role:6
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: fig:8
name_or_label: Good Fellow of the Tavern
description: A tavern-associated figure who would kick a coward from the place.
role_refs:
- role:7
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- id: fig:9
name_or_label: Old Acquaintance
description: Figures imagined greeting one another under a branch above a wall.
role_refs:
- role:8
evidence_refs:
- ev:9
- id: fig:10
name_or_label: Luckless Human Soul
description: A single human soul described as removable from the Scroll of Universe.
role_refs:
- role:9
evidence_refs:
- ev:10
roles:
- id: role:1
label: first-person witness and speaker
assigned_to:
- fig:1
basis: The figure speaks in first person, reports hearing voices, and states doubts
and vows.
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- ev:5
- ev:7
- ev:8
- id: role:2
label: addressed mortal figure
assigned_to:
- fig:2
basis: The figure is addressed in second person and urged to act before being folded
and dissolved by the Mother.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:4
- id: role:3
label: disembodied utterer
assigned_to:
- fig:3
- fig:4
basis: The Voice and Whisper speak without a described body or location beyond the
speaker's sleep and waking.
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- id: role:4
label: final embracing figure
assigned_to:
- fig:5
basis: The Mother is described as folding the addressee into her arms and dissolving
the addressee in a last embrace.
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- id: role:5
label: possessor or namesake of Paradise
assigned_to:
- fig:6
basis: The stanza names the Prophet's Paradise.
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: role:6
label: preaching intellectual authority
assigned_to:
- fig:7
basis: Philosopher and Doctor are said to preach, while being links in an eternal
chain.
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: role:7
label: tavern judge of cowardice
assigned_to:
- fig:8
basis: A Good Fellow of the Tavern is said to kick a poor coward from the place.
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- id: role:8
label: mutual greeter
assigned_to:
- fig:9
basis: Old Acquaintance is repeated as both resorting and greeting under the branch.
evidence_refs:
- ev:9
- id: role:9
label: suffering individual
assigned_to:
- fig:10
basis: The human soul is called luckless and is contrasted with an expanding flood
of anguish.
evidence_refs:
- ev:10
symbols:
- id: sym:1
label: silver Foot or step
literal_form: silver Foot, later changed in draft to step
associated_figures:
- fig:2
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: sym:2
label: spider-like thread of present life
literal_form: Thread of present Life spun away like a spider's thread
associated_figures: []
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: sym:3
label: breath
literal_form: Breath now breathed in and possibly not breathed out
associated_figures: []
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: sym:4
label: flower and morning skies
literal_form: Flower opening with Morning skies and dying after it has blown
associated_figures:
- fig:3
- fig:4
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- id: sym:5
label: waving cypress
literal_form: waving Cypress embraced within a little hour of grace
associated_figures:
- fig:2
taxonomy_refs:
- tree
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- id: sym:6
label: Mother's arms
literal_form: Mother's arms folding and dissolving the addressee in a last embrace
associated_figures:
- fig:2
- fig:5
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- id: sym:7
label: vine
literal_form: Vine standing in the Prophet's Paradise
associated_figures:
- fig:6
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: sym:8
label: Prophet's Paradise
literal_form: Paradise associated with the Prophet
associated_figures:
- fig:6
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: sym:9
label: eternal chain
literal_form: one Link in an eternal Chain that none can slip, break, or over-reach
associated_figures:
- fig:7
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: sym:10
label: wrathful Face
literal_form: wrathful Face feared by the speaker
associated_figures:
- fig:1
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- id: sym:11
label: tavern
literal_form: Tavern as the place from which a coward would be kicked
associated_figures:
- fig:8
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- id: sym:12
label: ashes, tongue, and living word
literal_form: stirred ashes of an almost extinguished tongue kindled into living
word
associated_figures:
- fig:1
taxonomy_refs:
- fire
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- id: sym:13
label: branch and blossom
literal_form: Branch leaning above the Wall and shedding Blossom over head and feet
associated_figures:
- fig:9
taxonomy_refs:
- tree
evidence_refs:
- ev:9
- id: sym:14
label: Scroll of Universe
literal_form: Scroll of Universe from which a human soul may be canceled
associated_figures:
- fig:10
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:10
- id: sym:15
label: flood of anguish
literal_form: Flood enlarged drop by drop and growing hoarser with Anguish as the
Ages roll
associated_figures:
- fig:10
taxonomy_refs:
- water
evidence_refs:
- ev:10
scenes:
- id: scene:1
label: Editorial variants for a passing foot or step
summary: The passage records variant lines in which a second-person figure passes
with a silver Foot, the word is changed to step, and another version speaks of
a blissful errand reaching a spot.
figure_refs:
- fig:2
symbol_refs:
- sym:1
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: scene:2
label: Present life spun away
summary: A stanza questions whether it is folly to spend present life like a spider
spinning a thread to gain an unknown result when breath itself is uncertain.
figure_refs: []
symbol_refs:
- sym:2
- sym:3
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: scene:3
label: Sleeping voice and waking whisper
summary: While the speaker sleeps, a voice calls for the flower to open with morning
skies; as the speaker wakes, a whisper says the flower once blown dies forever.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:3
- fig:4
symbol_refs:
- sym:4
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- id: scene:4
label: Cypress embraced before final dissolution
summary: An addressee is told to embrace the waving cypress during a brief hour
of grace before the Mother folds and dissolves the addressee in a last embrace.
figure_refs:
- fig:2
- fig:5
symbol_refs:
- sym:5
- sym:6
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- id: scene:5
label: Question about the Prophet's Paradise
summary: The speaker doubts that the Prophet's Paradise would be empty if the vine
and a love-abjuring band are to stand there.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:6
symbol_refs:
- sym:7
- sym:8
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: scene:6
label: Preachers as links in an eternal chain
summary: Philosopher and Doctor may preach what they will, but each is described
as one link in an eternal chain that no one can escape or break.
figure_refs:
- fig:7
symbol_refs:
- sym:9
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: scene:7
label: Refusal to call injustice grace
summary: The speaker refuses, despite fear of a wrathful Face, to call injustice
grace, and invokes tavern fellows as judges of cowardice.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:8
symbol_refs:
- sym:10
- sym:11
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- id: scene:8
label: Whisper kindled into word
summary: A faint whisper among a group is likened to ashes of a nearly extinguished
tongue, which the speaker's ear kindles into living word.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
symbol_refs:
- sym:12
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- id: scene:9
label: Acquaintances under a blossoming branch
summary: Old acquaintances are imagined meeting and greeting beneath a branch leaning
over a wall and scattering blossoms.
figure_refs:
- fig:9
symbol_refs:
- sym:13
evidence_refs:
- ev:9
- id: scene:10
label: Soul and flood of anguish
summary: The stanza says it would be better to remove one luckless human soul from
the Scroll of Universe than to add drop by drop to a flood of anguish rolling
through the ages.
figure_refs:
- fig:10
symbol_refs:
- sym:14
- sym:15
evidence_refs:
- ev:10
candidate_motifs:
- id: motif:1
label: impermanence of breath and present life
taxonomy_refs: []
basis: The stanza emphasizes present life being spun away and the uncertainty of
even completing the current breath.
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
confidence: high
cautions: No explicit afterlife journey or rebirth is narrated; the motif is a general
mortality pattern.
- id: motif:2
label: flower of brief life
taxonomy_refs:
- seasonal_cycle
basis: The flower is told to open with the morning skies, while the waking whisper
states that once it has blown it dies forever.
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
confidence: medium
cautions: The seasonal-cycle reference is supported by flower and morning imagery,
but the stanza stresses irreversible death rather than cyclical renewal.
- id: motif:3
label: final embrace and dissolution
taxonomy_refs:
- annihilation_union
basis: The addressee is urged to embrace the cypress before the Mother folds and
dissolves the addressee in a last embrace.
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
confidence: medium
cautions: The passage does not explicitly identify the Mother or define the dissolution
as mystical union; the taxonomy link is provisional.
- id: motif:4
label: inescapable chain of existence
taxonomy_refs: []
basis: Philosopher and Doctor are each described as a link in an eternal chain that
none can slip, break, or overreach.
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
confidence: high
cautions: No specific available taxonomy family exactly matches fate or determinism.
- id: motif:5
label: refusal to rename injustice as grace
taxonomy_refs:
- wisdom
basis: The speaker rejects calling injustice grace even under fear of a wrathful
Face, framing a moral discernment against cowardice.
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
confidence: medium
cautions: The association with wisdom is thematic and not stated as a formal wisdom
teaching.
- id: motif:6
label: nearly extinguished speech revived into living word
taxonomy_refs: []
basis: A faint whisper is compared to ashes of an almost extinguished tongue, then
kindled by the speaker's ear into living word.
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
confidence: high
cautions: The motif is local to the image; no broader mythic taxonomy is asserted.
- id: motif:7
label: cosmic record and accumulated anguish
taxonomy_refs: []
basis: A luckless human soul is imagined as cancelable from the Scroll of Universe,
in contrast with a flood of anguish enlarged across the ages.
evidence_refs:
- ev:10
confidence: high
cautions: The passage does not identify a judge, deity, or explicit doctrine of
judgment.
comparison_claims: []
evidence:
- id: ev:1
type: summary
locator: lines 5045-5056; stanza CI variants
quote_or_summary: Editorial variants include 'silver Foot,' a change from Foot to
step, and a line about a blissful errand reaching the spot.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/sufi/project-gutenberg/sufistic-quatrains-omar-khayyam.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:2
type: quote
locator: lines 5060-5063; stanza XIV
quote_or_summary: '"Spider-like to spin / The Thread of present Life away" and uncertainty
about breathing out the current breath.'
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/sufi/project-gutenberg/sufistic-quatrains-omar-khayyam.md
rights_note: Public domain source; short excerpt.
- id: ev:3
type: summary
locator: lines 5068-5071; stanza XXVIII
quote_or_summary: A sleeping voice says the flower should open with morning skies;
a waking whisper says the flower once blown dies forever.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/sufi/project-gutenberg/sufistic-quatrains-omar-khayyam.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:4
type: quote
locator: lines 5073-5076; stanza XLIV
quote_or_summary: '"The waving Cypress in your Arms enlace" before the Mother folds
and dissolves the addressee in a last embrace.'
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/sufi/project-gutenberg/sufistic-quatrains-omar-khayyam.md
rights_note: Public domain source; short excerpt.
- id: ev:5
type: summary
locator: lines 5078-5081; stanza LXV
quote_or_summary: The stanza speaks of the Vine, a Love-abjuring Band, and the Prophet's
Paradise, which the speaker doubts would be empty.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/sufi/project-gutenberg/sufistic-quatrains-omar-khayyam.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:6
type: quote
locator: lines 5083-5086; stanza LXXVII
quote_or_summary: Philosopher and Doctor are "one Link in an eternal Chain" that
none can slip, break, or overreach.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/sufi/project-gutenberg/sufistic-quatrains-omar-khayyam.md
rights_note: Public domain source; short excerpt.
- id: ev:7
type: summary
locator: lines 5088-5091; stanza LXXXVI
quote_or_summary: The speaker will not call Injustice Grace out of terror of a wrathful
Face; a Good Fellow of the Tavern would kick such a coward out.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/sufi/project-gutenberg/sufistic-quatrains-omar-khayyam.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:8
type: quote
locator: lines 5093-5096; stanza XC
quote_or_summary: A scarce-heard whisper is like "Ashes of some all but extinguisht
Tongue," which the speaker's ear kindles into living word.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/sufi/project-gutenberg/sufistic-quatrains-omar-khayyam.md
rights_note: Public domain source; short excerpt.
- id: ev:9
type: summary
locator: lines 5101-5104; stanza XCIX
quote_or_summary: Old acquaintances greet under a branch leaning above a wall and
shedding blossoms over head and feet.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/sufi/project-gutenberg/sufistic-quatrains-omar-khayyam.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:10
type: quote
locator: lines 5108-5111; stanza CVII
quote_or_summary: '"cancel from the Scroll / Of Universe one luckless Human Soul"
rather than enlarge a flood of anguish as the ages roll.'
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/sufi/project-gutenberg/sufistic-quatrains-omar-khayyam.md
rights_note: Public domain source; short excerpt.
confidence:
extraction: high
motif_candidates: medium
comparison_claims: uncertain
notes: Literal extraction is supported by the supplied passage. Motif labels are
provisional because the passage consists of lyric stanzas and editorial notes
rather than explicit myth narrative. No comparison claims were added because the
passage itself does not support a specific cross-textual 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 the supplied passage and metadata were used. Taxonomy references are limited to available lists and applied cautiously.
batch_run_id=motif-extraction-2026-04-28-high-priority
custom_id=motif_extract:sufi-omar-khayyam-sufistic-quatrains-gutenberg__l5045-l5111
passage_sha256=1792795ea3cd897c73f0d80eceb7ed003d3c1394fb4d97c4a0ea77c59097001f