batch.motif.sufi-omar-khayyam-sufistic-quatrains-gutenberg-l7161-l7399
---
record_id: batch.motif.sufi-omar-khayyam-sufistic-quatrains-gutenberg-l7161-l7399
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/sufi/project-gutenberg/sufistic-quatrains-omar-khayyam.md
passage_locator:
label: E.H. WHINFIELD, M.A. / INTRODUCTION / E.H. WHINFIELD / QUATRAINS OF OMAR
KHAYYAM; lines 7161-7399
start: '7161'
end: '7399'
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 reflects on hostile fate, vanished youth, false
wisdom, tavern imagery, repentance and divine grace, death and bodily return to
earth, ascent of glad hearts, wine as hidden knowledge, counsel of silence and
independence, divine mercy, the suffering required by love, unreceived truths,
spring nature, mortality, and unanswered questions about coming and going.
language: English
quote_policy: summarized
literal_observations:
- id: obs:1
text: The wheel on high is described as continuing to strike a wretched or smitten
heart rather than relieving it.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: obs:2
text: Youth is presented as an outworn volume and as a bird that arrived and fled
unnoticed.
category: attribute
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: obs:3
text: Ignorant people are said to think themselves supremely wise and to condemn
unlike persons as infidels.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- id: obs:4
text: The wine-house is wished to remain crowded, while religious garments and robes
are burned or trampled under revellers' feet.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- id: obs:5
text: Human striving is compared to rising like Zamzam or the fount of life and
then sinking again into earth's bosom.
category: sequence
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: obs:6
text: The speaker says he cannot repent before Allah's grace softens his hard heart.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: obs:7
text: The speaker asks that after death he be ground small, kneaded into clay with
wine, and used to stop a wine-jar.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- id: obs:8
text: The sky is described as a blue canopy enclosing humans, and the eternal Cupbearer's
wine contains many bubbles like the speaker.
category: setting
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- id: obs:9
text: The dead are imagined lying long in the tomb while stars keep watch and their
ashes are made into bricks for another's house and towers.
category: sequence
evidence_refs:
- ev:9
- id: obs:10
text: Glad hearts are said not to seek notoriety or display gold and silk, and to
wing their way Simurgh-like to the sky.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:10
- id: obs:11
text: Wine's power is said to be known only to wine-bibbers and not to narrow heads
and hearts.
category: attribute
evidence_refs:
- ev:11
- id: obs:12
text: The speaker counsels wariness in the soul's domain and restraint in worldly
speech, as if without tongue, ear, or eye while still possessing them.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:14
- id: obs:13
text: A person with bread, a small nest, and freedom from slavery in either direction
is called wondrously well situated.
category: attribute
evidence_refs:
- ev:15
- id: obs:14
text: The speaker asks divine pardon and says God is slow to wrath and prone to
clemency.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:16
- id: obs:15
text: Hands that handle wine bowls are contrasted with book and pulpit; the zealot
is dry while the speaker is moist with drink and too moist to catch fire.
category: relationship
evidence_refs:
- ev:17
- id: obs:16
text: To gain a rose-cheeked fair one must bear fortune's thorns; a comb touches
the lady's hair only after being cleft by cuts.
category: relationship
evidence_refs:
- ev:18
- id: obs:17
text: The speaker says a thousand truths will die with him because fools have not
granted a fit audience.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:20
- id: obs:18
text: After rain and temperate air, bulbuls cry to the pallid rose that it too must
share their wine.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:21
- id: obs:19
text: The speaker urges draining the wine-cup before mortal pain, saying the person
is not gold to be dug up from earth again.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:22
- id: obs:20
text: The speaker says his coming and going do not affect the sky, and that no ear
has heard their reason.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:23
figures:
- id: fig:1
name_or_label: speaker
description: First-person voice reflecting on fate, youth, wine, repentance, death,
divine pardon, love, truth, and existence.
role_refs:
- role:1
- role:3
- role:6
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:6
- ev:7
- ev:16
- ev:17
- ev:20
- ev:23
- id: fig:2
name_or_label: wheel on high
description: A heavenly wheel that does not loosen the wretch's plight and strikes
the smitten heart again.
role_refs:
- role:2
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: fig:3
name_or_label: bird of youth
description: Youth personified as a bird whose arrival and flight the speaker did
not notice.
role_refs:
- role:4
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: fig:4
name_or_label: ignorant fools
description: People characterized as ignorant, self-regarding as wise, and condemning
others as infidels.
role_refs:
- role:5
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- ev:20
- id: fig:5
name_or_label: revellers and wine-bibbers
description: Persons associated with the thronged wine-house and with knowing wine's
power.
role_refs:
- role:7
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- ev:11
- id: fig:6
name_or_label: Friend / Allah / eternal Cupbearer
description: Divine or beloved figure associated with wine, grace, pardon, and clemency
in the quatrains.
role_refs:
- role:8
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- ev:8
- ev:16
- id: fig:7
name_or_label: dead body or ashes of the speaker
description: The speaker after death, imagined as ground matter, clay with wine,
or ashes later shaped into bricks.
role_refs:
- role:9
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- ev:9
- id: fig:8
name_or_label: glad hearts
description: Hearts that avoid notoriety and display and fly Simurgh-like to the
sky.
role_refs:
- role:10
evidence_refs:
- ev:10
- id: fig:9
name_or_label: Simurgh
description: Bird used as the comparison for glad hearts winging their way to the
sky.
role_refs:
- role:11
evidence_refs:
- ev:10
- id: fig:10
name_or_label: zealot
description: A dry religious opponent contrasted with the wine-moist speaker.
role_refs:
- role:12
evidence_refs:
- ev:17
- id: fig:11
name_or_label: rose-cheeked fair / lady
description: Beloved figure whose hair is touched by a comb after it has endured
cuts.
role_refs:
- role:13
evidence_refs:
- ev:18
- id: fig:12
name_or_label: bulbuls and pallid rose
description: Birds in spring cry to the pallid rose that it must share their wine.
role_refs:
- role:14
evidence_refs:
- ev:21
roles:
- id: role:1
label: lamenting first-person speaker
assigned_to:
- fig:1
basis: The voice speaks in first person about youth, death, repentance, pardon,
wine, and the unknown reason for coming and going.
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:6
- ev:7
- ev:23
- id: role:2
label: hostile cosmic force
assigned_to:
- fig:2
basis: The wheel on high is said to continue smiting rather than releasing a sufferer.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: role:3
label: wine-seeker
assigned_to:
- fig:1
basis: The speaker asks for wine, handles bowls, and wants his remains mixed with
wine.
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- ev:13
- ev:17
- id: role:4
label: vanishing youth
assigned_to:
- fig:3
basis: Youth is named as a bird that came and fled unnoticed.
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: role:5
label: false-wise condemners
assigned_to:
- fig:4
basis: They are described as ignorant, claiming wisdom, condemning others as infidel,
and not receiving truths.
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- ev:20
- id: role:6
label: penitent dependent on grace
assigned_to:
- fig:1
basis: The speaker states repentance is impossible until Allah's grace softens the
heart.
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: role:7
label: tavern community
assigned_to:
- fig:5
basis: The wine-house is thronged by a glad choir, and wine-bibbers are said to
know wine's power.
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- ev:11
- id: role:8
label: divine source of grace and pardon
assigned_to:
- fig:6
basis: The Friend gladdens the heart with wine, Allah's grace softens the heart,
and God is asked for pardon as merciful.
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- ev:16
- id: role:9
label: postmortem transformed matter
assigned_to:
- fig:7
basis: The dead body is to be ground and kneaded into clay, and ashes are imagined
as bricks for another's building.
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- ev:9
- id: role:10
label: unworldly ascent figures
assigned_to:
- fig:8
basis: Glad hearts reject notoriety and luxury and fly skyward.
evidence_refs:
- ev:10
- id: role:11
label: mythic bird of ascent comparison
assigned_to:
- fig:9
basis: The Simurgh is the explicit comparison for the glad hearts' skyward flight.
evidence_refs:
- ev:10
- id: role:12
label: dry religious antagonist
assigned_to:
- fig:10
basis: The zealot is contrasted with the wine-moist speaker and associated with
fire.
evidence_refs:
- ev:17
- id: role:13
label: desired beloved
assigned_to:
- fig:11
basis: The rose-cheeked fair is the object of aspiration, and the lady's hair is
reached after the comb's cuts.
evidence_refs:
- ev:18
- id: role:14
label: springtime singers
assigned_to:
- fig:12
basis: Bulbuls cry in ecstasy to the rose after rain and temperate air.
evidence_refs:
- ev:21
symbols:
- id: sym:1
label: wheel on high
literal_form: heavenly wheel
associated_figures:
- fig:2
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: sym:2
label: bird of youth
literal_form: bird
associated_figures:
- fig:3
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: sym:3
label: wine and wine vessels
literal_form: wine, wine-house, wine-cup, wine-jar, bowls of wine
associated_figures:
- fig:1
- fig:5
- fig:6
- fig:7
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- ev:6
- ev:7
- ev:8
- ev:11
- ev:13
- ev:17
- ev:22
- id: sym:4
label: religious garments in fire and mire
literal_form: Pharisaic skirts, tattered frocks, azure robes, fire, mire
associated_figures:
- fig:5
taxonomy_refs:
- fire
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- id: sym:5
label: sacred or life-giving water rising and sinking
literal_form: Zamzam and fount of life
associated_figures: []
taxonomy_refs:
- water
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: sym:6
label: clay, tomb, ashes, and bricks
literal_form: earth's bosom, clay, tomb, ashes, bricks, house, turrets
associated_figures:
- fig:7
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- ev:7
- ev:9
- id: sym:7
label: sky canopy and stars
literal_form: blue canopy, sky, stars
associated_figures:
- fig:1
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- ev:9
- ev:23
- id: sym:8
label: bubbles in the Cupbearer's wine
literal_form: myriad bubbles in wine
associated_figures:
- fig:1
- fig:6
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- id: sym:9
label: Simurgh-like flight
literal_form: Simurgh and skyward wings
associated_figures:
- fig:8
- fig:9
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:10
- id: sym:10
label: tongue, ears, and eyes withheld
literal_form: tongue, ears, eyes retained yet treated as absent
associated_figures:
- fig:1
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:14
- id: sym:11
label: loaf and nest
literal_form: loaf of bread and little nest
associated_figures: []
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:15
- id: sym:12
label: dryness, moisture, and fire
literal_form: dry zealot, moist drinker, fire
associated_figures:
- fig:1
- fig:10
taxonomy_refs:
- fire
evidence_refs:
- ev:17
- id: sym:13
label: rose, thorns, comb, and hair
literal_form: rose-cheeked fair, fortune's thorns, cleft comb, lady's hair
associated_figures:
- fig:11
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:18
- id: sym:14
label: pearls and unbored truths
literal_form: precious pearls not bored, a thousand truths
associated_figures:
- fig:1
- fig:4
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:20
- id: sym:15
label: rain, bulbul, rose, and shared wine
literal_form: temperate air, rain-laved parterre, bulbuls, pallid rose, wine
associated_figures:
- fig:12
taxonomy_refs:
- water
evidence_refs:
- ev:21
- id: sym:16
label: gold not dug from earth
literal_form: gold hidden in earth, not worth digging up
associated_figures:
- fig:1
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:22
scenes:
- id: scene:1
label: Cosmic blows and lost youth
summary: The speaker depicts the heavenly wheel as hostile, then laments youth as
an outworn book and a bird that has fled.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:2
- fig:3
symbol_refs:
- sym:1
- sym:2
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
- id: scene:2
label: False wisdom and tavern reversal
summary: Ignorant condemners are criticized, while the wine-house and revellers
are favored over religious garments associated with hypocrisy.
figure_refs:
- fig:4
- fig:5
symbol_refs:
- sym:3
- sym:4
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- ev:4
- id: scene:3
label: Grace, repentance, and wine
summary: The passage presents life as a rise and sinking back into earth, then says
repentance depends on divine grace and the Friend's wine.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:6
symbol_refs:
- sym:3
- sym:5
- sym:6
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- ev:6
- id: scene:4
label: Death as material transformation
summary: The speaker imagines his dead body as clay mixed with wine and later imagines
ashes becoming bricks while stars keep watch.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:7
symbol_refs:
- sym:3
- sym:6
- sym:7
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- ev:9
- id: scene:5
label: Cosmic cup and skyward ascent
summary: The sky encloses humans, bubbles like the speaker float in the eternal
Cupbearer's wine, and glad hearts fly Simurgh-like to the sky.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:6
- fig:8
- fig:9
symbol_refs:
- sym:7
- sym:8
- sym:9
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- ev:10
- id: scene:6
label: Wine knowledge and tarnished reputation
summary: Wine's power is known only by those who experience it, and the speaker
presents wine as the response to an irreparably soiled veil or name.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:5
symbol_refs:
- sym:3
evidence_refs:
- ev:11
- ev:13
- id: scene:7
label: Counsels of silence, simplicity, and mercy
summary: The passage counsels guarded silence in the soul's domain, praises a modest
independent life, and asks the merciful deity for pardon.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:6
symbol_refs:
- sym:10
- sym:11
evidence_refs:
- ev:14
- ev:15
- ev:16
- id: scene:8
label: Beloved reached through wounds
summary: The speaker links gaining the rose-cheeked beloved with enduring fortune's
thorns and compares this to a cut comb touching the lady's hair.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:11
symbol_refs:
- sym:13
evidence_refs:
- ev:18
- id: scene:9
label: Truths die with the unheard speaker
summary: The speaker expects to depart with many truths unreceived by fools and
without a fit audience.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:4
symbol_refs:
- sym:14
evidence_refs:
- ev:20
- id: scene:10
label: Spring wine and mortal urgency
summary: Rain, birds, and rose are joined to a call to share wine, followed by an
admonition to drink before mortal pain because friends will not dig one up like
gold.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:12
symbol_refs:
- sym:3
- sym:15
- sym:16
evidence_refs:
- ev:21
- ev:22
- id: scene:11
label: Unanswered coming and going
summary: The speaker says his arrival and departure do not affect the sky, and their
reason remains unheard.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
symbol_refs:
- sym:7
evidence_refs:
- ev:23
candidate_motifs:
- id: motif:1
label: hostile cosmic wheel striking the sufferer
taxonomy_refs:
- duality
basis: The wheel on high is an upper cosmic agent that refuses release and renews
blows against the smitten heart.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
confidence: medium
cautions: The passage does not explicitly name a fuller mythic cosmology beyond
the image of the wheel.
- id: motif:2
label: youth as a vanished bird
taxonomy_refs: []
basis: Youth is personified as a bird whose coming and departure pass unnoticed,
leaving the speaker forlorn.
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
confidence: high
cautions: This is a lyric image rather than a developed narrative motif.
- id: motif:3
label: false wisdom condemning outsiders
taxonomy_refs:
- wisdom
basis: Ignorant figures claim supreme wisdom and condemn those unlike themselves
as infidels.
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
confidence: high
cautions: The note says it is probably addressed to the Ulama, but the identification
remains editorial and not certain.
- id: motif:4
label: tavern reversal of religious hypocrisy
taxonomy_refs:
- wisdom
basis: The wine-house and revellers are favored while religious garments and robes
are burned or trampled; the note connects blue robes with hypocrisy in Hafiz.
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
confidence: medium
cautions: The quatrain uses symbolic tavern language, but the exact social targets
are partly supplied by notes.
- id: motif:5
label: rise from and return to earth
taxonomy_refs:
- death_rebirth
basis: Human life is compared to sacred or life-giving waters that rise and then
sink back into earth's bosom.
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
confidence: medium
cautions: The return is literalized as sinking into earth, but rebirth is not explicitly
asserted.
- id: motif:6
label: repentance dependent on divine grace
taxonomy_refs:
- divine_beloved
- mystical_quest
basis: The speaker cannot repent until Allah's grace softens his hard heart, and
the Friend's wine gladdens the heart.
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
confidence: high
cautions: The Friend, wine, and grace may be devotional or poetic; the extraction
does not resolve doctrinal meaning.
- id: motif:7
label: body transformed into wine-vessel clay
taxonomy_refs:
- death_rebirth
basis: The dead speaker requests grinding, kneading with wine into clay, and use
as a stopper for a wine-jar.
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
confidence: high
cautions: The motif concerns material transformation after death, not explicit personal
resurrection.
- id: motif:8
label: cosmos as cup with human bubbles
taxonomy_refs: []
basis: The sky encloses humans while bubbles like the speaker float in the eternal
Cupbearer's wine.
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
confidence: medium
cautions: The image is compact and metaphorical; no explicit cosmographic doctrine
is given.
- id: motif:9
label: ashes reused as building material
taxonomy_refs:
- death_rebirth
basis: The dead lie in tombs, and their ashes are imagined molded into bricks to
build another's house and turrets.
evidence_refs:
- ev:9
confidence: high
cautions: This is transformation and reuse, not a complete rebirth narrative.
- id: motif:10
label: Simurgh-like ascent of glad hearts
taxonomy_refs:
- ascent
basis: Glad hearts reject notoriety and luxury and fly Simurgh-like to the sky.
evidence_refs:
- ev:10
confidence: high
cautions: The Simurgh appears as a simile, not as an acting character in a full
mythic episode.
- id: motif:11
label: experiential wine wisdom
taxonomy_refs:
- wisdom
- mystical_quest
basis: Wine's power is said to be knowable only by wine-bibbers and inaccessible
to narrow heads and hearts.
evidence_refs:
- ev:11
confidence: high
cautions: The passage does not define whether wine is literal, mystical, or both.
- id: motif:12
label: guarded senses in the soul's domain
taxonomy_refs:
- wisdom
- initiation
basis: The speaker counsels being as if without tongue, ear, and eye while retaining
them, especially in matters of soul and world.
evidence_refs:
- ev:14
confidence: medium
cautions: Initiatory reading is possible but not explicit; wisdom-counsel is more
directly supported.
- id: motif:13
label: divine mercy beyond service and sin
taxonomy_refs:
- divine_judgment
basis: The speaker asks pardon, saying human service does not increase divine majesty
and sin cannot dishonor God, who is slow to wrath and prone to clemency.
evidence_refs:
- ev:16
confidence: high
cautions: The passage stresses mercy rather than judgment itself.
- id: motif:14
label: beloved attained through wounding
taxonomy_refs:
- divine_beloved
- mystical_quest
basis: The aspirant to the rose-cheeked fair must endure fortune's thorns, as the
comb is cut before touching the lady's hair.
evidence_refs:
- ev:18
confidence: medium
cautions: The beloved may be human, mystical, or both; the passage does not specify.
- id: motif:15
label: unheard truths die with the sage
taxonomy_refs:
- wisdom
basis: The speaker laments that a thousand truths will die with him because fools
have not provided a fit audience.
evidence_refs:
- ev:20
confidence: high
cautions: The speaker is not explicitly called a sage, but the role is implied by
possession of truths.
- id: motif:16
label: spring nature invited into wine fellowship
taxonomy_refs:
- seasonal_cycle
basis: After rain and temperate air, bulbuls cry in ecstasy that the pallid rose
must share their wine.
evidence_refs:
- ev:21
confidence: medium
cautions: The seasonal imagery is explicit, but its ritual or mythic scope is not
developed.
- id: motif:17
label: mortality without retrieval from earth
taxonomy_refs:
- resurrection
basis: The speaker urges drinking before death and says the person is not gold that
friends will care to dig up again.
evidence_refs:
- ev:22
confidence: medium
cautions: The motif is framed negatively; it denies practical retrieval rather than
narrating resurrection.
- id: motif:18
label: unanswered reason for coming and going
taxonomy_refs:
- wisdom
basis: The speaker says his coming and going leave him at a stand, and no ear has
heard their why.
evidence_refs:
- ev:23
confidence: high
cautions: This is philosophical questioning rather than a narrative event.
comparison_claims:
- id: claim:1
claim: The editorial note compares the self-satisfied claim to wisdom in quatrain
156 with Job's saying, 'Ye are the people, and wisdom shall die with you.'
claim_level: same_function
target: Biblical Job, as cited in the note to quatrain 156
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
counter_evidence_refs: []
confidence: medium
limitations: The comparison is supplied by the editor's note and is thematic rather
than evidence of historical contact.
- id: claim:2
claim: The note to quatrain 157 connects blue robes of dervishes with hypocrisy
in Hafiz's Ode V, supporting a cautious comparison of robe imagery as a sign of
religious hypocrisy in Persian poetic reception.
claim_level: same_function
target: Hafiz Ode V, as cited in the note to quatrain 157
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
counter_evidence_refs: []
confidence: medium
limitations: Only the note is available here; the Hafiz passage itself is not included.
- id: claim:3
claim: The note to quatrain 171 says Lyttleton expresses a similar sentiment to
the beloved-thorn image.
claim_level: same_function
target: Lyttleton, unspecified passage cited in note to quatrain 171
evidence_refs:
- ev:18
counter_evidence_refs: []
confidence: low
limitations: The target passage is not quoted or identified beyond the editor's
brief note.
- id: claim:4
claim: The note to quatrain 176 compares the speaker's uncertainty about coming
and going with similar lines in Voltaire's poem on the Lisbon earthquake.
claim_level: same_function
target: Voltaire's poem on the Lisbon earthquake, as cited in the note to quatrain
176
evidence_refs:
- ev:23
counter_evidence_refs: []
confidence: low
limitations: The note gives only a general comparison and no quoted parallel.
evidence:
- id: ev:1
type: summary
locator: lines 7161-7164; quatrain 154
quote_or_summary: The wheel on high remains busy with despite and, when it finds
a smitten heart, tries another blow.
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: quatrain 155
quote_or_summary: The speaker says the volume of youth is worn out; youth's spring
blossoms are torn; the bird of youth came and fled unnoticed.
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: quatrain 156 and note 156
quote_or_summary: Ignorant fools think themselves wiser than all and condemn unlike
persons as infidels; the note compares Job and says it is probably addressed to
the Ulama.
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: quatrain 157 and note 157
quote_or_summary: The speaker wishes the wine-house to remain thronged, religious
skirts burned, and frocks and azure robes trampled; the note cites Hafiz on blue
robes of some dervishes as hypocrisy.
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: quatrain 158
quote_or_summary: The poem asks why people toil after vain illusions, since they
rise like Zamzam or the fount of life and sink again into earth's bosom.
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: quatrain 159 and note 159
quote_or_summary: The Friend's wine gladdens the heart; the speaker cannot repent
until Allah's grace softens the hard heart. The note states that man is powerless
to mend ways without divine grace.
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: quatrain 160
quote_or_summary: After death the speaker asks to be ground small, kneaded into
clay with wine, and used to stop a wine-jar's mouth.
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: quatrain 161
quote_or_summary: The blue canopy of the sky encloses humans; in the eternal Cupbearer's
wine the speaker imagines many bubbles like himself.
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: quatrain 162
quote_or_summary: The dead lie long in the tomb while stars keep watch; their ashes
are molded into bricks for another person's house and turrets.
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: quatrain 163
quote_or_summary: Glad hearts avoid notoriety and luxury, do not haunt ruined earth
like owls, and fly Simurgh-like to the sky.
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: quatrain 164
quote_or_summary: Wine's power is known only to wine-bibbers; those who have never
felt it cannot know it.
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: quatrain 165 and note 165
quote_or_summary: The tavern-hunter must bathe in wine; the speaker calls for wine
because no one can restore the soiled veil or tarnished name.
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: quatrain 166
quote_or_summary: The speaker says life was wasted in hope without happiness and
fears life may not endure long enough for vengeance on his lot.
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: quatrain 167
quote_or_summary: The poem counsels wariness in the soul's domain, restraint about
worldly affairs, and acting as if without tongue, ear, or eye while retaining
them.
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: quatrain 168
quote_or_summary: The person with a loaf of bread, a small nest, no master, and
no slave is called wondrously fortunate.
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: quatrain 169
quote_or_summary: The speaker says his service cannot add to God's majesty and his
sin cannot dishonor God; he asks pardon from the one slow to wrath and prone to
clemency.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/sufi/project-gutenberg/sufistic-quatrains-omar-khayyam.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:17
type: summary
locator: quatrain 170 and note 170
quote_or_summary: Hands that handle wine bowls should not be confined to book and
pulpit; the speaker contrasts a dry zealot with his own wine-moist state, too
moist to catch the zealot's fire.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/sufi/project-gutenberg/sufistic-quatrains-omar-khayyam.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:18
type: summary
locator: quatrain 171 and note 171
quote_or_summary: To gain a rose-cheeked fair, one must bear fortune's thorns; a
comb touches the lady's hair only after being cleft by cuts. The note says Lyttleton
expresses a similar sentiment.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/sufi/project-gutenberg/sufistic-quatrains-omar-khayyam.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:19
type: summary
locator: quatrain 172
quote_or_summary: The speaker wishes his hands to remain on wine and his heart to
long for a Houri maid, and says repentance would not be possible even with Allah's
aid.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/sufi/project-gutenberg/sufistic-quatrains-omar-khayyam.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:20
type: summary
locator: quatrain 173
quote_or_summary: The speaker expects soon to depart; precious pearls remain unbored
and a thousand truths will die with him because fools provided no fit audience.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/sufi/project-gutenberg/sufistic-quatrains-omar-khayyam.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:21
type: summary
locator: quatrain 174
quote_or_summary: Temperate air and recent rain refresh the parterre; bulbuls cry
in ecstasy to the pallid rose that it must share their wine.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/sufi/project-gutenberg/sufistic-quatrains-omar-khayyam.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:22
type: summary
locator: quatrain 175
quote_or_summary: Before mortal pain, the speaker urges draining rosy grape-juice
from the wine-cup, since the person is not gold that friends will dig up from
earth again.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/sufi/project-gutenberg/sufistic-quatrains-omar-khayyam.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:23
type: summary
locator: quatrain 176 and note 176
quote_or_summary: The speaker's coming brought no profit to the sky and his going
does not swell its majesty; the reason for coming and going is unheard. The note
mentions similar lines in Voltaire's Lisbon earthquake poem.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/sufi/project-gutenberg/sufistic-quatrains-omar-khayyam.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
confidence:
extraction: medium
motif_candidates: medium
comparison_claims: low
notes: Extraction is based only on the supplied English passage and editorial notes.
Many images are lyric and polyvalent; symbolic or Sufi readings are recorded cautiously
and require human review.
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: |-
All evidence is from the provided public-domain passage lines 7161-7399. Taxonomy references are limited to the supplied lists and used only where directly supportable.
batch_run_id=motif-extraction-2026-04-28-high-priority
custom_id=motif_extract:sufi-omar-khayyam-sufistic-quatrains-gutenberg__l7161-l7399
passage_sha256=93bf7c9f5b876139c0ae2c554b2eb3ffa1ba73c4d36f1ce56b4caaaa1f76e0ec