batch.motif.sufi-omar-khayyam-sufistic-quatrains-gutenberg-l8298-l8522
---
record_id: batch.motif.sufi-omar-khayyam-sufistic-quatrains-gutenberg-l8298-l8522
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 8298-8522
start: '8298'
end: '8522'
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 contains numbered quatrains and editorial notes. The speaker
contrasts tavern communion with mosque prayer, counsels devotion to wise people,
describes a birdlike arrival and departure in search of a higher nest, reflects
on fate, prayer, death, non-return from the other world, divine unity, wine, rapture,
a primordial divine address, the beloved's glance, a speaking cup, emergence from
Not-being, repentance, a bird beside a dead king's skull, present-minded counsel,
the limits of science, and the rejection of hypocrisy.
language: English
quote_policy: summarized
literal_observations:
- id: obs:1
text: The speaker says communion with the addressed Deity in taverns is better than
praying in mosques without seeing the Deity's face.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: obs:2
text: The notes identify quatrain 262 as an address to the Deity.
category: other
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: obs:3
text: The speaker advises devoting life to wise and worthy men and keeping away
from the worthless, even preferring poison from a sage to an antidote from a fool.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- id: obs:4
text: The speaker compares himself to a bird that flew in from the wild toward a
higher nest, found no guide, and flies out by the same door.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- id: obs:5
text: The speaker says a divine or controlling figure binds humans in Nature's chain
while commanding restraint, leaving them perplexed between opposing rules.
category: relationship
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: obs:6
text: Several quatrains state that those who go away are not seen returning and
that knowledge of the other world is not brought back.
category: sequence
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- ev:7
- ev:13
- id: obs:7
text: Khayyam is said not to despair of heavenly grace because he does not misread
the One as two.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- id: obs:8
text: The notes gloss the doctrine involved in quatrain 268 as Tauhid, or Unitarianism,
the central doctrine of Islam.
category: other
evidence_refs:
- ev:9
- id: obs:9
text: Humans are compared to chessmen moved on life's chess-board by Heaven and
then shut in death's dark box.
category: object
evidence_refs:
- ev:10
- id: obs:10
text: Life is compared to a breath blown from vast deeps and then blown back to
the same deeps; the note identifies the deeps as the ocean of Not-being.
category: other
evidence_refs:
- ev:11
- id: obs:11
text: The speaker says he has soared to heights of rapture, adored pure wine with
drunken Maghs, become beside himself, and rests in a pure temple associated with
the words, 'Am not I your Lord?'
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:12
- id: obs:12
text: The note links the words 'Am not I your Lord?' to Allah's words to Adam's
sons in Koran vii.171 and mentions a parallel in Hafiz.
category: other
evidence_refs:
- ev:12
- id: obs:13
text: A queen or beloved gives the speaker a token of affection through a glance
and tells him to do good and cast it on the wave.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:13
- id: obs:14
text: The speaker asks the cup about the hidden cause of length of days, and the
cup whispers that one should drink because, once gone, one never returns.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:14
- id: obs:15
text: The speaker says humans lay asleep in the cloak of Naught until commanded
to awake and taste the world's good and ill.
category: sequence
evidence_refs:
- ev:15
- id: obs:16
text: A supplicant asks the Deity who knows secret thoughts and aids all in need
to grant repentance and accept the plea.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:16
- id: obs:17
text: The speaker sees a bird on the walls of Tus with the skull of Kai Kawus before
it; the bird laments that the king's drums and alarms are silent.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:17
- id: obs:18
text: The speaker says the future should not be asked about, the past has vanished,
and the present breath should be counted as gain.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:18
- id: obs:19
text: The speaker says no man of science has weighed or assayed what launches the
golden orb or wrecks its foundations.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:19
- id: obs:20
text: The speaker counsels casting off false hypocrisy and not selling eternity
for earthly gear.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:20
figures:
- id: fig:1
name_or_label: Khayyam / speaker
description: The first-person poetic speaker, named as Khayyam in several quatrains,
speaks of prayer, wine, perplexity, mortality, and divine grace.
role_refs:
- role:1
- role:5
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- ev:14
- ev:16
- ev:21
- id: fig:2
name_or_label: Deity / Thou
description: An addressed divine figure described as first and last of all creatures,
able to burn and cherish, knowing secret thoughts, aiding in need, and accepting
pleas.
role_refs:
- role:2
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
- ev:16
- id: fig:3
name_or_label: Wise and worthy men / sage
description: Figures to whom life should be devoted; a sage's poison is preferred
to a fool's antidote.
role_refs:
- role:3
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- id: fig:4
name_or_label: Worthless man / fool
description: Figures from whom the speaker says to keep remote; even an antidote
from a fool should be refused.
role_refs:
- role:4
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- id: fig:5
name_or_label: Bird-like speaker
description: The speaker's self-comparison as a bird from the wild seeking a higher
nest, lacking a guide, and departing by the same door.
role_refs:
- role:5
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- id: fig:6
name_or_label: Heaven / great chess-player
description: Heaven is personified as the great chess-player that moves humans on
life's chess-board and shuts them in death's dark box.
role_refs:
- role:6
evidence_refs:
- ev:10
- id: fig:7
name_or_label: Queen / beloved
description: A queen or beloved gives a token of affection, glances kindly, and
speaks a proverb about casting good on the wave.
role_refs:
- role:7
evidence_refs:
- ev:13
- id: fig:8
name_or_label: Cup
description: The cup is addressed for knowledge and answers by whispering to drink
because the departed do not return.
role_refs:
- role:8
evidence_refs:
- ev:14
- id: fig:9
name_or_label: Bird on the walls of Tus
description: A bird perched on the walls of Tus before the skull of Kai Kawus and
lamenting the dead king's silence.
role_refs:
- role:9
evidence_refs:
- ev:17
- id: fig:10
name_or_label: Kai Kawus
description: A king represented in the passage by his skull, with drums and alarms
now silent.
role_refs:
- role:10
evidence_refs:
- ev:17
- id: fig:11
name_or_label: Drunken Maghs
description: Companions with whom the speaker says he adored pure wine during an
experience of rapture.
role_refs:
- role:11
evidence_refs:
- ev:12
roles:
- id: role:1
label: poetic supplicant and moral reflector
assigned_to:
- fig:1
basis: The speaker asks for repentance, reflects on mortality, and gives counsel
about hypocrisy, wisdom, and the present moment.
evidence_refs:
- ev:16
- ev:18
- ev:20
- id: role:2
label: divine addressee
assigned_to:
- fig:2
basis: The passage and note identify the addressed Thou as the Deity, able to burn,
cherish, know thoughts, aid, and accept pleas.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
- ev:16
- id: role:3
label: trusted sage
assigned_to:
- fig:3
basis: The speaker says to devote life to wise and worthy men and even accept poison
from a sage's hand.
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- id: role:4
label: untrusted fool
assigned_to:
- fig:4
basis: The speaker says to keep away from the worthless and refuse even an antidote
from a fool.
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- id: role:5
label: seeker without guide
assigned_to:
- fig:1
- fig:5
basis: The speaker's bird image describes travel toward a higher nest but departure
after finding no guide.
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- id: role:6
label: personified mover of fate
assigned_to:
- fig:6
basis: Heaven moves humans as chessmen on life's board and places them in death's
box.
evidence_refs:
- ev:10
- id: role:7
label: beloved giver of a token
assigned_to:
- fig:7
basis: The queen gives a token of affection through a glance and speaks to the speaker.
evidence_refs:
- ev:13
- id: role:8
label: speaking object / mortality teacher
assigned_to:
- fig:8
basis: The cup answers the speaker's question by teaching that the departed do not
return.
evidence_refs:
- ev:14
- id: role:9
label: lamenting witness
assigned_to:
- fig:9
basis: The bird makes a lament before the skull of Kai Kawus.
evidence_refs:
- ev:17
- id: role:10
label: dead king
assigned_to:
- fig:10
basis: Kai Kawus appears as a skull whose royal drums and alarms are silenced.
evidence_refs:
- ev:17
- id: role:11
label: wine-adoring companions
assigned_to:
- fig:11
basis: The speaker says he adored pure wine with drunken Maghs.
evidence_refs:
- ev:12
symbols:
- id: sym:1
label: tavern
literal_form: tavern haunts / taverns
associated_figures:
- fig:1
- fig:2
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:22
- id: sym:2
label: mosque and formal prayer
literal_form: mosques, five hours of prayer, formal prayers
associated_figures:
- fig:1
- fig:2
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:6
- ev:22
- id: sym:3
label: wine, cup, and long-necked flask
literal_form: cup, wine, flask of wine
associated_figures:
- fig:1
- fig:8
- fig:11
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:12
- ev:14
- ev:22
- id: sym:4
label: bird and higher nest
literal_form: bird from the wild, higher nest, same door
associated_figures:
- fig:1
- fig:5
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- id: sym:5
label: Nature's chain
literal_form: resistless Nature's chain
associated_figures:
- fig:1
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: sym:6
label: slanted jar retaining wine
literal_form: jar held slant while retaining wine / slanted jars
associated_figures:
- fig:1
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- ev:15
- id: sym:7
label: chess-board and death's box
literal_form: chessmen, life's chess-board, death's dark box
associated_figures:
- fig:1
- fig:6
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:10
- id: sym:8
label: breath and deeps
literal_form: breath blown from and back to the vast deeps
associated_figures:
- fig:1
taxonomy_refs:
- water
evidence_refs:
- ev:11
- id: sym:9
label: pure temple and primordial divine question
literal_form: pure temple, 'Am not I your Lord?'
associated_figures:
- fig:1
- fig:2
- fig:11
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:12
- id: sym:10
label: wave
literal_form: cast it on the wave
associated_figures:
- fig:7
taxonomy_refs:
- water
evidence_refs:
- ev:13
- id: sym:11
label: cloak of Naught
literal_form: cloak of Naught, asleep and still
associated_figures:
- fig:1
- fig:2
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:15
- id: sym:12
label: skull of Kai Kawus
literal_form: skull before a bird on the walls of Tus
associated_figures:
- fig:9
- fig:10
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:17
- id: sym:13
label: golden orb
literal_form: golden orb whose course is launched and foundations wrecked
associated_figures: []
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:19
- id: sym:14
label: Magian zone
literal_form: girding with the Magian zone
associated_figures:
- fig:1
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:21
scenes:
- id: scene:1
label: Tavern communion contrasted with mosque prayer
summary: The speaker says tavern communion with the Deity is better than mosque
prayer without seeing the divine face, and later returns to tavern haunts while
saying farewell to the five hours of prayer.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:2
symbol_refs:
- sym:1
- sym:2
- sym:3
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:22
- id: scene:2
label: Advice about sages and fools
summary: The speaker advises devotion to wise and worthy men and avoidance of the
worthless, using the contrast of poison from a sage and antidote from a fool.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:3
- fig:4
symbol_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- id: scene:3
label: Birdlike quest without a guide
summary: The speaker figures himself as a bird arriving from the wild, aiming at
a higher nest, finding no guide, and departing through the same door.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:5
symbol_refs:
- sym:4
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- id: scene:4
label: Perplexity under contradictory commands
summary: The speaker describes humans as bound in Nature's chain while told to restrain
nature, and compares the command to holding a jar slant without spilling wine.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:2
symbol_refs:
- sym:5
- sym:6
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- ev:15
- id: scene:5
label: Non-return from death or the other world
summary: The speaker says those who depart do not return to teach the other world's
hidden learning; the cup repeats that once gone one never returns.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:8
symbol_refs:
- sym:3
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- ev:7
- ev:14
- id: scene:6
label: Humans as chessmen of Heaven
summary: Humans are likened to chessmen moved by Heaven on life's board and shut
away in death's dark box.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:6
symbol_refs:
- sym:7
evidence_refs:
- ev:10
- id: scene:7
label: Life as breath from Not-being
summary: Life is described as a breath from vast deeps that returns to the same
deeps, which the note glosses as the ocean of Not-being.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
symbol_refs:
- sym:8
evidence_refs:
- ev:11
- id: scene:8
label: Rapture and primordial divine address
summary: The speaker soars to rapture, adores pure wine with drunken Maghs, becomes
beside himself, and rests in a pure temple linked by the note to the Koranic divine
address to Adam's sons.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:2
- fig:11
symbol_refs:
- sym:3
- sym:9
evidence_refs:
- ev:12
- id: scene:9
label: Beloved's glance and wave proverb
summary: The queen or beloved gives a token through a kind glance and tells the
speaker to do good and cast it on the wave.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:7
symbol_refs:
- sym:10
evidence_refs:
- ev:13
- id: scene:10
label: Bird lamenting a king's skull
summary: On the walls of Tus, a bird sits before the skull of Kai Kawus and laments
that the king's drums and alarms are silent.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:9
- fig:10
symbol_refs:
- sym:12
evidence_refs:
- ev:17
- id: scene:11
label: Counsel on time, science, and eternity
summary: The speaker counsels attention to the present breath, says science cannot
determine the golden orb's origin or ruin, and urges rejection of hypocrisy and
earthly gear in view of eternity.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
symbol_refs:
- sym:13
evidence_refs:
- ev:18
- ev:19
- ev:20
candidate_motifs:
- id: motif:1
label: mystical quest without a guide
taxonomy_refs:
- mystical_quest
basis: The speaker's bird image describes travel toward a higher nest but departure
after finding no guide who knows the way.
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
confidence: high
cautions: The passage gives the image in a brief lyric form rather than a full narrative
quest.
- id: motif:2
label: divine beloved encountered outside formal religion
taxonomy_refs:
- divine_beloved
basis: The speaker prefers tavern communion with the Deity to mosque prayer without
seeing the divine face; the note identifies the addressee as the Deity.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
confidence: medium
cautions: The passage also contains wine-house and beloved imagery, so divine and
erotic registers overlap.
- id: motif:3
label: ascent into rapture
taxonomy_refs:
- ascent
basis: The speaker says he has soared to heights of rapture and become beside himself
in a pure temple.
evidence_refs:
- ev:12
confidence: high
cautions: The ascent is inward or ecstatic; no literal travel route is described.
- id: motif:4
label: annihilation or return to Not-being
taxonomy_refs:
- annihilation_union
basis: Life is described as a breath from the deeps returning to the deeps, and
humans are said to have slept in the cloak of Naught before awakening into the
world.
evidence_refs:
- ev:11
- ev:15
confidence: medium
cautions: The passage emphasizes Not-being and mortality more explicitly than union;
the taxonomy match is interpretive.
- id: motif:5
label: non-return from death or the other world
taxonomy_refs:
- afterlife_journey_map
basis: Multiple quatrains say those who go away do not return to teach the other
world's hidden learning; the cup repeats that once gone one never returns.
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- ev:7
- ev:14
confidence: medium
cautions: The passage denies returned knowledge rather than mapping an afterlife
journey.
- id: motif:6
label: fate as a game played by Heaven
taxonomy_refs:
- duality
basis: Humans are chessmen moved to and fro by Heaven on life's chess-board, then
placed in death's box.
evidence_refs:
- ev:10
confidence: medium
cautions: The available taxonomy does not include a direct fate/game category; duality
is limited to the contrast between human agency and heavenly control.
- id: motif:7
label: wisdom through sage, cup, and mortality signs
taxonomy_refs:
- wisdom
basis: The passage contrasts sage and fool, presents a cup that teaches mortality,
and shows a bird lamenting a king's skull.
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- ev:14
- ev:17
confidence: high
cautions: Wisdom is distributed across counsel, object speech, and memento mori
imagery rather than a single teacher figure.
- id: motif:8
label: primordial covenantal divine address
taxonomy_refs:
- covenant
basis: The rapture quatrain rests in a pure temple with the phrase 'Am not I your
Lord?' and the note links it to Allah's words to Adam's sons in Koran vii.171.
evidence_refs:
- ev:12
confidence: high
cautions: The covenantal context is supplied by the editorial note, not elaborated
in the quatrain itself.
comparison_claims:
- id: claim:1
claim: The phrase 'Am not I your Lord?' is explicitly linked by the note to Koran
vii.171, supporting comparison with a Qur'anic primordial address or covenant
motif.
claim_level: same_motif
target: Koran vii.171 primordial divine address to Adam's sons
evidence_refs:
- ev:12
counter_evidence_refs: []
confidence: high
limitations: The passage provides only an editorial citation and a brief quoted
phrase, not the full Qur'anic context.
- id: claim:2
claim: The note states that the same Koranic phrase also appears in Hafiz, supporting
a cautious nearby Persian lyric comparison for the primordial address imagery.
claim_level: same_motif
target: Hafiz, Ode 43 as cited in the note
evidence_refs:
- ev:12
counter_evidence_refs: []
confidence: medium
limitations: The Hafiz passage is not included here, so the comparison depends solely
on the note.
- id: claim:3
claim: The editorial note compares the counsel about future and past to Horace's
Ode to Leuconoe, supporting a cautious comparison at the level of present-minded
counsel.
claim_level: same_function
target: Horace's Ode to Leuconoe as cited in the note
evidence_refs:
- ev:18
counter_evidence_refs: []
confidence: medium
limitations: The Horace text is not provided, and the comparison concerns function
or theme rather than identical imagery.
- id: claim:4
claim: The note on Tauhid says a similar expression occurs in Hafiz, supporting
cautious comparison within Persian lyric uses of divine unity.
claim_level: same_function
target: Hafiz, Ode 465 as cited in the note
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- ev:9
counter_evidence_refs: []
confidence: medium
limitations: The Hafiz ode is not quoted; the comparison is limited to the note's
assertion.
evidence:
- id: ev:1
type: summary
locator: quatrain 262
quote_or_summary: The speaker says it is better to commune with the addressed Thou
in taverns than to pray in mosques and fail to see the divine face; the Thou is
called first and last and able to burn or cherish the speaker.
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: note to quatrain 262
quote_or_summary: The note says this quatrain is clearly an address to the Deity.
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 263
quote_or_summary: The speaker advises devotion to wise and worthy men, distance
from the worthless, taking poison from a sage's hand, and refusing an antidote
from a fool.
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 264
quote_or_summary: The speaker flew in like a bird from the wild aiming at a higher
nest, found no guide who knows the way, and flies out by the same door.
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 265
quote_or_summary: Humans are bound in Nature's chain while told to restrain their
natures; the perplexing command is compared to holding a jar slant while retaining
all the wine.
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 266 and note
quote_or_summary: Those who go away are not seen returning to teach the other world's
hidden learning; the note comments on formal Muslim prayers.
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 267
quote_or_summary: The speaker tells the addressee to cast dust on deaf skies, drink
the cup, hover around the fair, and asks whether any who go ever return.
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 268
quote_or_summary: Khayyam lacks pearls of righteous deeds and has sin, yet does
not despair of heavenly grace because he never misreads One as two.
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: note to quatrain 268
quote_or_summary: The note identifies Tauhid, or Unitarianism, as the central doctrine
of Islam and cites Hafiz, Ode 465.
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 270
quote_or_summary: Humans are chessmen moved by Heaven, the great chess-player, on
life's chess-board and then shut in death's dark box.
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 271 and note
quote_or_summary: Life is a breath blown from the vast deeps and blown back to the
same deeps; the note glosses the deeps as the ocean of Not-being.
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 272 and note
quote_or_summary: The speaker soars to heights of rapture, adores pure wine with
drunken Maghs, becomes beside himself, and rests in a pure temple with the phrase
'Am not I your Lord?'; the note links the phrase to Koran vii.171 and Hafiz, Ode
43.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/sufi/project-gutenberg/sufistic-quatrains-omar-khayyam.md
rights_note: Public domain source; short quoted phrase from public domain text.
- id: ev:13
type: summary
locator: quatrain 273 and note
quote_or_summary: The queen gives the speaker a token of affection through a kind
glance and says to do good and cast it on the wave; the note glosses this as not
hoping for a return to love.
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 274
quote_or_summary: The speaker puts lips to the cup to learn the hidden cause of
length of days; the cup whispers to drink because once gone one never returns.
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 275 and note
quote_or_summary: Humans lay asleep in the cloak of Naught until commanded to awake
and taste the world's good and ill; the note glosses Naught as Not-being.
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 276
quote_or_summary: The speaker addresses one who knows all secret thoughts and aids
all in need, asking for repentance and acceptance of the plea.
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 277 and note
quote_or_summary: The speaker sees a bird perched on the walls of Tus before the
skull of Kai Kawus; the bird laments that the king's drums and alarms are silent.
The note says Tus was near Nishapur.
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 278 and note
quote_or_summary: The speaker says not to ask about the future, the past has vanished,
and the present breath should be counted as gain; the note compares Horace's Ode
to Leuconoe.
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 279 and note
quote_or_summary: The speaker asks what launched the golden orb and what wrecks
its foundations, saying no man of science has weighed or assayed it; the note
calls this the vanity of science.
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 280
quote_or_summary: The speaker counsels casting off false hypocrisy, says this life
is a moment and the next is all time, and warns not to sell eternity for earthly
gear.
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 281
quote_or_summary: The speaker pleads foolishness, feels perplexity, and says he
girds himself with the Magian zone from shame at being so poor a Muslim.
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 269 and note
quote_or_summary: The speaker says they return to tavern haunts, say farewell to
the five hours of prayer, and stretch their necks toward a long-necked flask of
wine; the note discusses the takbir formula.
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: medium
notes: Literal extraction is strong because the passage is explicit and public-domain.
Motif mapping is more interpretive for Not-being, fate, and divine-beloved imagery.
Comparison claims rely on editorial notes included in the passage.
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 were limited to available motif families and symbols.
batch_run_id=motif-extraction-2026-04-28-high-priority
custom_id=motif_extract:sufi-omar-khayyam-sufistic-quatrains-gutenberg__l8298-l8522
passage_sha256=a3dfe2ce8a8b638d23402bbfdc69e1393aad07bcd26300167c8eabbe0107a16f