Page:Quatrains of Omar Khayyam (tr. Whinfield, 1883).djvu/316

260

Since all man's business in this world of woe Is sorrow's pangs to feel, and grief to know, Happy are they that never come at all, And they that, having come, the soonest go!

By reason's dictates it is right to live, But of ourselves we know not how to live, So Fortune, like a master, rod in hand, Raps our pates well to teach us how to live!

Nor you nor I can read the etern decree, To that enigma we can find no key; They talk of you and me behind the veil, But, if that veil be lifted, where are we?