The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám · Chapter
LXV explained
The chapter reflects on the revelations of devout and learned figures from the past, who burned as prophets but are now merely stories told from a dream, returning to sleep.
What happens
The chapter reflects on the revelations of devout and learned figures from the past, who burned as prophets but are now merely stories told from a dream, returning to sleep.
Themes in this chapter
Mortality and Transience
The prophets' stories are fleeting, like a dream from which one awakens and returns to sleep.
Skepticism and Doubt
Questions the lasting truth of devout revelations, reducing them to mere tales.
Characters to notice
- The Súfi
Implied as one of the devout and learned who rose and burned as prophets.
Key passages
“The Revelations of Devout and Learn’d Who rose before us, and as Prophets burn’d, Are all but Stories, which, awoke from Sleep, They told their comrades, and to Sleep return’d.”
The insights of holy and wise people from earlier times, who shone like prophets, are nothing more than tales they shared after waking from a dream, and then they went back to sleep.
Highlights the ephemeral and possibly illusory nature of prophetic knowledge.