The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám · Chapter
XCI explained
The speaker requests that his fading life be sustained with wine (the Grape), and that after death his body be washed and buried in a living leaf shroud by a garden-side, suggesting a desire for a natural, life-affirming end.
What happens
The speaker requests that his fading life be sustained with wine (the Grape), and that after death his body be washed and buried in a living leaf shroud by a garden-side, suggesting a desire for a natural, life-affirming end.
Themes in this chapter
Mortality and Transience
The chapter directly addresses the speaker's fading life and the preparation for death.
Hedonism and Wine
Wine (the Grape) is invoked as a sustaining force even in the face of death.
Characters to notice
- Omar Khayyám
The speaker of the quatrain, expressing a personal wish for his own death and burial.
Key passages
“Ah, with the Grape my fading Life provide, And wash the Body whence the Life has died, And lay me, shrouded in the living Leaf, By some not unfrequented Garden-side.”
Please sustain my declining life with wine, and after I die, wash my body and bury me wrapped in a fresh leaf, in a garden where people sometimes pass by.
The speaker requests a burial that incorporates wine and living nature, emphasizing a connection to life even in death.