The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám · Chapter
XLVII explained
The quatrain reflects on the insignificance of individual human existence in the vast, enduring world, comparing our brief coming and departure to a pebble cast into the sea.
What happens
The quatrain reflects on the insignificance of individual human existence in the vast, enduring world, comparing our brief coming and departure to a pebble cast into the sea.
Themes in this chapter
Mortality and Transience
The poem emphasizes the fleeting nature of life behind the 'Veil' and the long duration of the world after we are gone.
Skepticism and Doubt
The imagery of the world heeding our coming and departure as little as the sea heeds a pebble-cast suggests a skeptical view of human significance.
Key passages
“When You and I behind the Veil are past, Oh, but the long, long while the World shall last, Which of our Coming and Departure heeds As the Sea’s self should heed a pebble-cast.”
After you and I have passed beyond the veil of death, the world will continue on for an immense time, paying no more attention to our arrival and departure than the sea would notice a single pebble thrown into it.
This paraphrase captures the theme of human insignificance and the indifference of the universe.