The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám · Chapter
XVII explained
The chapter reflects on the transient nature of power and life, comparing the world to a battered caravanserai where successive Sultáns briefly dwell before departing.
What happens
The chapter reflects on the transient nature of power and life, comparing the world to a battered caravanserai where successive Sultáns briefly dwell before departing.
Themes in this chapter
Mortality and Transience
The chapter emphasizes the brief tenure of Sultáns and all humans in the world, a temporary resting place.
Characters to notice
- Sultán
Represented as successive rulers who abide their destined hour and then pass away.
Key passages
“Think, in this batter’d Caravanserai Whose Portals are alternate Night and Day, How Sultán after Sultán with his Pomp Abode his destined Hour, and went his way.”
Consider this worn-down inn of the world, where the doors are night and day in turn; see how one ruler after another, with all their splendor, stays only for their fated time and then departs.
The passage uses the caravanserai metaphor to highlight the ephemeral nature of earthly power and life.