Page:Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, the astronomer-poet of Persia (IA ru00biytofomaromarrich).pdf/33

XLVIX.

'Tis all a Chequer-board of Nights and Days

Where Destiny with Men for Pieces plays:
⁠Hither and thither moves, and mates, and slays,
And one by one back in the Closet lays.

L.

The Ball no Question makes of Ayes and Noes,

But Right or Left as strikes the Player goes;
⁠And He that toss'd Thee down into the Field,
He knows about it all—He knows—HE knows!²⁰

LI.

The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,

Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
⁠Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.

LII.

And that inverted Bowl we call The Sky,

Whereunder crawling coop't we live and die,
⁠Lift not thy hands to It for help—for It
Rolls impotently on as Thou or I.

LIII.

With Earth's first Clay They did the Last Man's knead,

And then of the Last Harvest sow'd the Seed:
⁠Yea, the first Morning of Creation wrote
What the Last Dawn of Reckoning shall read.