The Rubaiyat : Quatrain XV


And those who husbanded the Golden Grain,
And those who flung it to the Winds like Rain,
Alike to no such aureate Earth are turn'd
As, buried once, Men want dug up again.

This is the fifteenth quatrain of the Fitzgerald's The Rubaiyat. Continuing with the same motif as the previous quatrain, where Khayyam says that hope that sometime prospers or flounders is something no to be taken to heart for all is transitory. The poet here says all those who used their resources and energies wisely and prudently (conserved and used frugally each and every grain he had in his store) , and all those who extravagant and wasteful (and flunged the fistful of grain to the winds like a rain). All will be same, the same end awaits all. They will be no golden earth that awaits any of them. No golden grave await any. And once buried, no one would want to dug them up again. The same cold grave awaits all, same of rich or poor, same for king or beggar, same for wise or foolish. And once you lay buried, no one would want to dig you out. No one would care anymore, be it anyone. The dead will sleep quietly alone and undisturbed, irrespective of who were they.

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