The Rubaiyat : Quatrain XIV

The Worldly Hope men set their Hearts upon
Turns Ashes--or it prospers; and anon,
Like Snow upon the Desert's dusty Face
Lighting a little Hour or two--is gone.

This is the fourteenth quatrain of the continuing series on Fitzgerald's The Rubaiyat. Khayyam says the the hope that men have, the earthly hopes of men that they so much cherish, These hopes can some times flourish or sometime fail. Neither is permanent, both success and failures are transitory. They may change as soon as they arrive. But there is one thing that is permanent. Death. The passing and along with those failures and those success and those hopes. We take none. In the times we walk on these earth these hopes that fail or succeed is not something to be taken heart to. Nothing is persistent, Neither the failures, nor the success. Not even the Self. Like a brief spell of snow on the face of the barren desert, that lights up the desolate landscape for an hour or two. Giving it hope and vitality, only to disappear sometime later. And the desert goes back to its un-moving starkness. Such is the human condition, it will end. Good times or bad.. the short burst will inevitably end and all will return to dust!