Think, in this batter'd Caravanserai
Whose Doorways are alternate Night and Day,
How Sultan after Sultan with his Pomp
Abode his Hour or two, and went his way.
This is the sixteenth quatrain of the Fitzgerald's The Rubaiyat. The theme of this quatrain is same as the the previous one. Our time here is short, our stay is temporal. Be it beggar or kings of kings, everyone will turn to dust. Death will be a great leveler, seeing none and distinguishing none and ending it all. Khayyam says that in this battered and ramshackle inn whose doors are the coming of the day and the night. This dilapidated inn that provides accommodation to the travelers of this land is this world and we are the travelers. In this earthly inn, the doors are portals into other times and other worlds. And in this inn, kings after kings have come with there might and splendor to inhabit it and then leave to the other worlds. This earth is a resting place in our journey. We come here from some other worlds with nothing, and we will leave for some other worlds with nothing. All the show and pomp will not change this eternal path. All will meet the same fate.
