Quatrain 3

یک قطرۀ آب بود و با دريا شد

یک ذرۀ خا ک با زمين یکجا شد

آمد شدن تو اندرين عالم چيست

آمد مگسی پديد و نا پيدا شد

source, Dashti 9, p. 245

 

 

yak qatre-ye aab bud o baa daryaa shod

yak zarre-ye khaak baa zamin yakjaa shod

aamad shodan-e to andarin aalam chist

aamad magasi padid o naapeydaa shod

 

A raindrop falls into a sea of drops,
a dustbeam falls to earth -- the journey stops.
How did you come here -- and where will you go?
"A fly darts in view and soon leaves sea and shore."

 

A drop of water fall'n on ocean wide,

A grain of earth become with earth allied;

What does your coming, going Here denote?--

A tiny fly appeared awhile, then died.

(Saidi, quatrain 64)

 

Translation & Discussion of the quatrain: 1. There was a drop of water and it joined with the sea 2. A grain of dust united with the earth 3. Your coming, going in the world, what is it? aamad shodan-e to = aamadan va raftan-e to 4. The coming was a fly, visible, and it was not found

This quatrain apparently was not used by FitzGerald. In the speaker's view both the drop of water and the the grain of dust add to the accumulation of water and ground-dirt yet all mortals are just specks (tiny flies as Saidi so aptly puts it) which appear and soon disappear from sight. In this quatrain, as in the first two above and in many of the quatrains attributed to Khayyam, the final line delivers a punch or a verdict on what precedes.