Quatrain 10

چون روزی وعمر بیش و کم نتوان کرد

دل را به کم و بیش دژم نتوان کرد

کار من و تو چنانکه رأی من و توست

از موم به دست خویش هم نتوان کرد
source, Dashti 73, p. 257

chon ruzi vo omr bish o kam natvaan kard
del raa be kam o bish dozham natvaan kard
kaar-e man o to chonaanke ray-ye man o tost
az mum be dast-e khish ham natvaan kard

Since life moves by life's law and not by our will,
we should spare ourselves heartbreak --
no day can we change.
And whatever we do, what we wish it to be,
we cannot craft from wax the change we would have.

and literally, with glosses, A. J. Arberry:
Since it is impossible to augment or lessen (one's) sustenance and life, it is vain (lit. "impossible") to make oneself miserable over the less and the more; my affairs and thine, after my opinions and thine, it is impossible for us to mould -- even (though they were) like wax in our hands.
( A.J. Arberry, The Rubā‘īyāt of Omar Khayyām, London, 1949, quatrain 149)

Since life and fare no more no less shall be,
Why let that be the cause of misery;
Your life and mine we can never remold
Like wax in the hand the way we want it to be.
Saidi, quatrain 113

Translation & Discussion of the quatrain:
1. Since our lot in life and days in life cannot be made more or less 2. Our hearts cannot get sick over "less or more" -- does this line have two meanings? First, our hearts cannot, cannot afford to, needn't get sick over less or more and second, if we accept the obvious non-alteration of our days and life, we then cannot get sick over how much more or how much less 3. My action and your action as is the belief /opinion of you and me 4. Also cannot be shaped from wax in the hand (of you and me), that is, we cannot change or reshape our past, present and future actions to the way we think about them, see them, have an opinion of the way they should be, just as we cannot change our lot and life.

Metrics: The visitor can't help noticing (and it has been seen before) the repetitious end-rhymes in lines 1,2 and 4, rhymes "deep" into each of these lines. And for all visitors, especially readers of the Persian, there is the common elision in natavaan which results in natvaan ( نتْوان ). CvCvCVC = Consonant, short vowel, Consonant, short vowel, Consonant , Long Vowel, Consonant -- in this situation, the second short vowel will be elided, that is, 'struck out.' For a useful diagram of the quatrain/robâ'i meter, go to http://128.187.33.4/persian/ -- redirected from Persian in Texas--, select 'poetry' and then click on 'A Few Quatrains of Omar Khayyam. Midway down the right side of page, click on 'robâ'i meter' and you have before you Connie Bobroff's easy-to-read metric diagram powered from behind the scenes by Professor Gernot Windfuhr, whose contribution is gratefully acknowledged.