The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

Live one day at a time

Echoes

The stanzas, in FitzGerald’s 1859 edition, ask why anyone should fret about “Unborn TO-MORROW and dead YESTERDAY” if today is sweet. They credit no one.

1. 23 BCE

   “A wise deity shrouds in obscure darkness the events of the time to come, and smiles if a mortal is solicitous beyond the law of nature. Be mindful to manage duly that which is present.”

   Horace, Odes. Earliest we can find, about 1,140 years earlier.

2. c. 1120

   “Unborn TO-MORROW and dead YESTERDAY, Why fret about them if TO-DAY be sweet!”