Omar Khayyam: “The elders and the newborns”

Juan Cole 07/12/2012

The elders and the newborns trace
the footsteps of each other, and
it is the way of this world that
no one can live forever here.
They have departed and we’re on our way,
and they arrive again, and go again.

Translated by Juan Cole
from Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat, Arberry 1949, 5

About the Author

Juan Cole is the founder and chief editor of Informed Comment. He is Richard P. Mitchell Professor of History at the University of Michigan He is author of, among many other books, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires and The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Follow him on Twitter at @jricole or the Informed Comment Facebook Page