"Into this Universe:" Heidegger and FitzGerald’s The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám 1:29

"Into this Universe:" Heidegger and FitzGerald’s The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám 1:29

One recurrent theme in the unconventional quatrains that were later gathered under the rubric of the The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám is surprise at having come into being unasked, and at being sentenced to non-being at the end of this bewildering life. This sentiment to my mind is a sign of medieval Persian secularism. The anonymous authors rejected the sacred history of the religions that aimed at explaining why being came into existence and at ar…