Kierkegaard and Khayyam
“No one comes back from the dead, no one has entered the world without crying; no one is asked when he wishes to enter life, nor when he wishes to leave.”
- Either/Or
“Of all who went on this long road,
Where is the one who has returned to tell us the secret?
Take care to leave nothing for your needs on this two-ended way,
You will not be coming back.
Drink wine, you will lie long enough under the ground,
Without companion, friend or comrade.
Take care you tell no one this hidden secret,
‘No lily that withers will bloom again.’
Oh what a long time we shall not be and the world will endure,
Neither name nor sign of us will exist;
Before this we were not and there was no deficiency
After this, when we are not it will be the same as before.”
- The Rubaiyat
