The Rubaiyat: Quatrain XXXI

First Edition: Quatrain XXXI

Up from Earth's Centre through the Seventh Gate
I rose, and on the Throne of Saturn sate,
And many Knots unravel'd by the Road;
But not the Knot of Human Death and Fate.



Second Edition: Quatrain XXXIV

Up from Earth's Centre through the Seventh Gate
I rose, and on the Throne of Saturn sate;
And many Knots unravel'd by the Road;
But not the Master-Knot of Human Fate.



Fifth Edition: Quatrain XXXI

Up from Earth's Centre through the Seventh Gate
I rose, and on the Throne of Saturn sate;
And many a Knot unravel'd by the Road;
But not the Master-Knot of Human Fate.


FitzGerald made few changes to this quatrain over the five editions. One change has the comma at the end of the second line in the first edition become a semi-colon in the second and fifth editions. He might have made the change to strengthen the break between the second and third lines or perhaps to make it clearer that the first clause ends with "sate" and not go on to the third line.

"Many Knots" in the third line of the first and second edition becomes "many a Knot" in the fifth. Perhaps FitzGerald felt that "many a Knot" flowed more smoothly than "many Knots," which does seem a bit abrupt in comparison.

The most noticeable change occurs in the last line. FitzGerald changes the last line of the first edition from "But not the Knot of Human Death and Fate" to "But not the Master-Knot of Human Fate" in both the second and fifth editions. Up to this point, I think I have usually preferred the first version when he made changes, but this time I have to go with the change. The "Master Knot of Human Fate" seems more succinct and tight in comparison to wordier and looser "Knot of Human Death and Fate."

In this quatrain, as in others we have read so far, the Poet refers to a journey. Earlier journeys consisted of a visit to the wise and the holy and to the journey of life from an unknown source to an unknown goal. And in this journey, when the Poet symbolically leaves Earth for a trip to the planets, again we see this failure to unravel the "Knot of Human Fate."

The reference to the Knots that were unravel'd along the way make me wonder if this journey also refers to life. Saturn has various guises in numerous mythologies from that part of the globe. In some, Saturn is the god of the harvest, and some early Roman writers look back to Saturn's reign as a Golden Age. In others, Saturn is sometimes seen as Chronos, the god of time. In Gustav Holst's composition The Planets, Saturn is called The Bringer of Old Age. The Poet may see himself as an old man, who has solved his share of problems along the way, but not "the Master-Knot of Human Fate."

The Seventh Gate may reflect some Greek influence as Thebes had seven gates, and the seventh was called Saturn. Perhaps the Knot may be an echo of the story of Alexander the Great's solution to the problem of the Gordian Knot, which he also failed to unravel. Instead he cut it with a sword, which didn't solve the problem but reflected his inability to solve it.

Khayyam was an astronomer so he was well versed in the cosmological theories of the time. The two major theories proposed the geocentric universe, in which the earth was the center of the universe and all bodies revolved around it, and the heliocentric universe, in which the sun was the center of the universe and everything revolved around it. Both had been spelled out in Greece during the pre-Christian era, but during Khayyam's lifetime and, in fact, for about another five hundred years after Khayyam, the geocentric theory was the most popular one.

Philosophers had, long before Khayyam, devised the theory of the seven celestial spheres, in which Saturn was considered to be in the seventh sphere. In Dante's Paradiso, Saturn is depicted as the seventh level. According to the Wikipedia entry, during the Middle ages, "Christian and Muslim philosophers modified Ptolemy's system of the seven spheres to include an unmoved outermost region, the empyrean heaven, which came to be identified as the dwelling place of God and all the elect."

In this quatrain, it seems as though the Poet has accepted the geocentric theory, with Earth as the centre, and that he journeyed out among the spheres until he reached the seventh and final sphere that is accessible to one still living. In spite of the great distance he had traveled, and the years he has lived, the Poet tells us that he still has no answer to the ultimate question of Human Fate.