The Rubaiyat: Quatrain XXXII

First Edition: Quatrain XXXII

There was a Door to which I found no KEY:
There was a Veil past which I could not see:
Some little Talk awhile of ME and THEE
There seem'd--and then no more of THEE and ME.



Second Edition: Quatrain XXXV

There was the Door to which I found no KEY:
There was the Veil past which I could not see:
Some little Talk awhile of ME and THEE
There was--and then no more of THEE and ME.



Fifth Edition: Quatrain XXXII

There was the Door to which I found no KEY:
There was the Veil through which I could not see:
Some little talk awhile of ME and THEE
There was--and then no more of THEE and ME.


The changes seem to affect the tone more, rather than the meaning of the quatrain. What changes were made occurred in the second edition and remained to the end. The fifth edition is, as far as I can tell, identical to the second edition, except for one change: in the second line, the word "past" in the first and second editions becomes "through" in the fifth. Perhaps FitzGerald felt that "through" was more idiomatic in context than "past." Seeing "through" a veil is more common than seeing "past" a veil.

The two changes that occurred between the first and second editions consist of changing the indefinite article "a" preceding "Door" and "Veil" to the definite "the." The somewhat vague "There was a Door" and "There was a Veil" now becomes a more specific and perhaps a more concrete "There was the Door" and "There was the Veil." The other change is the substitution of "There was" in the second and fifth editions for "There seem'd" in the first. I would guess that he wanted a stronger statement. "There seem'd" suggests that there might have been some talk, but "There was" makes it a definite statement: there was talk. There is no room for doubt now.

Doors have appeared in earlier quatrains. For example, in Quatrain III, those who stand before the Tavern Door impatiently shout for the door to be open, for it is closed and time is short. In Quatrain XVI, the "Doorways are alternate Night and Day," and therefore open to all. They also are Life and Death. Quatrain XXVII also features an open door, but one of no significance for the narrator enters and leaves by the same Door, having learned nothing. The Door in XXXII, though, is closed and the narrator has yet to find the Key.

Equally frustrating is the Veil which blocks his vision. The "Door" and the "Veil" in this quatrain suggest that there are things we are not meant to know. But, sound comes through and it appears as though the talk was of us, but then there was "no more of THEE and ME." Is this a suggestion that we owe our existence to those talking behind that Door, and that once we are no longer a topic of conversation, we no longer exist?

Again, the poet's insistence on our ignorance about the perennial questions comes across rather strongly. All we know is that we are here for awhile and that shortly we will be gone, not knowing where we came from nor where we will go nor even why we are here. This is all very different from those today who have all the answers, even to what is in their deity's mind and even what their deity is going to do next. Neither Khayyam nor FitzGerald have made such claims.