This is one quatrain that FitzGerald apparently was not too happy about, for he made several extensive changes over the five editions--and not just changes in wording but changes in meaning.
First Edition: Quatrain XXXIII
Then to the rolling Heav'n itself I cried,
Asking, "What Lamp had Destiny to guide
Her little Children stumbling in the Dark?"
And--"A blind Understanding!" Heav'n replied.
Second Edition: Quatrain XXXVII
Then of the THEE in ME who works behind
The Veil of Universe I cried to find
A Lamp to guide me through the Darkness; and
Something then said--"An Understanding blind."
Fifth Edition: Quatrain XXXIV
Then of the THEE in ME who works behind
The Veil, Lifted up my hands to find
A Lamp amid the Darkness, and I heard,
As from Without--"The ME within THEE blind!"
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First Edition:
"Then to the rolling Heav'n itself I cried,
Asking, "What Lamp had Destiny to guide
Her little Children stumbling in the Dark?"
And--"A blind Understanding!" Heav'n replied.
In the previous quatrain (Q XXXII), the poet was stopped by the Door and the Veil, from behind which he could hear only some talk of ME and THEE and then no more of THEE and ME. In this quatrain, in the first edition anyway, he then turns to Heav'n and asks what help--the Lamp--Destiny has for its children stumbling in the Dark and is told "A blind Understanding!" Would a blind Understanding" be one in which one knows what one is doing but doesn't understand why? --that the results of these actions are unknown? Is it the goal or end that which one is blind about? -- or about which one is in the Dark? That would certainly fit in with previous quatrains in which this same idea was presented--that we don't know where we came from and we don't know where we are going.
Second Edition: Quatrain XXXVII
Then of the THEE in ME who works behind
The Veil of Universe I cried to find
A Lamp to guide me through the Darkness; and
Something then said--"An Understanding blind."
This is a much stronger connection in this version to the previous quatrain in the very first line. In the previously discussed quatrain there was mention of THEE and ME which now becomes THEE in ME. This suggests some Buddhist ideas that the creator actually is in all of us, looking out of our eyes at itself in the eyes of another--the creator is in the eye of the tiger looking at itself in the eye of the tiger's prey. The poet calls out to that THEE inside who works mysteriously behind the Veil, another reference to the previous quatrain, for a guiding Lamp in the Darkness. In this version, it isn't Heav'n that responds, but "Something" that replies "An Understanding blind."
While "Heav'n" is vague and not very specific, at least it suggests some sort of Divine intervention as most religious traditions place their deities in the heavens. Now, the poet gets an answer to his plea for help from "Something"--it may be a deity but it may not. The poet can't even be sure who or what is replying in this version. And, the response is similar to the first edition's "A blind Understanding." It is "An understanding blind." I suspect FitzGerald reversed them to maintain the rhyming pattern of the first, second, and fourth lines.
Fifth Edition: Quatrain XXXIV
Then of the THEE in ME who works behind
The Veil, Lifted up my hands to find
A Lamp amid the Darkness, and I heard,
As from Without--"The ME within THEE blind!"
The fifth edition is closer to the second than the first edition. However, instead of crying out, he lifts his hands to find that Lamp. The most significant differences are in the fourth lines. It is no longer Heav'n or Something that responds, but the response comes "As from Without." Is it coming from Without or does it just seem to come from Without? The poet doesn't even seem to know now if there is something outside of him.
The second major difference concerns the blindness. In the previous versions, the poet is told by something outside of him that the best he could get would be a blind understanding. In this version, he again plays with THEE and ME by reversing the sequence just as he did in the previous quatrain. "ME and THEE" becomes "THEE and ME" while in this version we read "THEE in ME" and "ME in THEE." The meaning shifts here; initially the poet is in darkness and calls out for light. Now, that which is inside him, that to which he calls out, is blind. It seems as though there is no help for the poet. He is in the Dark and must remain so since his only chance for light is also blind. The poet is not in the Dark, but the Dark is within him.
In the first version, the poet cries out for help from Heav'n, from that which is outside of him. At best he can get a blind understanding. In the fifth version, the poet now learns that the Darkness is within him; it is not something imposed upon him from outside. The poet now is not even certain that there is something outside of him. It may be that he and the Heav'n or something or the universe are one, and all are blind as to the future.
I read somewhere that to know where we are, we must know where we came from, and to know where we are going, we must know where we came from and where we are now. This quatrain seems to suggest that we don't really know anything but that we must just blindly go forward.
First Edition: Quatrain XXXIII
Then to the rolling Heav'n itself I cried,
Asking, "What Lamp had Destiny to guide
Her little Children stumbling in the Dark?"
And--"A blind Understanding!" Heav'n replied.
Second Edition: Quatrain XXXVII
Then of the THEE in ME who works behind
The Veil of Universe I cried to find
A Lamp to guide me through the Darkness; and
Something then said--"An Understanding blind."
Fifth Edition: Quatrain XXXIV
Then of the THEE in ME who works behind
The Veil, Lifted up my hands to find
A Lamp amid the Darkness, and I heard,
As from Without--"The ME within THEE blind!"
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