If the End Is the Same

No. 475

They say the highest Paradise by name,
Where purest wine and nymphs are set aflame;
If we choose wine and love, what cause for dread,
Since at the last, the end is just the same.^* 

Philosophical Reflection

This quatrain articulates Khayyam’s scepticism toward deferred salvation with striking calm. The opening lines report what “they say” about paradise — a promised realm of perfected pleasures, refined wine, and ideal companions. The phrasing is deliberate: Khayyam does not affirm or deny the claim outright; he presents it as hearsay, a doctrine repeated rather than verified. In doing so, he subtly distances himself from its authority.

The argument turns sharply in the third line. If the rewards of paradise resemble wine and love, then choosing these in life should inspire no fear. The question is not rebellious but logical. Khayyam exposes a contradiction in moral postponement: why condemn present joys when they are promised as virtues in an imagined afterlife? The quatrain reframes indulgence not as defiance, but as consistency.

The final line delivers the philosophical conclusion with disarming simplicity. Regardless of how one lives — whether abstinent or celebratory — the end is the same. Mortality levels all distinctions. This is not a call to excess, but a dismantling of fear-based restraint. If the destination does not change, then the value of life must lie in its experience rather than in speculative reward.

This quatrain belongs centrally to Meaning & Doubt, with strong resonance in Critique of Dogma and Existential Choice. It aligns closely with Doubts Concerning the Bases of Knowledge, where Khayyam questions inherited certainties and their psychological power. It also echoes Necessity of Contradiction in the World, Determinism, and Immortality, where the tension between mortal fate and promised immortality is examined without consolation.

Khayyam’s insight is neither nihilistic nor hedonistic. He does not deny the possibility of paradise; he denies the moral leverage of unproven promises. The quatrain invites readers to live without fear of imagined consequences — to weigh life by what is known and felt, rather than by what is endlessly promised. In this quiet refusal to postpone meaning, Khayyam offers one of his most enduring provocations.

Footnote

* Source: Trabkhaneh, Homaei, no. 475, translated by Kam Austine for the book Philosophy in Verse

Related Treatises:
Doubts Concerning the Bases of Knowledge
Necessity of Contradiction in the World, Determinism, and Immortality
On the World and the Duty

Internal Themes: #Meaning #Doubt #Afterlife #Choice

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Published as part of the Philosophy in Verse Series — under “Meaning & Doubt.”