Document Type : Original Article
Author
Assistant professor of Persian Language and Literature Department - Karaj Branch - Islamic Azad University, Karaj, Iran
Abstract
Khayyãm’s quatrains are among the literary texts that foreground themes such as death, the transience of the world, the instability of meaning, and the seizing of the present moment. This study aims to examine how these themes are represented in Khayyãm’s quatrains and to explore the possibility of interpreting them through Nietzsche’s distinction between passive and active nihilism. The main research question addresses how Khayyãm’s quatrains articulate experiences of death, decay, and the instability of meaning, and to what extent some of these poems may be interpreted within the conceptual framework of active nihilism. The study adopts a qualitative–interpretive approach based on the content analysis of selected quatrains, a conceptual reading of themes related to death, transience, and carpe diem, and their comparison with the characteristics of passive and active nihilism in Nietzsche’s philosophy. The findings indicate that Khayyãm’s quatrains, while depicting the instability of the world and the fragility of metaphysical certainties, are not confined merely to expressions of despair or passivity. In a number of these poems, the emphasis on embracing impermanence, attending to the present moment, and affirming life opens the possibility for a reading comparable to certain dimensions of active nihilism. Accordingly, Nietzschean concepts are employed in this study not as an imposed framework, but rather as an interpretive horizon for understanding the existential dimensions of Khayyãm’s quatrains.
Keywords
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