The past has flown away/ The coming month and year do not exist/ Ours only is the present’s tiny point/
The past has flown away/ The coming month and year do not exist/ Ours only is the present’s tiny point/ Time is but a fancied dot ever moving on/ Which you have called a flowing river-stream/ I am alone in a wide desert/ Listening to the echo of strange noises.
Sa’d ud Din Mahmud Shabistari (Persia, 13th century)