“We are no other than a moving row
Of Magic Shadow-shapes that come and go”
Omar Khayyám (1048–1131) Persian poet, philosopher, mathematician, and astronomer
The Rubaiyat (1120)
Context: We are no other than a moving row
Of Magic Shadow-shapes that come and go
Round with the Sun-illumined Lantern held
In Midnight by the Master of the Show;