'Tis all a Chequer-board of Nights and Days,
Where Destiny with Men for Pieces plays,
Hither and thither moves, and mates, and slays,
And one by one back in the Closet lays.
...
The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.
~ Omar Khayyam trans. Edward FitzGerald (1859)
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