This Impertinence

Myself, when young, did eagerly frequent
Doctor and Saint, where heard I argument
  about and about IT, but evermore
Came out by that same door as in I went.

With them the Seed of Wisdom did I sow,
Then, with my own hands, labour'd It to grow.
  Yet this was all the harvest that I reap'd:
"I came like Water... and like Wind I go.

"Into this Universe, the 'why' not know'n,
Nor 'whence', like water willy-nilly flow'n,
  then out of It, as wind along the Waste,
I know not 'whither', willy-nilly blow'n."

What? without asking, hither hurried whence?
Then! without asking, whither hurried hence?
  Another and another cup to drown
The memory of this impertinence!

~Edward Fitzgerald's "Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam"