what thou hast brought in the beginning and what thou
wilt carry away at the end. Thou sayest that thou dost
not drink because one must die. Whether thou drinkest
friend, or dost not drink, thou needs must die.
409.
Open the door, for it is only Thou who canst open it;
show me the way, for it is only Thou who canst show a
way of safety. I will give my hand to none of those who
wish to lead me, for all are perishable, and only Thou
eternal.
410.
All that you tell me emanates from hatred [O mullah]!
You never cease to treat me as an atheist, a man
without religion. I am convinced of that which I am,
and I avow it; and should I be right, is it for you to
lecture me thus?
411.
Resign yourself to grief if you would find a remedy,
and do not complain of your suffering if you would cure
it. In poverty, be thankful to Providence, if you wish
some day to have riches for your portion.
412.
I have seen a wise man in the house of a drunken man
at evening. I asked him if he could give me some news
of the absent. He answered me: Drink wine, friend, for
many like you have gone out but have never returned.
413.
I seek a flask of ruby wine, a book of verse, a momentary
peace in life and bread enough. And if with
these, my friend, in some lone spot with thee I could
repose, 'twould be a happiness above a Sultan's regal joy.
414.
How long these arguments upon the five and the four,
O cupbearer? In comprehending one, O cupbearer! it is
difficult to grasp a hundred thousand. We are all of earth,
O cupbearer! strike the harp: we are all as the wind,
bring the wine, O cupbearer!
415.
How long will you speak of Yassin and Berat, O cupbearer?
Give me a treatise upon the tavern, O cupbearer!
The day that it is closed will be for me the night of
Berat, O cupbearer!
416.
While you have in your body bones, veins, and nerves,
place not your foot outside the limits of your destiny.
Yield never to your enemy, be that enemy Rustum,
son of Zal; accept nothing which puts you under obligation
to a friend, be that friend Hatim-tai.
417.
You may indeed be taken with lips tinted with the
color of the ruby, you may indeed appreciate the cup of
wine, you may indeed call for the noise of the drum, the
sound of the harp and of the flute, but these are only
trifles. God is my witness, while you do not break the
bonds of this dark world, you nothing are.
418.
Bestir yourself, since you are under this tyrannic vault;
drink wine, since you are in this world, a seat of woe.
And, from beginning to the end, being only earth, act
like a man who is upon the earth, and not as if thou
wert beneath the earth.
419.
Since you all secrets know, my friend, why be a prey
to so many vain torments? Suppose things do not fall
in touch with your desires, you can at least be gay while
you still breathe.
420.
Everywhere I cast my eyes I believe I see the sod of
Paradise and the brook of Koocer. They say the field
outside of Hell is transformed into a celestial sojourn.
Rest then in that celestial place near some celestial fair.
421.
Follow no other way than that which the Kalendar
follows; seek no other place than the tavern; occupy
yourself only with wine, song and the friend [the Divinity];
place in your hand a cup of wine, upon your back
a gourd; drink, O dear object of my heart! drink and
speak not of foolish things.
422.
Do you wish life to rest upon a rock? Do you wish
life for some time free to be from grief? Dwell for one
instant without drinking wine, then at each breath you'll
find a new attraction in existence.
423.
In this world, this house of pilferers, it is useless to
count upon a friend. Listen to the counsel I give you,
and confide it to no one. Bear your suffering and seek
no remedy here, be happy in your sorrows and try not to
divide them with another.
424.
There are two things which are the foundation of wisdom
and which ought to be put among the number of the
most important unproclaimed revelations. Not to eat of
anything which eats of other things, and to keep oneself
unsullied by all that lives.
425.
How is it that at the commencement of springtime the
verjuice of the vine is sharp? And afterwards, how
does it become so sweet? And then how do we find
the wine so bitter? If one makes viols of a piece of
wood by means of a curvèd knife, who would say on
seeing it that a flute could be fashioned by the same
means?
426.
Know you why, at the break of day, the early-rising
cock makes its voice heard each moment? It is to tell
you, through the mirror of the morning, that one more
night has slipped away from your existence, and that
you are still in ignorance.
427.
Give me some of this ruby wine, tinted like the tulip.
Pour from the neck of the flask the pure blood it contains,
for, to-day I can see, outside this cup of wine, no
friend whose inner man is pure.
428.
Pour me, O cupbearer! some wine colored like the
flowers of the Judas-tree, pour, O cupbearer! for grief
comes to oppress my soul; pour for me the nectar, for
it is possible that in making me a stranger to myself, it
will free me one instant from the vicissitudes of this
world.
429.
Thy cup, O my cupbearer! contains liquid rubies; give
some to my soul, O cupbearer! Let it reflect that precious
stone; put in my hand, O cupbearer, this incomparable
cup, for through this I will give new life unto my soul.
430.
In philosophy, if you are an Aristotle or a Bouzourdj-mehr;
in power, if you are some Roman emperor or some
potentate of China, drink ever, drink wine from the cup
of Djem, for the end of all is the tomb. Oh! though you
are Bahram himself, the coffin is your last sojourn.
431.
I entered the studio of a potter. I watched him work
at his wheel, actively occupied in moulding the necks
and handles of pitchers, forming some of them like the
heads of kings, others like the feet of beggars.
432.
Go, choose bliss, if you are wise, and finally you may
be able to drink wine from the hand of the drinkers of
eternity, but you are one of the ignorant and joy is not
in you, it is not given to every ignorant one to taste
the sweets that ignorance gives.
433.
O idol, while you are on your journey through this
world, draw from the fountain-head into the pitcher, draw
this salutary wine and, ere the potter makes another
pitcher of my dust and thine, fill out a cup, drink it
and pass me one.
434.
Be attentive, friend, and while thou still art able, lighten
the grief of a loving heart, for this kingdom of grace
that now thou hast will not last always, but, like so many
others thou shalt unexpectedly be called.
435.
Before you are made drunk by the cup of death, before
the revolutions of time are full behind you, endeavor
to make a foundation here below, for you will profit
nothing by going away empty-handed.
436.
It is Thou who disposest of the lot of the living and
of the dead. It is Thou who governest this unruly Wheel
of the Heavens. Although I am bad, I am only Thy
slave, Thou art my master. Who then is guilty here
below? Art Thou not the Creator of all?
437.
O my King! how can such a man as I, finding himself
in the season of roses, in the midst of joyous society,
surrounded by wine, by dancers, remain a passive spectator?
Oh! to find oneself in a garden with a flask of
wine and a lute are things preferable to Paradise with
its houris and its Koocer.
438.
See the clearness of the light, the sparkle of the wine
and of the moon, O cupbearer! See the ravishing
beauty of the rose's face, like a shining ruby, O cupbearer!
Recall nothing of what belongs to the earth
to this heart that burns like fire, throw it not to the
wind, but bring wine, O cupbearer!
439.
O limpid wine, wine full of sheen! Fool that I am, I'd
drink thee in such quantity, that all perceiving me from
far would my identity confound with thine, and say to
me: O master wine! tell me, whence do you come?
440.
Be welcome, Thou, who art the repose of my soul!
Thou art here, and nevertheless I cannot believe my
eyes. Oh! for the love of God, and not for the love
of my heart, drink, drink of wine, drink to the point
when I can doubt that it is Thou.
441.
A Sheikh said to a prostitute: You are in wine.
Each instant you are taken in the toils of law. She
answered him: O Sheikh, I am all that you say; but
are you what you seem to be?
442.
[I have already said] the entire world, like a bowl,
was rolling in a hollow which, when I slept dead drunk,
I noticed no more than if I saw a grain of barley rolling
along. Yesterday, at evening, I put myself in pawn at
the tavern for a cup of wine. The wine merchant never
ceased to say: O excellent security that here I hold.
443.
Sometimes Thou art concealed, showing Thyself to
none; sometimes Thou revealest Thyself in all things
created. It is for Thyself, without doubt, and for Thy
pleasure that Thou hast produced these marvellous effects,
for Thou art at once the maker of the spectacle we see
and Thine own beholder.
444.
Should you come to people the whole earth, that action
would not make a saddened soul rejoice. It would be
more to thy advantage to enslave a free man, through
thy gentleness, than to give freedom to a thousand slaves.
445.
They tell you not to drink, that otherwise you shall
become a prey to torment, and that in the day of
reckoning you will burn as fire. That may be, but the
day in which wine makes you joyous is more precious
than the goods of this world and those of the next.
446.
If your own satisfaction consists in casting grief into a
heart free from all care, you could, friend, make mourning
with your wisdom during your whole life. Go, be
unhappy, then, for you are a person strangely ignorant.
447.
Each time you can procure two _mens_ of wine, drink
them, in every circumstance, in all society wherever you
may be; for he who does is freed from scornful looks
or gestures of disdain.
448.
With a loaf of wheaten bread, two _mens_ of wine and
meat in plenty, and seated in some desert spot with
some young beauty decked with cheeks tinted with the
tulip's blush, man hath a joy not given to any Sultan to
procure.
449.
If in a city you acquire renown, you are thought to
be the most wicked of men; if you retire into a corner,
they regard you as a conspirator. What then is best,
were you Elias or Saint Jude, is to live in the way of
knowing none, and being known by none.
450.
If I were free and were allowed to use my will, if I
were free from the torments of destiny and unembarrassed
by any sentiment of the good and bad in this
world where disorder resides, oh! I would prefer not
to have lived here, not to have existed, than to be
forced to go away!
451.
Drink wine, my friend, for see it makes the perspiration
flow upon the cheeks of the beauties of Rhei, the
most beautiful creatures in the world! Oh! how long
shall I repeat it to you? Yes, I have broken the
bonds of all my vows. Is it not better to break the
bonds of a thousand vows than to break a pitcher of
wine?
452.
We have some wine, O cupbearer! Let us rejoice in
the presence of the well-beloved [the Divinity] and in
the noise of the morning. Expect not on our part the
renunciation of Nessouh, O cupbearer! How long shall
I speak to you of the story of Noe, O cupbearer?
Bring, bring me happily the repose of my soul [the
wine], O cupbearer!
453.
I see neither the means of joining myself to Thee,
nor the possibility of living for the space of a breath
separated from Thee. I have not the courage to drive
out the torments I endure. Oh! how difficult my plight,
how strange my grief, how exquisite my pain!
454.
Now is the time to drink the morning wine; the noise
makes itself heard, O cupbearer! Now we are ready, O
cupbearer! here is the wine, behold the tavern. Could a
moment like this be for prayer? Silence, O cupbearer!
Leave thy discourse upon tradition and upon devotion;
drink, O cupbearer!
455.
Here is the noise of the morning, O idol, whose coming
brings happiness! Chant the refrain and bring the wine;
for [you know it], the constant sequence of these months
of Tir and Di have overturned upon the earth a thousand
potentates like Djem, a hundred thousand like to Kai.
456.
Guard thyself from being coarse in the eyes of all
drinkers, guard thyself from acquiring a bad reputation
before the sages, and drink wine; for, whether you drink
or not, if you belong to the fire of Hell, you would not
know how to enter Paradise.
457.
I wish that God would reconstruct the world, I wish
that He would actually reconstruct it and that I might see
Him at the work. I wish that He would blot my name
from the register of life, or that out of His mysterious
treasure, He would swell the joys of my existence.
458.
O God! open to me the door of Thy benefits. Make
me come to my fortune finally, that I may not be beholden
to Thy creatures. Oh! render me drunk with
wine, to the point where, freed from all knowledge,
the torments of my head may disappear.
459.
O thou who hast been burned and burned again, and
now deservest life anew! thou who art worthy only of adding
fuel to the fire of Hell! how long wilt thou pray the
Divinity to pardon Omar? What relation exists between
thee and God? What audacity drives thee to ask Him to
exercise His pity?
460.
As for me, without limpid wine I cannot live; my body
is a burden which I cannot carry without drinking of the
juice of the vine. Oh! might I be the slave of that
delicious moment when the cupbearer said to me: Another
cup! and that I had no longer strength to take it!
461.
There remains to me still a breath of life, thanks to
the care of the cupbearer. But discord reigns still among
men. I know that there only remains to me about a _men_
of wine from last evening, but I am ignorant of the
space of time that is still left me to live.
462.
Take a man who possesses bread sufficient to live upon
for two days, who can draw a drop of fresh water into
a cracked pitcher, why should such a man be commanded
by another who is of no more worth, or why should he
serve one who should be his equal?
463.
Since the day when Venus and the moon appeared in
the sky, no one has seen anything here below preferable
to ruby wine. I am truly astonished at the wine-merchants,
for how can they buy anything superior to
that which they sell?
464.
For those endowed with knowledge and virtue, who
through their wisdom have become as torches to their
disciples, even those have not progressed beyond this
night profound. They have left some fables and returned
to death's long sleep.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] About 1272 A.D.
[2] This title is hard to determine without any acquaintance with the
contents of the pamphlet.
[3] C.H.A. Bjerregaard in «The Sufi Omar». J.F. Taylor & Co., N.Y.,
1902.
[4] Some of Omar's Rubaiyat warn us of the danger of greatness, the
instability of fortune, and while advocating charity to all men,
recommending us to be too intimate with none. Attar makes Nizam ul Mulk
use the very words of his friend Omar [Rub. xxviii.], «When Nizam ul
Mulk was in the Agony (of Death) he said, 'Oh God! I am passing away in
the hand of the Wind.'»
[5] Though all these, like our Smiths, Archers, Millers, Fletchers,
etc., may simply regain the surname of an hereditary calling.
[6] «_Philosophe Musulman qui a vêcu en Odeur de Sainteté dans sa
Religion, vers la Fin du premier et le Commencement du second Siècle_,»
no part of which, except the «_Philosophe_» can apply to our Khayyam.
[7] The Rashness of the Words, according to D'Herbelot, consisted in
being so opposed to those in the Koran: «No Man knows where he shall
die.»--This story of Omar reminds me of another so naturally--and when
one remembers how wide of his humble mark the noble sailor aimed--so
pathetically told by Captain Cook--not by Doctor Hawkesworth--in his
Second Voyage (i. 374). When leaving Ulietea, «Oreo's last request was
for me to return. When he saw he could not obtain that promise, he asked
the name of my _Marai_ (burying-place). As strange a question as this
was, I hesitated not a moment to tell him 'Stepney'; the parish in which
I live when in London. I was made to repeat it several times over till
they could pronounce it; and then '_Stepney Marai no Toote_' was echoed
through an hundred mouths at once. I afterwards found the same question
had been put to Mr. Forster by a man on shore; but he gave a different,
and indeed more proper answer, by saying, 'No man who used the sea could
say where he should be buried.'»
[8] «Since this paper was written» (adds the Reviewer in a note), «we
have met with a Copy of a very rare Edition, printed at Calcutta in
1836. This contains 438 Tetrastichs, with an Appendix containing 54
others not found in some MSS.»
[9] Professor Cowell.
[10] This was written in 1868.
[11] Perhaps he would have edited the Poems himself some years ago. He
may now as little approve of my version on one side, as of M. Nicolas'
theory on the other.
[12] A note to Quatrain 234 admits that, however clear the mystical
meaning of such Images must be to Europeans, they are not quoted without
«_rougissant_» even by laymen in Persia--«_Quant aux termes de tendresse
qui commencent ce quatrain, comme tant d'autres dans ce recueil, nos
lecteurs, habitués maintenant à l'étrangeté des expressions si souvent
employées par Khèyam pour rendre ses pensées sur l'amour divin, et à la
singularité de ses images trop orientales, d'une sensualité quelquefois
révoltante, n'auront pas de peine à se persuader qu'il s'agit de la
Divinité, bien que cette conviction soit vivement discutée par les
moullahs musulmans et même par beaucoup de laïques, qui rougissent
véritablement d'une pareille licence de leur compatriote à l'égard des
choses spirituelles._»
[13] _Two Years' Travel in Persia_, etc., i. 165.
[14] The precise degree to which FitzGerald himself deemed it expedient
to adhere to his original may be gathered by referring to quatrains of
his which he has himself declared to be renderings of particular and
isolated ruba'iyat.
[15] These references are to other MSS. and printed texts and
translations in which the cited quatrain is represented. I say advisedly
«represented,» as the different texts differ a good deal. Often when a
quatrain is repeated in the same text, variations may be found in it.
The general scope of these variations may be appreciated by a glance at
the notes to my translation of the Ouseley MS. (O.). I do not propose to
deal with them here, excepting where there are important differences
between the Calcutta MS. (C.) and the Ouseley, both of which were before
Edward FitzGerald and between which he had to choose.
[16] _i.e._, the Saki, or Cupbearer, or Drawer (generally a comely
youth), to whom a large proportion of Omar's ruba'iyat are addressed.
[17] Many parallels between these translations of Hafiz and FitzGerald's
ruba'iyat may be found in the Terminal Essay to my former work.
[18] The _sunnat_, or Traditions of Muhammad, supplementing the Qur'an,
and held in almost equal reverence.
[19] _Zendha deli-ra_ means the heart alive, or initiated in the
spiritual sense, as opposed to the mere pleasure-seekers of the world.
[20] See FitzGerald's notes to this quatrain.
[21] C. reads «verdure.»
[22] C. reads «In the eyes of the clouds the veils are parted.»
[23] See the Terminal Essay above referred to.
[24] The sweet voice of David recurs continually in Persian poetry. We
find it in C. 89 _et passim_.
[25] Pehlevi was the language of the ancient Persians of pre-Muhammadan
times. FitzGerald's description of it as «old heroic Sanskrit» is
erroneous.
[26] Yellow is the colour indicative in Persian literature of sickness
or misery, corresponding to our word «sallow.»
[27] _i.e._, «Permit us to regret our repentance.»
[28] Numbers of quatrains distinguished by the asterisk indicate that
the quatrains were not in FitzGerald's first edition, but made their
appearance in the second or subsequent editions. FitzGerald may
therefore have been «reminded of» them by (and in some instances took
them direct from) the text and translation of Nicolas, referred to as N
[29] C. reads «Since life passes, what is sweet and what is bitter?»
[30] _Dai_ is the month that ushers in the winter quarter of the
Muhammadan year.
[31] _i.e._, Jamshyd the «_Roi soleil_» of early Persian history, and
the Kaianian dynasty--Kai Kobad, Kai Kawus, Kai Khosru, etc.
[32] It will be observed that the introduction of Zal in this line was
made by FitzGerald in the third edition for metrical effect. The
versions in the first edition «Let Rustum lay about him as he will,» and
in the second «Let Rustum cry 'to battle' as he likes» are closer to the
phrase in the original «Rustum _son_ of Zal.»
[33] Feridun was the sixth king of the Paish-dadian dynasty. _Jamish_ is
evidently an error for _Jam-ist_. _Vide_ the MS.
[34] See FitzGerald's note to this quatrain.
[35] Literally «a stopper of the last breath.»
[36] Kausar, in Persian mythology, is the head-stream of the Muhammadan
Paradise, whence all other rivers are supposed to flow. A whole chapter
of the Qur'an is devoted to this miraculous stream, whose Saki is Ali,
the son-in-law of Muhammad.
[37] This Persian here is a quotation from a famous verse in the Qur'an,
XXV. 11, «Blessed is He who, if He pleaseth, will make for thee a better
provision than this, namely, gardens under which rivers flow, and he
will provide thee palaces.»--E.B.C.
[38] C. reads for «food» and «wine,» «goblet» and «lute,» whence we get
«thou beside me _singing_ in the wilderness.»
[39] These two lines refer to the practice in the East of burying
treasure to hide it when a night attack (line 1) of dacoits or robbers
is anticipated.
[40] See FitzGerald's note upon this hero, and the following quatrain.
[41] Moles or «beauty spots» are very highly esteemed in the East.
[42] _i.e._, If life were eternal, you could not take the place of
others who have died before you. L. 2, _lit._: «let the world pass,
etc.»
[43] _i.e._, the Mystic Road or Way of Salvation.
[44] Burak was the winged mule of Muhammad on which he is said to have
journeyed from Jerusalem to heaven.
[45] This is a very difficult quatrain to translate. The mystic soaring
of the soul in search of enlightenment is compared to the flight of a
falcon. In l. 3, _lit._: «any partner of the secret.»
[46] C. reads these two lines:--
These two or three days of the period of my existence pass by
They pass as passes the wind in the desert.
[47] Compare FitzGerald's «First Morning of Creation» in q. 73.
[48] _i.e._, the Curtain that Veils the Mysteries of God, a constantly
recurring image in Persian literature.
[49] C. reads «of this juggling about of the soul.» E.B.C. suggests «of
this chess-opening.»
[50] C. reads «And was enslaved by the curly head of a sweetheart.»
[51] _i.e._, «Let us cease striving to earn salvation.»
[52] C. reads «with love.»
[53] FitzGerald records in his note to this quatrain that had it not
been for the advice of Prof. Cowell, this and the two following
quatrains would have been withdrawn after the Second Edition. It is
impossible to conceive why, for they are singularly fine and
exceptionally «authorized.»
[54] FitzGerald's rendering in the 1st edition (Introduction), «in this
clay suburb» is a more literal rendering.
[55] _i.e._, The ferrash of fate, preparing for the next halting-place,
destroys this tent (body) when the Sultan (soul) arises.
[56] I do not know the origin of N.'s text, but I have never seen this
quatrain in any other MS. The same remark applies to N. 123, cited under
No. 47.
[57] C. reads «From my creation the Age derived no advantage.»
[58] _Harifan_; literally, «companions,» « fellow-workers.»
[59] _i.e._, The One God. Compare Hafiz (Ode 416), «He who knows the
One, knows all.»
[60] Prof. Cowell's translation. V. appends a note, «Apparently the
Essence of Life, the _Ding an Sich_ of Kant, and the _Wille_ of
Schopenhauer, the Platonic Idea, the abiding type of the perishable
individuality; possibly, however, the Vedantic 'self' is meant.» For the
word _mah_ = moon at the commencement of the quatrain, some of the texts
read _badeh_ = wine.
[61] Literally, «discernment.»
[62] The obscurity of the meaning here baffles satisfactory translation.
Prof. Cowell says: I would rather take it as a sarcasm, «Those fools
with their unripe grapes become (in their own eyes) pure wine.»
[63] _Azal_ in Persian dogma is eternity without beginning, _i.e._,
«_from_ all time,» as opposed to _abad_, eternity without end, _i.e._,
«_to_ all eternity.»
[64] In the East a man may divorce his wife twice and take her back
again, but the third time it is irrevocable--unless (curiously enough)
she has been married to someone else in the meantime.
[65] _i.e._, Wine, a recurrent Persian metaphor. Comp.: Arabic
«_bint-ul-kerm_.»