Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam, Rendered into English VerseOmar Khayyam
GeneralSufism
Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam, Rendered into English Verse
Omar Khayyam
Persian poetry -- Translations into English
"His Takhallus or poetical name (Khayyám) signifies a Tent-maker, and he
is said to have at one time exercised that trade, perhaps before
Nizám-ul-Mulk's generosity raised him to independence. Many Persian
poets similarly derive their names from their occupations; thus we have
Attár, 'a druggist,' Assár, 'an oil presser,' etc. Omar himself alludes
to his name in the following whimsical lines:--
"'Khayyám, who stitched the tents of science,
Has fallen in grief's furnace and been suddenly burned;
The shears of Fate have cut the tent ropes of his life,
And the broker of Hope has sold him for nothing!'
"We have only one more anecdote to give of his Life, and that relates to
the close; it is told in the anonymous preface which is sometimes
prefixed to his poems; it has been printed in the Persian in the
Appendix to Hyde's _Veterum Persarum Religio_, p. 499; and D'Herbelot
alludes to it in his Bibliothèque, under _Khiam_,--
"It is written in the chronicles of the ancients that this
King of the Wise, Omar Khayyám, died at Naishápúr in the year
of the Hegira, 517 (A.D. 1123); in science he was
unrivaled,--the very paragon of his age. Khwájah Nizámi of
Samarcand, who was one of his pupils, relates the following
story: 'I often used to hold conversations with my teacher,
Omar Khayyám, in a garden; and one day he said to me, "My
tomb shall be in a spot where the north wind may scatter
roses over it." I wondered at the words he spake, but I knew
that his were no idle words. Years after, when I chanced to
revisit Naishápúr, I went to his final resting-place, and lo!
it was just outside a garden, and trees laden with fruit
stretched their boughs over the garden wall, and dropped
their flowers upon his tomb, so that the stone was hidden
under them.'"
Thus far--without fear of Trespass--from the _Calcutta Review_. The
writer of it, on reading in India this story of Omar's Grave, was
reminded, he says, of Cicero's account of finding Archimedes' Tomb at
Syracuse, buried in grass and weeds. I think Thorwaldsen desired to have
roses grow over him; a wish religiously fulfilled for him to the present
day, I believe. However, to return to Omar.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account