The Sufistic Quatrains of Omar KhayyamOmar Khayyam
ReligionSufism
The Sufistic Quatrains of Omar Khayyam
Omar Khayyam
FitzGerald, Edward, 1809-1883; Sufi poetry
293. C. L. N. A. I. (under _Te_). Line 2 is omitted in the translation.
So Pope, «For forms and creeds let graceless zealots fight.»
294.
«If heaven deny me peace and fame,» I said,
«Let it be open war and shame instead;
The man who scorns bright wine had best beware,
I'll arm me with a stone, and break his head!»
294. C. L. N. A. I. J.
295.
See! the dawn breaks, and rends night's canopy:
Arise! and drain a morning draught with me!
Away with gloom! full many a dawn will break
Looking for us, and we not here to see!
295. C. L. N A. I. J. _Bisyar_, «frequently.»
296.
O you who tremble not at fires of hell,
Nor wash in water of remorse's well,
When winds of death shall quench your vital torch,
Beware lest earth your guilty dust expel.
296. L. Possibly written by some pious reader as an answer to Khayyam's
scoffs. See note on Quatrain 223.
297.
This world a hollow pageant you should deem;
All wise men know things are not what they seem;
Be of good cheer, and drink, and so shake off
This vain illusion of a baseless dream.
297. L. N. All earthly existence is «_Maya_»
298.
With maids stately as cypresses, and fair
As roses newly plucked, your wine-cups share,
Or e'er Death's blasts shall rend your robe of flesh
Like yonder rose leaves, lying scattered there!
298. C. L. N. I. J. The Lucknow commentator says _daman i gul_ means the
maid's cheek.
299.
Cast off dull care, O melancholy brother!
Woo the sweet daughter of the grape, no other;
The daughter is forbidden, it is true,
But she is nicer than her lawful mother!
299. N. «Daughter of the grape,» _i.e._, wine, a translation of an
Arabic phrase.
300.
My love shone forth, and I was overcome,
My heart was speaking, but my tongue was dumb;
Beside the water-brooks I died of thirst.
Was ever known so strange a martyrdom?
300. N. _Dil rubaye_, «that well-known charmer.» Lumsden, ii. 142. _Pur
sukhan_. See note on No. 227.
301.
Give me my cup in hand, and sing a glee
In concert with the bulbul's symphony;
Wine would not gurgle as it leaves the flask,
If drinking mute were right for thee and me!
301. C. L. N. A. I. J.
302.
The «Truth» will not be shown to lofty thought,
Nor yet with lavished gold may it be bought;
But, if you yield your life for fifty years,
From words to «states» you may perchance be brought.
302. L. Line 3, literally, «Unless you dig up your soul, and eat blood
for fifty years.» «States» of ecstatic union with the «Truth,» or Deity
of the Mystics.
303.
I solved all problems, down from Saturn's wreath
Unto this lowly sphere of earth beneath,
And leapt out free from bonds of fraud and lies,
Yea, every knot was loosed, save that of death!
303. C. L. A. I. J.
304.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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