The Sufistic Quatrains of Omar KhayyamOmar Khayyam
ReligionSufism
The Sufistic Quatrains of Omar Khayyam
Omar Khayyam
FitzGerald, Edward, 1809-1883; Sufi poetry
(XVIII.) Persepolis: call'd also _Takht.i-Jamshyd_--THE THRONE OF
JAMSHYD, «_King Splendid,_» of the mythical _Peshdadian_ Dynasty, and
supposed (according to the Shahnama) to have been founded and built by
him. Others refer it to the Work of the Genie King, Jan Ibn Jan--who
also built the Pyramids--before the time of Adam.
BAHRAM GUR--_Bahram of the Wild Ass_--a Sassanian Sovereign--had also
his Seven Castles (like the King of Bohemia!) each of a different
Colour; each with a Royal Mistress within; each of whom tells him a
Story, as told in one of the most famous Poems of Persia, written by
Amir Khusraw: all these Seven also figuring (according to Eastern
Mysticism) the Seven Heavens; and perhaps the Book itself that Eighth,
into which the mystical Seven transcend, and within which they revolve.
The Ruins of Three of those Towers are yet shown by the Peasantry; as
also the swamp in which Bahram sunk like the Master of Ravenswood while
pursuing his _Gur_.
The Palace that to Heav'n his pillars threw,
And Kings the forehead on his threshold drew--
I saw the solitary Ringdove there,
And «Coo, coo, coo,» she cried; and «Coo, coo, coo.»
This Quatrain Mr. Binning found, among several of Hafiz and others,
inscribed by some stray hand among the ruins of Persepolis. The
Ringdove's ancient _Pehlevi Coo, Coo, Coo_, signifies also in Persian,
«_Where? Where? Where?_» In Attar's «Bird-parliament» she is reproved by
the Leader of the Birds for sitting still, and for ever harping on that
one note of lamentation for her lost Yusuf.
Apropos of Omar's Red Roses in Stanza xix., I am reminded of an old
English superstition, that our Anemone Pulsatilla, or purple «Pasque
Flower» (which grows plentifully about the Fleam Dyke, near Cambridge),
grows only where Danish blood has been spilt.
(XXI.) A thousand years to each Planet.
(XXXI.) Saturn, Lord of the Seventh Heaven.
(XXXII.) ME-AND-THEE: some dividual Existence or Personality distinct
from the Whole.
(XXXVII.) One of the Persian Poets--Attar, I think--has a pretty story
about this. A thirsty Traveller dips his hand into a Spring of Water to
drink from. By and by comes another who draws up and drinks from an
earthen Bowl, and then departs, leaving his Bowl behind him. The first
Traveller takes it up for another draught; but is surprised to find that
the same Water which had tasted sweet from his own hand tastes bitter
from the earthen Bowl. But a Voice--from Heaven, I think--tells him the
clay from which the Bowl is made was once _Man_; and, into whatever
shape renewed, can never lose the bitter flavour of Mortality.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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