But often it's the simplest pleasures ("A Book of Verses underneath the Bough,/A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread - and Thou") that can transform a Wilderness into Paradise. Life is short and has to end: "Time is slipping underneath our Feet". That's the unavoidable truth, the same in Khayyam's day as in Fitzgerald's as in our own. Where I made One – turn down an empty Glass! Through this same Garden – and for one in vain!Īnd when like her, oh Sáki, you shall passĪmong the Guests Star-scatter’d on the Grass,
Yon rising Moon that looks for us again – Re-mould it nearer to the Heart’s Desire! Would not we shatter it to bits – and then To grasp this sorry Scheme of Things entire, Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,Īh Love! could thou and I with Fate conspire The Moving Finger writes and, having writ, Hither and thither moves, and mates, and slays,
’Tis all a Chequer-board of Nights and Days Round which we Phantom Figures come and go. Make Game of that which makes as much of Thee. How Time is slipping underneath our Feet:īut leave the Wise to wrangle, and with meĪnd, in some corner of the Hubbub coucht, The Flower that once has blown forever dies.ĭoctor and Saint, and heard great ArgumentĬame out by the same Door where in I went.Īnd with my own hand wrought to make it grow:Īnd this was all the Harvest that I reap’d –Īh, fill the Cup – what boots it to repeat One thing is certain, and the Rest is Lies To talk one thing is certain, that Life flies Oh, come with old Khayyam, and leave the Wise To flutter – and the Bird is on the Wing.Ī Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread – and Thou You know how little while we have to stay,Ĭome, fill the Cup, and in the fire of Spring Has flung the Stone that puts the Stars to Flight:Īnd Lo! the Hunter of the East has caughtĪnd, as the Cock crew, those who stood before The full cycle, with all its variations, is readily available online.
(And then sometimes, like a flourish, the rhyme is maintained throughout.) Below is a selection of the hundred-or-so quatrains that Fitzgerald produced. The rubai is a four-line stanza, or quatrain, that rhymes AABA and offers rousing robustness: the rhyme disappears, falters for a line, but returns with added emphasis to clinch the deal. Fitzgerald was born in 1809 and published his first set of Khayyam-inspired verses in 1859, which, incidentally, adds two more anniversaries to 2009's already overflowing cup.
Omar Khayyam (1048 - 1123) was a Persian mathematician, philosopher, astronomer and poet, today most famous for his Rubaiyat, a spirited and profoundly humanistic celebration of life, love and liquor! The best known translation (or rather adaptation) is that of the English writer Edward Fitzgerald.
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