Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

Edward FitzGeralds Translation. 1 Awake for break of the day in the rolling wave of Night Has flung the Stone that puts the Stars to Flight And Lo the Hunter of the easternmost has caught The Sultans Turret in a Noose of Light. 2 Dreaming when daybreaks unexpended Hand was in the Sky I heard a role within the Tavern cry, Awake, my Little ones, and suffer the Cup Before Lifes liquor in its Cup be dry. 3 And, as the Cock crew, those who stood forrader The Tavern shoutedOpen then the doorsill You k straight off how teentsy while we take a shit to stay, And, at a time departed, may return no more. 4 Now the New Year reviving old lusts, The thoughtful reason to Solitude retires,Where the WHITE HAND OF MOSES on the Bough Puts out, and Jesus from the Ground suspires. ***** 5 Iram indeed is gone with either its Rose, And Jamshyds Sevn-ringd Cup where no one jazzs only if still the Vine her ancient ruddy yields, And still a tend by the Water impairs. 6 And Davids Lips a tomic number 18 lockt simply in divine risque piping Pehlevi, with wine-colored Wine Wine Red Wine the nightingale cries to the Rose That yellow Cheek of hers to incarnadine. 7 Come, concern the Cup, and in the stimulate of commencement The Winter Garment of contrition thresh about The Bird of clipping has but a undersized way To flyand Lo the Bird is on the Wing. And looka thousand Blossoms with the Day Wokeand a thousand scatterd into frame And this first Summer Month that brings the Rose Sh every take Jamshyd and Kaikobad away. ***** 9 moreover take with old Khayyam, and leave the Lot Of Kaikobad and Kaikhosru forgot Let Rustum lay to the highest degree him as he will, Or Hatim Tai cry Supperheed them non. 10 With me along some Strip of Herbage strown That just divides the desert from the sown, Where identify of Slave and Sultan scarce is known, And pity Sultan Mahmud on his Throne. 11 Here with a Loaf of Bread beneath the Bough, A flaskful of Wine, a Book of Verse and megabyteBeside me singing in the wilderness And Wilderness is Paradise enow. 12 How unused is mortal Sovranty think some OthersHow beatified the Paradise to come Ah, take the Cash in hand and antecede the Rest Oh, the brave Music of a distant Drum ***** 13 Look to the Rose that blows virtually usLo, Laughing, she says, into the World I blow At erstwhile the silken Tassel of my Purse Tear, and its Treasure on the garden throw. 14 The Worldly Hope men set their Hearts upon Turns Ashesor it prospers and anon, Like Snow upon the Deserts dusty Face Lighting a little hr or twois gone. 15And those who husbanded the Golden Grain, And those who flung it to the vagabonds like Rain, Alike to no such aureate Earth are turnd As, buried once, men pauperism dug up again. 16 Think, in this batterd Caravanserai Whose Doorways are set up Night and Day, How Sultan aft(prenominal) Sultan with his Pomp Abode his Hour or two, and went his way. ***** 17 They say the Lion and the Lizard keep The Courts where Jamshyd gloried and drank slur inflamed And Bahram, that great Hunterthe Wild Ass Stamps oer his Head, and he lies turbulent asleep. 18 I sometimes think that never so red The Rose as where some buried Caesar bled That every Hyacinth the Garden wearsDropt in its Lap from some once lovely Head. 19 And this bewitching Herb whose tender Green Fledges the Rivers Lip on which we lead Ah, lean upon it lightly for who knows From what once lovely Lip it springs unseen 20 Ah, my Beloved, fill the Cup that clears TO-DAY of past Regrets and future Fears To-morrow? Why, To-morrow I may be Myself with Yesterdays Sevn universal gravitational constantsand Years. ***** 21 Lo some we loved, the loveliest and best That Time and Fate of all their Vintage prest, Have drunk their Cup a Round or two before, And one by one crept silently to Rest. 22 And we, that now make merry in the RoomThey left, and Summer dresses in new Bloom, Ourselves essential we beneath the Couch of Ear th Descend, ourselves to make a Couchfor whom? 23 Ah, make the most of what we yet may spend, Before we too into the clay descend Dust into Dust, and under Dust, to lie, Sans Wine, sans Song, sans Singer, andsans End 24 Alike for those who for TO-DAY prepare, And those that aft(prenominal) a TO-MORROW stare, A Muezzin from the Tower of sourness cries Fools your Reward is incomplete Here nor There ***** 25 Why, all the Saints and Sages who discussd Of the Two Worlds so pick upedly, are thrust Like foolish Prophets forth their forges to ScornAre scatterd, and their Mouths are stopt with Dust. 26 Oh, come with old Khayyam, and leave the Wise To dress down one affaire is certain, that Life flies One thing is certain, and the Rest is Lies The Flower that once has blown for ever dies. 27 Myself when young did eagerly frequent touch and Saint, and heard great Argument About it and about but forevermore Came out by the same Door as in I went. 28 With them the Seed of Wisdom did I sow, And with my own hand labourd it to beget And this was all the Harvest that I reapd I came like Water, and like Wind I go. ***** 29 Into this Universe, and why not knowing,Nor because, like Water at random flowing And out of it, as Wind along the Waste, I know not whither, willy-nilly blowing. 30 What, without asking, hither speed whence? And, without asking, whither hurried hence Another and other Cup to drown The Memory of this brass 31 Up from Earths Centre through the Seventh Gate I rose, and on the Throne of Saturn sate, And many Knots unraveld by the Road But not the Knot of Human Death and Fate. 32 There was a Door to which I found no Key There was a veil past which I could not see Some little rag awhile of ME and THEE There seemedand then no more of THEE and ME. **** 33 thus to the rolling Heavn itself I cried, Asking, What Lamp had Destiny to guide Her little Children stumbling in the Dark? AndA blind Understanding Heavn replied. 34 Then to this earthen Bow l did I adjourn My Lip the secret Well of Life to learn And Lip to Lip it murmurdWhile you live Drink for once late(prenominal) you never shall return. 35 I think the Vessel, that with fugitive Articulation answerd, once did live, And merry-make and the cold Lip I kissd How many Kisses might it takeand take 36 For in the Market-place, one declination of Day, I watchd the mess around lump his wet ClayAnd with its all obliterated Tongue It murmurdGently, Brother, gently, pray ***** 37 Ah, fill the Cupwhat boots it to repeat How Time is slipping underneath our Feet unborn TO-MORROW, and dead YESTERDAY, Why fret about them if TO-DAY be sweet 38 One Moment in Annihilations Waste, One Moment, of the Well of Life to savvy The Stars are setting and the Caravan Starts for the Dawn of NothingOh, make spate 39 How long, how long, in infinite Pursuit Of This and That endeavour and dispute? erupt be merry with the fruitful Grape Than sadden after none, or bitter, Fruit. 40 You know, my Friends, how long since in my HouseFor a new Marriage I did make Carouse Divorced old barren Reason from my Bed, And took the daughter of the Vine to Spouse. ***** 41 For IS and IS-NOT though with Rule and Line, And UP-AND-DOWN without, I could define, I yet in all I only cared to know, Was never deep in anything butWine. 42 And lately, by the Tavern Door agape, Came stealing through the Dusk an Angel Shape Bearing a Vessel on his elevate and He bid me taste of it and twasthe Grape 43 The Grape that piece of tail with Logic absolute The Two-and-Seventy jarring Sects confute The subtle Alchemist that in a Trice Lifes leaden Metal into Gold transmute. 4 The mighty Mahmud, the successful Lord, That all the misbelieving and black Horde Of Fears and Sorrows that infest the Soul Scatters and slays with his enchanted Sword. ***** 45 But leave the Wise to wrangle, and with me The Quarrel of the Universe let be And, in some corner of the Hubbub coucht, Make Game of that which makes as m uch of Thee. 46 For in and out, above, about, below, Tis nothing but a conjury Shadow-show, Playd in a Box whose Candle is the Sun, Round which we Phantom Figures come and go. 47 And if the Wine you drink, the Lip you press, End in the Nothing all Things end in YesThen fancy while Thou art, Thou art but what Thou shalt beNothingThou shalt not be less. 48 While the Rose blows along the River Brink, With old Khayyam the Ruby Vintage drink And when the Angel with his darker Draught Draws up to Theetake that, and do not shrink. ***** 49 Tis all a Chequer-board of Nights and Days Where Destiny with Men for Pieces plays Hither and thither moves, and mates, and slays, And one by one sand in the Closet lays. 50 The Ball no Question makes of Ayes and Noes, But skillful or Left, as strikes the Player goes And He that tossd Thee down into the Field, *He* knows about it allHe knowsHE knows 1 The Moving Finger writes and, having writ, Moves on nor all thy Piety nor Wit Shall lure it back to c ancel fractional a Line, Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it. 52 And that inverted Bowl we call The Sky, Whereunder crawling coopt we live and die, rob not thy hands to *It* for helpfor It Rolls impotently on as Thou or I. ***** 53 With Earths first Clay They did the become Mans knead, And then of the Last Harvest sowd the Seed Yea, the first Morning of Creation wrote What the Last Dawn of Reckoning shall read. 54 I tell Thee thisWhen, starting from the Goal, Over the shoulders of the torrid FoalOf Heavn Parvin and Mushtara they flung, In my predestind Plot of Dust and Soul 55 The Vine had struck a Fibre which about If clings my Beinglet the Sufi flout Of my traveling bag Metal may be filed a Key, That shall unlock the Door he howls without 56 And this I know whether the one True Light, Kindle to Love, or Wrathconsume me quite, One Glimpse of It within the Tavern caught Better than in the synagogue lost outright. ***** 57 Oh, Thou, who didst with Pitfall and with Gin Beset the Road I was to wander in, Thou wilt not with Predestination round mat me, and impute my Fall to Sin? 58 Oh, Thou, who Man of baser Earth didst make,And who with enlightenment didst devise the Snake For all the Sin wherewith the Face of Man Is blackend, Mans favor giveand take KUZA-NAMA (Book of Pots. ) 59 Listen again. One even out at the Close Of Ramazan, ere the better Moon arose, In that old Potters take a shit I stood alone With the clay Population round in Rows. 60 And, strange to tell, among that Earthen Lot Some could articulate, while others not And all of a sudden one more impatient cried Who *is* the Potter, pray, and who the Pot? ***** 61 Then state anotherSurely not in vain My Substance from the general Earth was taen, That He who subtly wrought me into Shape Should stamp me back to common Earth again. 62 Another saidWhy, neer a peevish Boy, Would break the Bowl from which he drank in Joy Shall He that *made* the Vessel in pure Love And Fancy, in an after Rag e destroy 63 None answerd this but after serenity spake A Vessel of a more ungainly Make They scoff at me for learning all awry What did the Hand then of the Potter shake? 64 Said oneFolk of a despicable Tapster tell And daub his Visage with the Smoke of Hell They talk of some strict Testing of usPish Hes a Good Fellow, and t will all be well. ***** 65 Then said another with a long-drawn Sigh, My Clay with long oblivion is gone dry But, fill me with the old familiar Juice, Methinks I might recover by-and-bye 66 So while the Vessels one by one were speaking, One spied the little crescent(prenominal) all were seeking And then they joggd each other, Brother Brother hark to the Porters Shoulder-knot a-creaking 67 Ah, with the Grape my fading Life provide, And wash my Body whence the Life has died, And in the Windingsheet of Vine-leaf wrapt, So bury me by some sweet Garden-side. 68 That evn my buried Ashes such a Snare Of Perfume shall fling up into the Air, As not a True Believ er go through by But shall be overtaken unaware. ***** 9 Indeed the Idols I have loved so long Have done my Credit in Mens Eye much wrong Have drownd my Honour in a shallow Cup, And sold my Reputation for a Song. 70 Indeed, indeed, Repentance oft before I sworebut was I sober when I swore? And then and then came Spring, and Rose-in-hand My thread-bare Penitence apieces tore. 71 And much as Wine has playd the Infidel And robbd me of my Robe of Honourwell, I often wonder what the Vintners secure One half so precious as the Goods they sell. 72 Alas, that Spring should vanish with the Rose That Youths sweet-scented Manuscript should close The Nightingale that in the Branches sang,Ah, whence, and whither flown again, who knows ***** 73 Ah Love could thou and I with Fate conspire To traction this sorry Scheme of Things entire, Would not we shatter it to bitsand then Re-mould it nearer to the Hearts Desire 74 Ah, Moon of my Delight who Knowst no wane The Moon of Heavn is uphill once ag ain How oft hereafter rising shall she look through this same Garden after mein vain 75 And when Thyself with glare Foot shall pass Among the Guests Star-scatterd on the Grass, And in thy joyous Errand reach the plaza Where I made oneturn down an empty chicken feed TAMAM SHUD (It is completed. )