The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

Copyright
1906
Elbert
Hubbard
THE RUBAIYAT
WELL here three sad sweet spirits
:
Perfume
born
Of
fading Rose-leaves, visions of
The Thorn
Behind each Flower of Joy in Life's Bouquet,
And one long Sigh we make too oft to scorn.
perhaps divides the False and
'
HHAIR
Or
False
True;"
or True thy Verses, we
Of meed bestow on One
We
this
due
most bitter-sweet
:
read and dream, then dream and read anew.
CHARLES
P.
NETTLETON.
ADDRESS OF JOHN HAY
OMAR KHAYYAM
By HON.
JOHN HAY
ADDRESS DELIVERED DECEMBER
OMAR KHAYYAM
8,
ZCAN
AT THE DINNER OF THE
CLUB, LONDON.
never forget
saw FitzGerald's
1897,
my emotions when
translations of the
rains. Keats, in his sublime
man's
once for
Quat-
ode on Chap-
has described the sensation
all:
Then
felt I like
When
The
Homer
1 first
a
new
some watcher
of the skies
planet swims into his ken.
exquisite beauty, the faultless form, the singular
grace of those amazing stanzas were not more wonderful than the depth
and breadth
philosophy, their knowledge of
of their profound
life,
their dauntless
courage, their serene facing of the ultimate problems
of life
and death.
Of
course the doubt did not spare
me, which has assailed many as ignorant as I was of
the literature of the East, whether it was the poet or
the translator to
Was
it,
in fact,
whom was
due
this
splendid result.
a reproduction of an antique song, or
the mystification of a great modern, careless of fame
and scornful of
his
time? Could
the Eleventh Century, so far
accomplished a
tinction,
be possible that
in
as Khorassan, so
away
of letters lived, with such dis-
such breadth, such insight, such calm
disillu-
and jocund despair? Was this
Weltschmerz," which we thought a malady of our
sions,
'
man
it
such cheerful
day, endemic in Persia in
came upon a
Rubaiyat, and I saw that
lasted
till
I
quality of FitzGerald's
ii
1
1
00 ?
literal
My
doubt only
translation
of the
not the least remarkable
poem was
its
fidelity
to the
original.
Qln
Omar was
short,
a FitzGerald, or
FitzGerald was a reincarnation of Omar.
It is
not to
the disadvantage of the latter poet that he followed
so closely in the footsteps of the earlier.
had appeared
man
of
in
the world,
of incomparable beauty
and power
extraordinary genius
had sung a song
A
an environment no longer worthy of him, in a
language of narrow range for many generations the
in
;
song was virtually
lost
;
then by a miracle of creation,
a poet, a twin-brother in the
who
took up the forgotten
was born,
poem and sang it anew
spirit to
the
first,
melody and
force,
accumulated refinement of ages of
art. It
with
all
its
idle to ask
original
all
seems to
the
me
which was the greater master; each seems
greater than his work.
of precious
and
The
song
is
like
an instrument
workmanship and marvelous
tone,
which
is
common
worthless in
hands, but
when
it
falls,
at
long intervals, into the hands of the supreme master,
it
yields a
that
melody
have ears
comparison.
to hear. If
the
influence of
is
two
Omar
FitzGerald to
speech
of transcendent enchantment to all
is
no longer any
sang to a half barbarous province ;
the
world.
Wherever
the
English
spoken or read, the Rubaiyat have taken
India, nor a village in
friend
look at the sphere of
poets, there
their place as a classic.
a coterie
we
to
There
is
not a hill-post in
England, where there
whom Omar Khayyam
and a bond of union.
equal following, in
many
In
is
a
is
not
familiar
America he has an
regions and conditions. In
the Eastern States his adepts form an esoteric sect
the beautiful volume of drawings
by Mr. Vedder,
a center of delight and suggestion wherever
iv
it
;
is
exists,
West you
In the cities of the
will find the Quatrains
one of the most thoroughly read books in any club
library. I heard them quoted once in one of the most
lonely
and desolate
spots of the high Rockies.
had been camping on the Great Divide, our
the world," where in the space of a few
may
see
two
springs,
one sending
its
"
We
roof of
feet
you
waters to the
Polar solitudes, the other to the eternal Carib summer.
One
I
morning
was
man
at sunrise, as
startled to
we were
breaking camp,
hear one of our party, a
frontiers-
born, intoning these words of sombre majesty
T
is
:
but a Tent where takes his one day's rest
A Sultan to the realm of Death addrest;
The
Strikes,
I
Sultan
rises,
and the dark Ferrash
and prepares
it
for another Guest.
thought that sublime setting of primeval forest and
pouring canyon was worthy of the lines;
I
am
sure
the dewless, crystalline air never vibrated to strains
of
more solemn music.
Certainly, our poet can never
be numbered among the great popular writers of all
time. He has told no story he has never unpacked
;
his heart in public
;
he has never thrown the
the neck of the winged horse, and
him where
carry
it listed.
"Ah
!
let his
the
reins
on
imagination
crowd must have
emphatic warrant," as Browning sang.
Its
are not for the cool, collected observer,
whose eyes
no
glitter
can dazzle, no mist
suffuse.
suffrages
The many
can-
not but resent that air of lofty intelligence, that pale
and subtle
smile.
ever
that limited
among
and Epicurus
But he will hold a place
like Lucretius
without rage or defiance, even with-
out unbecoming mirth,
vi
number who,
for-
look deep into the tangled
mysteries of things; refuse credence to the absurd,
and allegiance
to arrogant authority ; sufficiently con-
scious of fallibility to
a
faith
too
wide
be
tolerant of all opinions ; with
for doctrine
and a benevolence
untrammeled by creed; too wise to be wholly poets,
and yet too surely poets to be implacably wise.
Vll
THE RUBAIYAT
For the Sun
who
scattered
into flight
The
Stars before
him from the
Field of Night,
Drives Night along with them from Heav'n, and
strikes
The
Sultan's Turret with a Shaft of Light.
II
EFORE
the
phantom of False morning died,
Methought a Voice within the Tavern cried,
'
When
Why
all
the
Temple
is
prepared within,
nods the drowsy Worshipper outside."
25
Ill
HND
as the
Cock crew,
those
who stood
before
The Tavern shouted "Open then the Door
You know how little while we have to stay,
And
once departed,
may
!
return no more."
IV
the
New
Year
The thoughtful Soul
Where the White Hand
Puts out, and Jesus
26
reviving old Desires,
to Solitude retires,
Moses on the Bough
from the Ground suspires.
of
I
RAM indeed
But
And
gone with
is
all his
Jamshyd's Sev'n-ring'd
Rose,
Cup where no
one knows;
still
And many
a
Ruby
kindles in the Vine,
a Garden by the Water blows.
VI
HND
David's
lips
are lockt ; but in divine
High-piping Pehlevi, with "Wine! Wine!
Wine!
Red Wine!"
That sallow cheek
the Nightingale cries to the
Rose
of hers to' incarnadine.
27
VII
fill
the Cup, and in the
Your Winter-Garment
OOME,
The
To
Bird of
flutter
Time
of
has but a
and the Bird
is
of Spring
fire
Repentance
little
fling:
way
on the Wing.
VIII
HETHER at Naishapur or Babylon,
Whether the Cup with sweet
or bitter run,
The Wine of Life keeps oozing drop by drop,
The Leaves of Life keep falling one by one.
28
IX
ACH Morn a thousand Roses brings, you say;
Yes, but where leaves the Rose of Yesterday ?
And
this first
Summer month
that brings the
Rose
Jamshyd and Kaikobad away.
Shall take
ELL,
let it
we
With Kaikobad
take them!
to
have
do
the Great, or Kaikhosru?
Let Zal and Rustum
Or Hatim
What
call to
bluster as they will,
Supper
heed not you.
29
XI
ITH me along the
That
Where
And
name
the
Peace
just divides
to
on
Herbage strown
the desert from the sown,
of Slave
Mahmud
strip of
and Sultan
his golden
is
forgot
Throne
!
XII
Verses underneath the Bough,
Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread and Thou
of
A
HBOOK
me
Beside
singing in the Wilderness
Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow
30
!
XIII
OME for the Glories of This World; and some
Sigh for the Prophet's Paradise to come
Ah, take the Cash, and let the Credit
Nor heed the rumble of a distant Drum
;
go,
!
XIV
*
to the blowing Rose about us
"Lo,
""^.OOK
"
_p ^J Laughing," she says, into the world I blow,
At
once the silken
Tear, and
its
tassel of
my
Purse
Treasure on the Garden throw."
31
XV
who husbanded the Golden grain,
And those who flung it to the winds like
those
Rain,
Alike to no such aureate Earth are turn'd
As, buried once,
Men
want dug up
again.
XVI
Worldly Hope men set their Hearts upon
Turns Ashes or it prospers; and anon,
Like
Snow upon
Lighting a
32
little
the Desert's dusty Face,
hour or two
was gone.
XVII
in this batter'd
Whose
How
Abode
Caravanserai
Portals are alternate Night and
Sultan after Sultan with his
his
destin'd Hour, and went
Day,
Pomp
his
way.
XVIII
say the Lion and the Lizard keep
The
Courts where Jamshyd gloried and
drank deep:
And
Bahram,
Stamps o'er
his
that great
Hunter
the
Head, but cannot break
Wild Ass
his Sleep.
33
XIX
Z
SOMETIMES think
The Rose
as
that never
blows so red
where some buried Caesar bled
;
That every Hyacinth the Garden wears
Dropt in her Lap from some once lovely Head.
XX
HND
this reviving
Herb whose
tender
Fledges the River-Lip on which
Ah, lean upon it lightly!
From what once lovely Lip
34
for
it
we
who knows
springs unseen
!
Green
lean
XXI
~J |"H,
MY Beloved,
fill
the
Cup
that clears
To-day of past Regrets and future Fears:
To-morrow! Why, To-morrow I may be
W_ M^
Myself with Yesterday's Sev'n thousand Years.
XXII
f"OR
^Have
\
And
some we
loved, the loveliest
That from his Vintage
drunk
their
rolling
Cup a Round
one by one crept
and the best
Time hathprest,
or two before,
silently to rest.
35
XXIII
ND
now make merry in the Room
They left, and Summer dresses in new bloom,
we, that
Ourselves must
Descend
we
beneath the Couch of Earth
ourselves to
make a Coucli
for
whom?
XXIV
HH,
Before
Dust
we
MAKE the most of what we yet may
spend,
too into the Dust descend
into Dust,
and under Dust,
;
to
lie,
Sans Wine, sans Song, sans Singer, and
36
sans
End
!
XXV
for those
who
for
To-day prepare,
some To-morrow stare,
And
HLIKE
A
those that after
Muezzin from the Tower
"Fools! your
Reward
is
of Darkness cries,
neither
Here nor There."
XXVI
HY,
all
the Saints and Sages
who
discuss'd
Of
the
Like
Are
Two
Worlds
foolish
scatter'd,
so wisely
Prophets forth
and
their
;
they are thrust
their
Mouths are
Words
Scorn
to
stopt with Dust.
37
XXVII
when young
f V ^YSELF
Doctor and
and
* *
did eagerly frequent
^
About
Came
Saint,
it
heard great
argument
and about but evermore
:
out by the same door
where
in
I
went.
XXVIII
ITH them the seed of Wisdom did
And with mine own hand wrought
make
And
I
this
came
38
was
like
all
grow;
the Harvest
it
Water, and
like
that
Wind
1
I
reap'd
go."
I
sow,
to
XXIX
this
Universe, and
INTO
Nor Whence,
And
I
know
out of
it,
as
like
Why not
Water
Wind
knowing
willy-nilly flowing
along the Waste,
not Whither, willy-nilly blowing.
XXX
'..-.''
WW ^HAT,
\A/
And
}
without asking, hither hurried
Whence?
without asking, Whither hurried hence
!
Oh, many a Cup of this forbidden Wine
Must drown the memory of that insolence
!
39
;
XXXI
FROM Earth's
Centre through the
Seventh Gate
I
rose
and on the Throne of Saturn
And many
sate,
a Knot unravel'd by the
But not the Master-Knot of
Human
Road
;
Fate.
XXXII
was
Key;
There was the Veil
Some
little
There was
40
talk
the
Door
to
_
thro'
which
awhile of
Me
which
I
I
found no
might not see
:
and Thee
and then no more of Thee and Me.
XXXIII
ARTH could not answer;
nor the Seas that
mourn
In flowing Purple, of their
Nor
And
rolling
Lord
Heaven, with
forlorn
all his
;
Signs reveal'd
hidden by the sleeve of Night and Morn.
XXXIV
of the
The
Veil,
I
Thee
in
lifted
up
Me who
my
A Lamp amid the Darkness
As
from Without
'The
Me
;
works behind
hands to
and
I
within
find
heard,
Thee blind!"
41
XXXV
HEN
I
And
Drink
!
to the
Lip
of this poor earthen
lean'd, the Secret of
to
Lip
for,
Lip
it
murmur'd
my
"
once dead, you never
Life to learn
While you
I
shall return."
And
How
that with fugitive
Articulation answer'd, once did
drink
many
;
and
Ah
!
Kisses might
live,
the passive Lip
it
take
I
kiss'd,
and give!
:
live,
XXXVI
THINK the Vessel,
Urn
XXXVII
"TOR
^F 7* To
And
It
remember stopping by the way
watch a Potter thumping his wet Clay
1
with
murmur'd
its
all-obliterated
Tongue
"Gently, Brother, gently, pray!*'
XXXVIII
HND
has not such a Story from of
Down
Of
Man's
Old
successive generations roll'd
such a clod of saturated Earth
Cast by the
Maker
into
Human mould ?
43
:
XXXIX
HND
For Earth
To
not a drop that from our
throw
to drink of, but
quench the
There hidden
Cups we
steal
below
Anguish in some Eye
beneath, and long ago.
fire
far
may
of
XL
5
THEN the Tulip for her morning sup
Of Heav'nly Vintage from
the
soil
looks up,
Do you devoutly do the like,
Heav'n
To Earth invert you like an empty Cup.
till
44
XLI
no more with
To-morrow's tangle
And
The
lose
your
to the
Human
winds
or Divine,
resign,
fingers in the tresses of
Cyprus-slender Minister of Wine.
XLII
HND
if
the
Wine you
drink, the
Lip you
press,
what All begins and ends in Yes
Think then you are To-day what Yesterday
You were To-morrow you shall not be less.
End
in
;
45
XLIII
WHEN the Angel of the darker Drink
At
And
last shall find
offering his
Cup,
you by the
invite
Forth to your Lips to quaff
river-brink,
your Soul
you
shall not shrink.
XLIV
m mi ^ HY,
^^^/ And
Were
'
t
not a
if
the Soul can fling the Dust aside,
naked on the Air of Heaven
Shame
were *t not a Shame
him
In this clay carcase crippled to abide?
46
ride,
for
XLV
IS but a Tent where takes his one day's
Sultan to the realm of Death addrest
The
Strikes,
Sultan
rises,
rest,
;
and the dark Ferrash
and prepares
for another Guest.
it
XLVI
ND
fear not lest Existence closing your
Account, and mine, should know the
no more
The
like
;
Eternal Saki from that
Bowl has pour'd
Millions of Bubbles like us, and will pour.
47
XLVII
You and
Oh, but
I
behind the Veil are past,
the long, long while the
World
shall last,
Which
As
of our
Coming and Departure heeds
the Sea's self should heed a pebble-cast.
XLVIII
H
MOMENT'S
Halt
a momentary
taste
Of Being from the Well amid the Waste
And Lo the phantom Caravan has reacht
The Nothing it set out from Oh, make haste
!
!
48
XLIX
OULD you that spangle of Existence
spend
About
the secret
quick about
it,
Friend
!
A Hair perhaps divides the False and True
And
upon what,
HHAIR
prithee, does life
perhaps divides the False and True;
Yes and a
;
Could you but
And
depend ?
find
peradventure to
single Alif -were the clue
it
to the Treasure-house,
The Master
too
;
49
LI
TO
Running
HOSE secret Presence, through Creation's
veins
Quicksilver-like eludes your pains
all
Taking
shapes from
They change and
perish
Mah
all
to
but
;
Mahi and
;
He
remains ;
LII
MOMENT guess'd
then back behind
the Fold
Immerst of Darkness round the
Which,
He
for the
Drama
roll'd
Pastime of Eternity,
doth Himself contrive, enact, behold.
50
LIII
UT
Of
if
in vain,
down on
the stubborn floor
Earth, and up to Heav'n's unopening
Door,
You
gaze To-day, while
To-morrow, when You
You
shall
be
are
You
how then
You no more ?
LIV
ASTE
not your Hour, nor in the vain
pursuit
Of This and That
endeavour and dispute
Better be jocund with the fruitful
Than
;
Grape
sadden after none, or bitter, Fruit.
51
LV
know,
my
Friends, with
what a brave
Carouse
I
made a Second Marriage
in
my
house
Divorced old barren Reason from
And
;
my
Bed,
took the Daughter of the Vine to Spouse.
LVI
and
TJOR "Is"
and
*
Jp
Line,
And "Up-and-down"
Of
Was
all
"Is-not" though with Rule
that
by Logic
one should care
I
define,
to fathom,
never deep in anything but
52
Wine.
1
LVII
'
J
fH, BUT
W^ M JReduced
my
Computations, People say,
Year
the
to better reckoning?
Nay,
*T was only
striking
from the Calendar
Unborn To-morrow, and dead Yesterday.
LVIII
by the Tavern Door agape,
Came shining through the Dusk an Angel
HND
lately
Shape
Bearing a Vessel on his Shoulder
He bid me
taste of
it
;
and
't
was
;
and
the
Grape
!
53
LIX
Grape
that can with
The Two-and-Seventy
The
Logic absolute
jarring Sects confute
sovereign Alchemist that in a trice
Life's leaden metal into
Gold transmute
:
LX
mighty
That
Of
all
Mahmud,
Allah-breathing Lord,
the misbelieving and black
Fears and Sorrows that
Scatters before
54
him with
his
infest the
Horde
Soul
whirlwind Sword.
LXI
HY,
be
this Juice
who
tendril as
A Blessing, we should use
if
a Curse
God,
dare
Blaspheme the twisted
And
the growth of
why,
then,
it,
a Snare ?
should
Who
set
we
it
not ?
there?
LXII
TT' MUST
abjure the
Balm
of Life,
I
must,
^M
Scared by some After-reckoning ta'en on
Or
To
lured with
fill
the
Cup
trust,
some Diviner Drink,
when crumbled into Dust
Hope
of
!
55
LXIII
O
THREATS of
One
Hell and Hopes of Paradise!
thing at least
certain
is
This Life
flies;
One thing is certain and the rest is Lies
The Flower that once has blown for ever dies.
;
LXIV
TRANCE,
is it
not? that of the myriads
Before us pass'd the door of Darkness
through,
Not one
Which
56
returns to
to discover
tell
we
us of the
must travel
Road,
too.
who
LXV
HE
Revelations of Devout and Learn'd
Who
Are
They
all
and as Prophets burn'd,
which, awoke from Sleep
rose before us,
but Stories,
told their comrades,
and
to
Sleep return'd.
LXVI
I
SENT my Soul
Some
through the
Invisible
letter of that After-life to spell
;
And by and by my Soul return'd to me,
And answer'd "I Myself am Heav'n and Hell:"
57
LXVII
but the Vision of
And Hell
EEAV'N
the
fulfill'd
Shadow from
Desire,
a Soul on
fire
Cast on the Darkness into which Ourselves,
So
late
emerg'd from,
shall so
soon expire.
LXVIII
E
ARE no other than
a moving
Of Magic Shadow-shapes
that
row
come and
go
Round with
In
the Sun-illumin'd Lantern held
Midnight by the Master of the
58
Show
;
LXIX
iLJT helpless Pieces of the
Upon
this
Game He
plays
Chequer-board of Nights and
Days;
Hither and thither moves, and checks, and
And
one by one back
slays,
in the Closet lays.
LXX
Ball no question
makes
of
Ayes and
Noes,
But Here or There as
strikes the
Player goes
;
And He that toss'd you down into the Field,
He knows about it all He knows He knows
!
59
LXXI
Moving Finger writes; and having
Moves on nor all your Piety nor Wit
writ,
:
Shall lure
Nor
all
back
it
to cancel half
your Tears wash out a
a Line,
Word
of
it.
LXXII
that inverted
Bowl they
call
the Sky,
Whereunder crawling coop'd we
die,
Lift not your
As
hands to
It
for help
impotently moves as you or
60
I.
for
It
live
and
LXXIII
ITH
Earth's
Man
first
Clay They did the Last
knead,
And there of the Last Harvest sow'd the Seed
And the first Morning of Creation wrote
What the Last Dawn of Reckoning shall read.
:
LXXIV
ESTERDAY
prepare
To-Morrow's
Drink! for you
Day s Madness
did
|
;
Silence,
Drink! for you
This
Triumph, or Despair:
know not whence you came, nor why:
know
not
why you
go, nor where.
61
LXXV
you
this
When,
started
from the
Goal,
ZTELL
Over
the flaming shoulders of the Foal
Of Heav'n Parwin and
In
Mushtari they
flung,
predestin'd Plot of Dust and Soul.
my
LXXVI
HE Vine had struck a fibre
If
clings
Of my Base
That
shall
62
my
Being
which about
the Dervish flout
may be filed a Key,
the Door he howls without.
metal
unlock
let
:
;
LXXVII
HND
this
Ma**
Light
Kindle to Love, or
One
know: whether the one True
I
Flash of
It
Better than in the
Wrath consume me
quite,
within the Tavern caught
Temple
lost outright.
LXXVIII
HAT out of senseless Nothing to provoke
A conscious Something to resent the
!
yoke
Of unpermitted Pleasure, under
Of Everlasting Penalties, if broke
pain
!
63
LXXIX
HAT
!
from
his helpless
Creature be
repaid
Pure Gold
Sue
And
for
for a
what he
lent
him
Debt we never did
cannot answer
Oh
dross-allay'd
contract,
the sorry trade
!
LXXX
who didst with pitfall and with
the Road I was to wander in,
OTHOU,
Beset
Thou
wilt not with Predestin'd Evil round
Enmesh, and then impute
64
my
Fall to Sin
!
gin
LXXXI
THOU, who Man
OH
^
And
make,
J!
ev'n with Paradise devise the Snake:
For
Is
of baser Earth didst
all
the Sin wherewith the Face of
blacken'd
Man's forgiveness give
Man
and take!
LXXXII
"
J
ITS
W_ M^
UNDER cover of departing
Once more
I
Day
Slunk hunger-stricken Ramazan away,
within the Potter's house alone
stood, surrounded
by the Shapes
of Clay.
65
LXXXIII
HAPES
of all Sorts
and
and
Sizes, great
small,
lat
stood along the floor and by the wall;
And
some loquacious Vessels were; and some
Listen'd perhaps, but never talk'd at
all.
LXXXIV
ID
one among them
My substance
of the
"Surely not
common Earth was
aid to this Figure moulded, to
Or
in vain
be broke,
trampled back to shapeless Earth again."
66
ta'en
LXXXV
"Ne'er a peevish Boy
Would break the Bowl from which he drank
said a
Second
in joy;
And He
that with
Will surely not
His hand the Vessel made
in after
Wrath
destroy."
LXXXVI
Some
HFTER
a momentary silence spake
Vessel of a more ungainly Make;
'They sneer at me for leaning all awry:
What! did the Hand then of the Potter shake?"
67
LXXXVII
HEREAT
some one
of the loquacious
LotI
think a Sufi pipkin
"
All
Who
is
this of
waxing hot
Pot and Potter Tell me
the Potter, pray, and
who
then,
the Pot?"
LXXXVIII
said another,
"Some
there are
who
Of one who threatens he will toss to Hell
The luckless Pots he marr'd in making Pish!
He's a Good Fellow, and 't will all be well."
68
LXXXIX
r
"
murmur'd one,
,"
Let whoso make
kuy,
My
Clay with long Oblivion is gone dry:
But fill me with the old familiar Juice,
Methinks
I
might recover by and by."
XC
WHILE
the Vessels one
by one were
speaking,
The
little
Moon
look'd in
all
that
were
seeking:
And then they jogg'd each other, "Brother! Brother!
Now
for the Porter's shoulder-knot a-creaking!"
69
XCI
,
WITH
the
Grape my
fading Life
provide,
And wash the Body whence the Life has died,
And lay me, shrouded in the living Leaf,
By some
not unfrequented Garden-side.
XCII
ev'n
my
Of Vintage
As
But
buried Ashes such a snare
shall fling
up
into the
not a True-believer passing by
shall
70
be overtaken unaware.
Air
XCIII
the Idols
Have done my
INDEED
I
have loved so long
credit in this
wrong:
Have drown'd my Glory
And
sold
my
in
World much
a shallow Cup,
Reputation for a Song.
XCIV
indeed, Repentance oft before
swore but was
XNDEED,
I
And
then and then
I
sober
when
I
swore?
came Spring, and Rose-in-
hand
My
thread-bare Penitence apieces tore.
71
xcv
much
And
as
robb'd
Wine has play'd the Infidel,
me of my Robe of Honour
Well,
wonder
I
One
often
what the Vintners buy
half so precious as the stuff they
sell.
XCVI
TfTTET Ah, that Spring
Rose!
fe^
should vanish with the
;
That Youth's sweet-scented manuscript should
The
Ah
Nightingale that in the branches sang,
whence and whither flown
72
close!
again,
who knows!
XCVII
*
WV \ OULD
\A/
but the Desert of the Fountain
^;r^>
yield
r
One glimpse if dimly, yet indeed, reveal'd,
To which the fainting Traveller might spring,
As springs the trampled herbage of the field!
XCVIII
WW^l OULD but some winged Angel ere too
\A/
late
Arrest the yet unfolded Roll of Fate,
And make
the stern Recorder otherwise
Enregister, or quite obliterate!
73
XCIX
HH
To
grasp
Would
Re-mould
LOVE!
Him
with
I
conspire
this sorry
we
not
it
could you and
Scheme
shatter
it
of
Things entire,
to bits
and then
nearer to the Heart's Desire!
ON rising Moon that looks for us again
How
low
oft hereafter will
she
wax and wane;
oft hereafter rising look for us
Through
this
same Garden
and
for
one
in vain
!
CI
HND
when
like her,
Among the
oh
Saki,
you
shall pass
Guests Star-scatter'd on the
Grass,
And
Where
in
I
your joyous errand reach the spot
made One
turn
down an empty
Glass!
SO HERE ENDETH THE RUBA1YAT OF OMAR
KHAYYAM, AS TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH
BY EDWARD FITZGERALD AND DONE INTO
A PRINTED BOOK BY THE ROYCROFTERS, AT
THEIR SHOP IN EAST AURORA. WHICH IS IN
ERIE COUNTY, NEW YORK, IN APRIL, MCMVI
ROYCR0FT