The Sufistic Quatrains Of Omar Khayyam Part 66

482.

For union with my love I sigh in vain, The pangs of absence I can scarce sustain, My grief I dare not tell to any friend; O trouble strange, sweet pa.s.sion, bitter pain!

482. N. These quatrains are called _firakiya_, and are rare in Khayyam.

483.

'Tis dawn! I hear the loud Muezzin's call, And here am I before the vintner's hall; This is no time of piety. Be still!

And drop your talk and airs devotional!

483. C. L. N. A. I. J.

484.

Angel of joyful foot! the dawn is nigh; Pour wine, and lift your tuneful voice on high, Sing how Jems.h.i.+ds and Khosraus bit the dust, Whelmed by the rolling months, from Tir to Dai!

484. C. L. N. A. I. _Tir_ and _Dai_, April and December.

485.

Frown not at revellers, I beg of thee, For all thou keepest righteous company; But drink, for, drink or no, 'tis all the same, If doomed to h.e.l.l, no heaven thou'lt ever see.

485. C. L. N. A. I. J. Koran, xvi. 38: Some of them there were, whom Allah guided, and there were others doomed to err.

486.

I wish that Allah would rebuild these skies, And earth, and that at once, before my eyes, And either raze my name from off his roll, Or else relieve my dire necessities!

486. N. This rather sins against Horace's canon, _Nec Deus intersit_, etc.

487.

Lord! make thy bounty's cup for me to flow, And bread unbegged for day by day bestow; Yea, with thy wine make me beside myself.

No more to feel the headache of my woe!

487. C. L. N. A. I. J.

488.

Omar! of burning heart, perchance to burn In h.e.l.l, and feed its bale-fires in thy turn, Presume not to teach Allah clemency, For who art thou to teach, or He to learn?

488. C. L. N. A. I. J. The Persian preface states that, after his death, Omar appeared to his mother in a dream, and repeated this quatrain to her. For the last line I am indebted to Mr. Fitzgerald.

489.

Cheer up! your lot was settled yesterday!

Heedless of all that you might do or say, Without so much as By your leave they fixed Your lot for all the morrows yesterday!

489. C. L. A. B. I. Predestination.

490.

I never would have come, had I been asked, I would as lief not go, if I were asked, And, to be short, I would annihilate All coming, being, going, were I asked!

490. C. L. N. (in part) A. B. I. J. So the Ecclesiast, Therefore I hated life, etc.

491.

Man is a cup, his soul the wine therein, Flesh is a pipe, spirit the voice within; O Khayyam, have you fathomed what man is?

A magic lantern with a light therein!

492.

O skyey wheel, all base men you supply With baths, mills, and ca.n.a.ls that run not dry, While good men have to p.a.w.n their goods for bread: Pray, who would give a fig for such a sky?

492. B. L. In line 3 I read _nih and_ for _nihand_, which will not scan.

Line 4 is slightly paraphrased.

493.

A potter at his work I chanced to see, Pounding some earth and shreds of pottery; I looked with eyes of insight, and methought 'Twas Adam's dust with which he made so free!

493. C. L. A. I. J. Note the arrangement of the prepositions _bar_ . .

_bazer_. Bl., Prosody, xiii.

494.

The Saki knows my _genus properly_, To all woe's _species_ he holds a key, Whene'er my _mood_ is sad, he brings me wine, And that makes all the _difference_ to me!

494. C. L. A. I. A play on terms of Logic.

495.

Dame Fortune! all your acts and deeds confess That you are foul oppression's votaress; You cherish bad men, and annoy the good; Is this from dotage, or sheer foolishness?