The Sufistic Quatrains of Omar Khayyam

Come, fill the Cup, and in the fire of Spring Your Winter-garment of Repentance fling: The Bird of Time has but a little way To flutter--and the Bird is on the Wing.

This jug was once a plaintive lover, as I am, And was in pursuit of one of comely face;[50] This handle that thou seest upon its neck Is an arm that once lay around the neck of...

_Ref._: O. 94, C. 280, L. 443, B. 439, S.P. 230, P. 31, B. ii. 291, T. 183, P. v. 10.--W. 270, N. 231, E.C. 27, V. 480.

What advantage has our coming into this world produced? What advantage will result from our departure? What remains to us of the heap of hopes that we have conceived. Where is t...

O _mufti_ [grand judge] of the city! I am more a worker than art thou. Drunk as I am, I own more intelligence than thou; for thou, thou drinkest the blood of human beings and I...

This world a hollow pageant you should deem; All wise men know things are not what they seem; Be of good cheer, and drink, and so shake off This vain illusion of a baseless dream.

Be on thy guard, my friend, for soon thou wilt be separate from thy soul; thou then shalt go behind the curtain of God's secrecy. Drink, for thou knowest not whence thou here ha...

«Thou hast broken my pitcher of wine, my God! Thus hast Thou shut upon me the gate of joy, O Lord! It is I who drink, and it is Thou who committest the disorder of drunkenness!...

Gold breeds not wit, but to wit lacking bread Earth's flowery carpet seems a dungeon bed; 'Tis his full purse that makes the rose to smile, While empty-handed violets hang the h...

No one has penetrated the secrets of the Principle [First Cause]. No one has taken a step outside himself. I look about and see only insufficiency from pupil to master, insuffic...

Since all man's business in this world of woe Is sorrow's pangs to feel, and grief to know, Happy are they that never come at all, And they that, having come, the soonest go!

There is a mystery I know full well, Which to all, good and bad, I cannot tell; My words are dark, but I cannot unfold The secrets of the «station» where I dwell.

Ah! thou hast snared this head, though white as snow, Which oft has vowed the wine-cup to forego; And wrecked the mansion long resolve did build, And rent the vesture penitence...

In deciding on the form to be taken by a new translation of Omar, the fact of the existence of a previous verse translation of universally acknowledged merit ought not, of cours...

(LVI.) A Jest, of course, at his Studies. A curious mathematical Quatrain of Omar's has been pointed out to me; the more curious because almost exactly parallel'd by some Verses...

«Omar's ethics are not those of Mohammedanism. He advocates Resignation, to be sure, but not Mohammedan fatalism as popularly understood. His morals spring from his conception o...

So long as I possess two maunds of wine, Bread of the flower of wheat, and mutton chine, And you, O Tulip cheek, to share my hut, Not every Sultan's lot can vie with mine.

Be welcome, Thou, who art the repose of my soul! Thou art here, and nevertheless I cannot believe my eyes. Oh! for the love of God, and not for the love of my heart, drink, drin...

I must say that I, for one, never wholly believed in the mysticism of Hafiz. It does not appear there was any danger in holding and singing Sufi Pantheism, so long as the poet m...

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.»

PAGE GENERAL INTRODUCTION xi INTRODUCTION TO THE FIRST EDITION OF EDWARD FITZGERALD'S TRANSLATION OF THE QUATRAINS OF OMAR KHAYYAM 1 THE COMPLETE FITZGERALD FIRST EDITION 13 Kuz...