Part 21

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, drink of wine, drink to the point when I can doubt that it is Thou.

441.

A Sheikh said to a prostitute: You are in wine. Each instant you are taken in the toils of law. She answered him: O Sheikh, I am all that you say; but are you what you seem to be?

442.

[I have already said] the entire world, like a bowl, was rolling in a hollow which, when I slept dead drunk, I noticed no more than if I saw a grain of barley rolling along. Yesterday, at evening, I put myself in pawn at the tavern for a cup of wine. The wine merchant never ceased to say: O excellent security that here I hold.

443.

Sometimes Thou art concealed, showing Thyself to none; sometimes Thou revealest Thyself in all things created. It is for Thyself, without doubt, and for Thy pleasure that Thou hast produced these marvellous effects, for Thou art at once the maker of the spectacle we see and Thine own beholder.

444.

Should you come to people the whole earth, that action would not make a saddened soul rejoice. It would be more to thy advantage to enslave a free man, through thy gentleness, than to give freedom to a thousand slaves.

445.

They tell you not to drink, that otherwise you shall become a prey to torment, and that in the day of reckoning you will burn as fire. That may be, but the day in which wine makes you joyous is more precious than the goods of this world and those of the next.

446.

If your own satisfaction consists in casting grief into a heart free from all care, you could, friend, make mourning with your wisdom during your whole life. Go, be unhappy, then, for you are a person strangely ignorant.

447.

Each time you can procure two _mens_ of wine, drink them, in every circumstance, in all society wherever you may be; for he who does is freed from scornful looks or gestures of disdain.

448.

With a loaf of wheaten bread, two _mens_ of wine and meat in plenty, and seated in some desert spot with some young beauty decked with cheeks tinted with the tulip's blush, man hath a joy not given to any Sultan to procure.

449.

If in a city you acquire renown, you are thought to be the most wicked of men; if you retire into a corner, they regard you as a conspirator. What then is best, were you Elias or Saint Jude, is to live in the way of knowing none, and being known by none.

450.

If I were free and were allowed to use my will, if I were free from the torments of destiny and unembarrassed by any sentiment of the good and bad in this world where disorder resides, oh! I would prefer not to have lived here, not to have existed, than to be forced to go away!

451.

Drink wine, my friend, for see it makes the perspiration flow upon the cheeks of the beauties of Rhei, the most beautiful creatures in the world! Oh! how long shall I repeat it to you? Yes, I have broken the bonds of all my vows. Is it not better to break the bonds of a thousand vows than to break a pitcher of wine?

452.

We have some wine, O cupbearer! Let us rejoice in the presence of the well-beloved [the Divinity] and in the noise of the morning. Expect not on our part the renunciation of Nessouh, O cupbearer! How long shall I speak to you of the story of Noe, O cupbearer? Bring, bring me happily the repose of my soul [the wine], O cupbearer!

453.

I see neither the means of joining myself to Thee, nor the possibility of living for the space of a breath separated from Thee. I have not the courage to drive out the torments I endure. Oh! how difficult my plight, how strange my grief, how exquisite my pain!

454.

Now is the time to drink the morning wine; the noise makes itself heard, O cupbearer! Now we are ready, O cupbearer! here is the wine, behold the tavern. Could a moment like this be for prayer? Silence, O cupbearer! Leave thy discourse upon tradition and upon devotion; drink, O cupbearer!

455.

Here is the noise of the morning, O idol, whose coming brings happiness! Chant the refrain and bring the wine; for [you know it], the constant sequence of these months of Tir and Di have overturned upon the earth a thousand potentates like Djem, a hundred thousand like to Kai.

456.

Guard thyself from being coarse in the eyes of all drinkers, guard thyself from acquiring a bad reputation before the sages, and drink wine; for, whether you drink or not, if you belong to the fire of Hell, you would not know how to enter Paradise.

457.

I wish that God would reconstruct the world, I wish that He would actually reconstruct it and that I might see Him at the work. I wish that He would blot my name from the register of life, or that out of His mysterious treasure, He would swell the joys of my existence.

458.

O God! open to me the door of Thy benefits. Make me come to my fortune finally, that I may not be beholden to Thy creatures. Oh! render me drunk with wine, to the point where, freed from all knowledge, the torments of my head may disappear.

459.

O thou who hast been burned and burned again, and now deservest life anew! thou who art worthy only of adding fuel to the fire of Hell! how long wilt thou pray the Divinity to pardon Omar? What relation exists between thee and God? What audacity drives thee to ask Him to exercise His pity?

460.

As for me, without limpid wine I cannot live; my body is a burden which I cannot carry without drinking of the juice of the vine. Oh! might I be the slave of that delicious moment when the cupbearer said to me: Another cup! and that I had no longer strength to take it!

461.

There remains to me still a breath of life, thanks to the care of the cupbearer. But discord reigns still among men. I know that there only remains to me about a _men_ of wine from last evening, but I am ignorant of the space of time that is still left me to live.

462.

Take a man who possesses bread sufficient to live upon for two days, who can draw a drop of fresh water into a cracked pitcher, why should such a man be commanded by another who is of no more worth, or why should he serve one who should be his equal?

463.

Since the day when Venus and the moon appeared in the sky, no one has seen anything here below preferable to ruby wine. I am truly astonished at the wine-merchants, for how can they buy anything superior to that which they sell?

464.

For those endowed with knowledge and virtue, who through their wisdom have become as torches to their disciples, even those have not progressed beyond this night profound. They have left some fables and returned to death's long sleep.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] About 1272 A.D.

[2] This title is hard to determine without any acquaintance with the contents of the pamphlet.

[3] C.H.A. Bjerregaard in «The Sufi Omar». J.F. Taylor & Co., N.Y., 1902.

[4] Some of Omar's Rubaiyat warn us of the danger of greatness, the instability of fortune, and while advocating charity to all men, recommending us to be too intimate with none. Attar makes Nizam ul Mulk use the very words of his friend Omar [Rub. xxviii.], «When Nizam ul Mulk was in the Agony (of Death) he said, 'Oh God! I am passing away in the hand of the Wind.'»

[5] Though all these, like our Smiths, Archers, Millers, Fletchers, etc., may simply regain the surname of an hereditary calling.

[6] «_Philosophe Musulman qui a vêcu en Odeur de Sainteté dans sa Religion, vers la Fin du premier et le Commencement du second Siècle_,» no part of which, except the «_Philosophe_» can apply to our Khayyam.

[7] The Rashness of the Words, according to D'Herbelot, consisted in being so opposed to those in the Koran: «No Man knows where he shall die.»--This story of Omar reminds me of another so naturally--and when one remembers how wide of his humble mark the noble sailor aimed--so pathetically told by Captain Cook--not by Doctor Hawkesworth--in his Second Voyage (i. 374). When leaving Ulietea, «Oreo's last request was for me to return. When he saw he could not obtain that promise, he asked the name of my _Marai_ (burying-place). As strange a question as this was, I hesitated not a moment to tell him 'Stepney'; the parish in which I live when in London. I was made to repeat it several times over till they could pronounce it; and then '_Stepney Marai no Toote_' was echoed through an hundred mouths at once. I afterwards found the same question had been put to Mr. Forster by a man on shore; but he gave a different, and indeed more proper answer, by saying, 'No man who used the sea could say where he should be buried.'»

[8] «Since this paper was written» (adds the Reviewer in a note), «we have met with a Copy of a very rare Edition, printed at Calcutta in 1836. This contains 438 Tetrastichs, with an Appendix containing 54 others not found in some MSS.»

[9] Professor Cowell.

[10] This was written in 1868.

[11] Perhaps he would have edited the Poems himself some years ago. He may now as little approve of my version on one side, as of M. Nicolas' theory on the other.

[12] A note to Quatrain 234 admits that, however clear the mystical meaning of such Images must be to Europeans, they are not quoted without «_rougissant_» even by laymen in Persia--«_Quant aux termes de tendresse qui commencent ce quatrain, comme tant d'autres dans ce recueil, nos lecteurs, habitués maintenant à l'étrangeté des expressions si souvent employées par Khèyam pour rendre ses pensées sur l'amour divin, et à la singularité de ses images trop orientales, d'une sensualité quelquefois révoltante, n'auront pas de peine à se persuader qu'il s'agit de la Divinité, bien que cette conviction soit vivement discutée par les moullahs musulmans et même par beaucoup de laïques, qui rougissent véritablement d'une pareille licence de leur compatriote à l'égard des choses spirituelles._»

[13] _Two Years' Travel in Persia_, etc., i. 165.

[14] The precise degree to which FitzGerald himself deemed it expedient to adhere to his original may be gathered by referring to quatrains of his which he has himself declared to be renderings of particular and isolated ruba'iyat.

[15] These references are to other MSS. and printed texts and translations in which the cited quatrain is represented. I say advisedly «represented,» as the different texts differ a good deal. Often when a quatrain is repeated in the same text, variations may be found in it. The general scope of these variations may be appreciated by a glance at the notes to my translation of the Ouseley MS. (O.). I do not propose to deal with them here, excepting where there are important differences between the Calcutta MS. (C.) and the Ouseley, both of which were before Edward FitzGerald and between which he had to choose.

[16] _i.e._, the Saki, or Cupbearer, or Drawer (generally a comely youth), to whom a large proportion of Omar's ruba'iyat are addressed.

[17] Many parallels between these translations of Hafiz and FitzGerald's ruba'iyat may be found in the Terminal Essay to my former work.

[18] The _sunnat_, or Traditions of Muhammad, supplementing the Qur'an, and held in almost equal reverence.

[19] _Zendha deli-ra_ means the heart alive, or initiated in the spiritual sense, as opposed to the mere pleasure-seekers of the world.

[20] See FitzGerald's notes to this quatrain.

[21] C. reads «verdure.»

[22] C. reads «In the eyes of the clouds the veils are parted.»

[23] See the Terminal Essay above referred to.

[24] The sweet voice of David recurs continually in Persian poetry. We find it in C. 89 _et passim_.

[25] Pehlevi was the language of the ancient Persians of pre-Muhammadan times. FitzGerald's description of it as «old heroic Sanskrit» is erroneous.

[26] Yellow is the colour indicative in Persian literature of sickness or misery, corresponding to our word «sallow.»

[27] _i.e._, «Permit us to regret our repentance.»

[28] Numbers of quatrains distinguished by the asterisk indicate that the quatrains were not in FitzGerald's first edition, but made their appearance in the second or subsequent editions. FitzGerald may therefore have been «reminded of» them by (and in some instances took them direct from) the text and translation of Nicolas, referred to as N

[29] C. reads «Since life passes, what is sweet and what is bitter?»

[30] _Dai_ is the month that ushers in the winter quarter of the Muhammadan year.

[31] _i.e._, Jamshyd the «_Roi soleil_» of early Persian history, and the Kaianian dynasty--Kai Kobad, Kai Kawus, Kai Khosru, etc.

[32] It will be observed that the introduction of Zal in this line was made by FitzGerald in the third edition for metrical effect. The versions in the first edition «Let Rustum lay about him as he will,» and in the second «Let Rustum cry 'to battle' as he likes» are closer to the phrase in the original «Rustum _son_ of Zal.»

[33] Feridun was the sixth king of the Paish-dadian dynasty. _Jamish_ is evidently an error for _Jam-ist_. _Vide_ the MS.

[34] See FitzGerald's note to this quatrain.

[35] Literally «a stopper of the last breath.»

[36] Kausar, in Persian mythology, is the head-stream of the Muhammadan Paradise, whence all other rivers are supposed to flow. A whole chapter of the Qur'an is devoted to this miraculous stream, whose Saki is Ali, the son-in-law of Muhammad.

[37] This Persian here is a quotation from a famous verse in the Qur'an, XXV. 11, «Blessed is He who, if He pleaseth, will make for thee a better provision than this, namely, gardens under which rivers flow, and he will provide thee palaces.»--E.B.C.

[38] C. reads for «food» and «wine,» «goblet» and «lute,» whence we get «thou beside me _singing_ in the wilderness.»

[39] These two lines refer to the practice in the East of burying treasure to hide it when a night attack (line 1) of dacoits or robbers is anticipated.

[40] See FitzGerald's note upon this hero, and the following quatrain.

[41] Moles or «beauty spots» are very highly esteemed in the East.

[42] _i.e._, If life were eternal, you could not take the place of others who have died before you. L. 2, _lit._: «let the world pass, etc.»

[43] _i.e._, the Mystic Road or Way of Salvation.

[44] Burak was the winged mule of Muhammad on which he is said to have journeyed from Jerusalem to heaven.

[45] This is a very difficult quatrain to translate. The mystic soaring of the soul in search of enlightenment is compared to the flight of a falcon. In l. 3, _lit._: «any partner of the secret.»

[46] C. reads these two lines:--

These two or three days of the period of my existence pass by They pass as passes the wind in the desert.

[47] Compare FitzGerald's «First Morning of Creation» in q. 73.

[48] _i.e._, the Curtain that Veils the Mysteries of God, a constantly recurring image in Persian literature.

[49] C. reads «of this juggling about of the soul.» E.B.C. suggests «of this chess-opening.»

[50] C. reads «And was enslaved by the curly head of a sweetheart.»

[51] _i.e._, «Let us cease striving to earn salvation.»

[52] C. reads «with love.»

[53] FitzGerald records in his note to this quatrain that had it not been for the advice of Prof. Cowell, this and the two following quatrains would have been withdrawn after the Second Edition. It is impossible to conceive why, for they are singularly fine and exceptionally «authorized.»

[54] FitzGerald's rendering in the 1st edition (Introduction), «in this clay suburb» is a more literal rendering.

[55] _i.e._, The ferrash of fate, preparing for the next halting-place, destroys this tent (body) when the Sultan (soul) arises.

[56] I do not know the origin of N.'s text, but I have never seen this quatrain in any other MS. The same remark applies to N. 123, cited under No. 47.

[57] C. reads «From my creation the Age derived no advantage.»

[58] _Harifan_; literally, «companions,» « fellow-workers.»

[59] _i.e._, The One God. Compare Hafiz (Ode 416), «He who knows the One, knows all.»

[60] Prof. Cowell's translation. V. appends a note, «Apparently the Essence of Life, the _Ding an Sich_ of Kant, and the _Wille_ of Schopenhauer, the Platonic Idea, the abiding type of the perishable individuality; possibly, however, the Vedantic 'self' is meant.» For the word _mah_ = moon at the commencement of the quatrain, some of the texts read _badeh_ = wine.

[61] Literally, «discernment.»

[62] The obscurity of the meaning here baffles satisfactory translation. Prof. Cowell says: I would rather take it as a sarcasm, «Those fools with their unripe grapes become (in their own eyes) pure wine.»

[63] _Azal_ in Persian dogma is eternity without beginning, _i.e._, «_from_ all time,» as opposed to _abad_, eternity without end, _i.e._, «_to_ all eternity.»

[64] In the East a man may divorce his wife twice and take her back again, but the third time it is irrevocable--unless (curiously enough) she has been married to someone else in the meantime.

[65] _i.e._, Wine, a recurrent Persian metaphor. Comp.: Arabic «_bint-ul-kerm_.»

[66] _Zahir_ = exoteric, as opposed to _batin_ = esoteric, in line 2.

[67] C. reads «I am weary.»

[68] The opening lines of FitzGerald's quatrain refer to Omar's reformation of the calendar, and institution of the Jalali era, which Gibbon describes as «a computation of time which surpassed the Julian, and approached the accuracy of the Gregorian style.» («Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,» Gibbing's edition, 1890, vol. iv., p. 180.)

[69] C. reads «So long as I live, I will not grieve for two days.»

[70] _i.e._, Wine.

[71] The _Lauh u Kalam_ are the Tablet and Pen whereon and wherewith the Divine decrees of what should be from all time were written. Compare Koran, ch. lxviii, 1. «By the Pen and what they write, O Muhammad! thou art not distracted.»

[72] The river Oxus.

[73] The editor of the «Calcutta Review» appends the following note at the foot of Prof. Cowell's article (E.C.), «These lanthorns are very common in Calcutta. They are made of a tall cylinder with figures of men and animals cut out of paper and pasted on it. The cylinder, which is very light, is suspended on an axis, round which it easily turns. A hole is cut near the bottom, and the part cut out is fixed at an angle to the cylinder so as to form a vane. When a small lamp or candle is placed inside, a current of air is produced which keeps the cylinder slowly revolving.»

[74] This refers to the game of Polo. In the First and Second Editions for «Here or There» we read «Right or Left» as in the original.

[75] C. reads «Upon the Tablet.»

[76] Literally, «For the Pen once gone comes not back.»

[77] See FitzGerald's note on this quatrain.

[78] _i.e._, Of reality as opposed to the dream existence of the present. (E.B.C.)

[79] The _Mihrab_ is the spot in a Mosque indicating the precise direction of Mecca towards which all Muhammadans turn in prayer.

[80] This metaphor recurs frequently in the ruba'iyat. Compare W. 261 (N. 221) and W. 275 (L. 428).

[81] _i.e._, «it was quite problematical how I might turn out.»

[82] Here begins the section devoted especially to the talking pots in the workshop of the potter--it ends at quatrain No. 90. In the first edition this section was entitled KUZA-NAMA = the «Pot-book» or «Book of Pots.» It may be observed that the quatrains in this section are not so closely rendered from recognisable originals as the other quatrains composing FitzGerald's poem. This may be accounted for by the fact that the comparison between the human form--the Personal Ego--and a pot made of earth by the Supreme Potter (if one may be allowed the phrase) is constantly recurrent in all ruba'iyat attributed to Omar Khayyam. The section is therefore to a great extent a poetical reflection upon this phase of the philosophy of the ruba'iyat. The use FitzGerald has made of O. 103 cannot fail to amaze the student. _Vide_ his own Note to quatrain 89.

[83] Ramazan (or Ramadan) is the ninth month of the Muhammadan year, which is observed as a month of fasting and penance, during which rigid Moslems may neither eat, drink, wash, nor caress their wives, excepting so far as is necessary to support life. Sha'ban is the month immediately preceding it. Shawwal is the month that follows it, which begins with the great feast of Bairam, the festival referred to in line 4.

[84] A very obscure distich to translate. The sense is here, however.

[85] Compare Romans ch. ix. v. 21. «Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour.»

[86] _i.e._, Helping one another to raise their loads. Prof. Denison Ross suggests that this refers to the cry of the porters and muleteers in the narrow streets of Persian cities. «_Pusht! Pusht!_» _i.e._, «Mind your backs!»

[87] _Kah-ruba_ means literally «attracting straws»; hence «amber,» the elektron of the Greeks. Here it is used in the descriptive sense to mean «yellow.»

[88] _Wuzu_, the ceremonial Ablution enjoined upon Muhammadans to put them into a state of grace before prayer.

[89] _Wakt-i-gul_ = the season of roses, a common synonym for Spring.

[90] Literally «has become Dai,» the first winter-month; translated «December,» _sub_ quatrain No. 9.

[91] _Lit._: «Or from the invisible world increase my daily provision.»

[92] C. reads «this heart full of melancholy (or passion).»

[93] It will be observed that this quatrain in the first edition came a good deal closer to the original than this.

[94] _Maghanah_ means anything connected with the Maghs or Magians (_i.e._, the Guebres or Fire-worshippers), and came to be a synonym for age, superiority, excellence, in which sense it is used here. S. Rousseau has a very interesting note upon the history of this word at p. 176 of his «Flowers of Persian Literature» (London, 1801).

[95] Meaning FitzGerald's Introduction. See Page 1.

[96] Prof. Cowell says: «I am not sure, but I fancy this hard verse really is: 'O thou who art burned (in sorrow) for one burnt (in hell)--thyself being doomed to be burnt.' If this is correct (which is most probable) the accuracy of FitzGerald's translation is remarkable.»

[97] The phrase _gauhar suftan_ = «to thread pearls» is used in Persian to mean «to write verses» or «to tell a story.» Omar uses it here referring to the generally antinomian tendency of his ruba'iyat.

[98] In this line Omar claims consideration on the ground that he has never questioned the Unity of God. _Tawhid kerdan_ = to acknowledge One God. Muhammadanism is essentially Unitarian. FitzGerald appears to have missed the meaning here, reversing the doctrine, unless he means «I never misread One _as_ Two.»

[99] L. 1. _lit._ «rubbed its side with heaven.» This is the quatrain that R.B.M. Binning found written upon a stone in the ruins of Persepolis (A Journal of Two Years' Travel in Persia, Ceylon, etc., London, 1857, Vol. ii. p. 20). FitzGerald quotes it in a letter to Prof. Cowell, under date 13th January, 1859. (Letters and Literary Remains of Edward FitzGerald, London, 1889. Macmillan, 3 vols., and 1894, 2 vols.) The word _ku_ in Persian signifies «Where?»

[100] The fifth edition is identical with the fourth.

[101] See Defrémery, «_Recherches sur le règne de Barkiárok_,» p. 51.

[102] Avicenna died in 428 A.H.