Part 4

(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 of Bishop Donne's, that are quoted in Izaak Walton's Lives! Here is Omar: «You and I are the image of a pair of compasses; though we have two heads (sc. our _feet_) we have one body; when we have fixed the centre for our circle, we bring our heads (sc. feet) together at the end.» Dr. Donne:--

If we be two, we two are so As stiff twin-compasses are two; Thy Soul, the fixt foot, makes no show To move, but does if the other do.

And though thine in the centre sit, Yet when my other far does roam, Thine leans and hearkens after it, And grows erect as mine comes home.

Such thou must be to me, who must Like the other foot obliquely run; Thy firmness makes my circle just, And me to end where I begun.

(LIX.) The Seventy-two Religions supposed to divide the World, _including_ Islamism, as some think: but others not.

(LX.) Alluding to Sultan Mahmud's Conquest of India and its dark people.

(LXVIII.) _Fanusi khiyal_, a Magic-lantern still used in India; the cylindrical Interior being painted with various Figures, and so lightly poised and ventilated as to revolve round the lighted Candle within.

(LXX.) A very mysterious Line in the Original:--

_O danad O danad O danad O----_

breaking off something like our Wood-pigeon's Note, which she is said to take up just where she left off.

(LXXV.) Parwin and Mushtari--The Pleiads and Jupiter.

(LXXXVII.) This Relation of Pot and Potter to Man and his Maker figures far and wide in the Literature of the World, from the time of the Hebrew Prophets to the present; when it may finally take the name of «Pot theism,» by which Mr. Carlyle ridiculed Sterling's «Pantheism.» _My_ Sheikh, whose knowledge flows in from all quarters, writes to me--

«Apropos of old Omar's Pots, did I ever tell you the sentence I found in Bishop Pearson on the Creed? 'Thus are we wholly at the disposal of His will, and our present and future condition framed and ordered by His free, but wise and just, decrees. _Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?_ (Rom. ix. 21.) And can that earth-artificer have a freer power over his _brother potsherd_ (both being made of the same metal), than God hath over him, who, by the strange fecundity of His omnipotent power, first made the clay out of nothing, and then him out of that?'»

And again--from a very different quarter--«I had to refer the other day to Aristophanes, and came by chance on a curious Speaking-pot story in the _Vespæ_, which I had quite forgotten.

philokleon. Akoue me pheug'· en Subarei gyne pote 1. 1435 kateax' echinon.

Kategoros. Taut' ego martyromai.

Phi. Oychinos oun echon tin' epemartyrato· Eith' e Sybaritis eipen, ei nai tan koran ten martyrian tauten easas, en tachei epidesmon epria, noun an eiches pleiona.

«The Pot calls a bystander to be a witness to his bad treatment. The woman says, 'If, by Proserpine, instead of all this «testifying» (comp. Cuddie and his mother in «Old Mortality!») you would buy yourself a rivet, it would show more sense in you!' The Scholiast explains _echinus_ as aggos ti ek keramon.»

One more illustration for the oddity's sake from the «Autobiography of a Cornish Rector,» by the late James Hamley Tregenna. 1871.

«There was one old Fellow in our Company--he was so like a Figure in the 'Pilgrim's Progress' that Richard always called him the 'ALLEGORY,' with a long white beard--a rare Appendage in those days--and a Face the colour of which seemed to have been baked in, like the Faces one used to see on Earthenware Jugs. In our Country-dialect Earthenware is called '_Clome_'; so the Boys of the Village used to shout out after him--'Go back to the Potter, old Clome-face, and get baked over again.' For the 'Allegory,' though shrewd enough in most things, had the reputation of being _saift-baked_, _i.e._, of weak intellect.»

(XC.) At the Close of the Fasting Month, Ramazan (which makes the Musulman unhealthy and unamiable), the first Glimpse of the New Moon (who rules their division of the Year) is looked for with the utmost Anxiety, and hailed with Acclamation. Then it is that the Porter's Knot may be heard--toward the _Cellar_. Omar has elsewhere a pretty Quatrain about the same Moon--

«Be of Good Cheer--the sullen Month will die, And a young Moon requite us by and by: Look how the Old one, meagre, bent, and wan With Age and Fast, is fainting from the Sky!»

AN ANALYSIS OF

EDWARD FITZGERALD'S TRANSLATION

OF THE

QUATRAINS OF OMAR KHAYYAM

(_Fifth Edition_)

By EDWARD HERON-ALLEN

PREFACE

The object with which this volume has been compiled has been to set at rest, once and for ever, the vexed question of how far Edward FitzGerald's incomparable poem may be regarded as a translation of the Persian originals, how far as an adaptation, and how far as an original work. In the Introduction to my recently published translation of the Ouseley MS. in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, and more particularly in the Essay which terminates the second edition of that work, I have dwelt at considerable length upon the history of Edward FitzGerald's poem and the influences of various Oriental works which are traceable in it. As it is doubtful whether the present volume will reach the hands of, or at any rate be critically considered by, any students of the poem who have not already had access to my former work, I do not think that it would be either expedient or useful to repeat in this place the information which is collected there, but a short history of the major portion of Edward FitzGerald's material is necessary, for the purpose of showing why this question of translation, adaptation, or original composition should have been a question open to lengthy argument, and why it has been impossible to set it at rest until the present time, when forty years have elapsed since first Edward FitzGerald's poem attracted the attention of those great scholars and poets who rescued it, as recounted in the threadbare anecdote, from the oblivion of the penny box.

The influence of the Ouseley MS. upon the poem forms the subject of the volume to which I have referred, and, save in so far as it recurs in the parallels which give excuse for the present work, may be dismissed, but the doubts which have sprung up as to the extent to which Edward FitzGerald took, as his editor, Mr. Aldis Wright, says, «great liberties with the original,» have arisen in consequence of the vicissitudes which have befallen the rest of the material from which the poet worked during the construction of his first edition. We know that Prof. Cowell made a copy of the Ouseley MS. for Edward FitzGerald just before he went to India in August, 1856. In another letter he says «I got a copy made for him from the one MS. in the Bengal Asiatic Society's Library at Calcutta soon after I arrived in November, 1856. It reached FitzGerald June 14th, 1857, as I learn by a note in his writing. Some time after this I sent him a copy of that rare Calcutta printed edition which I got from my Munshi.» To possess oneself therefore of full information as to what material Edward FitzGerald really worked from in making the original edition of his poem, it was necessary to consult, line by line, and word by word, the Calcutta MS. (noted as No. 1548 in the Bengal Asiatic Society's Library) and the Calcutta _printed_ edition of 1836,--in addition, of course, to the Ouseley MS. Prof. Cowell most generously placed at my disposal his copy of the Calcutta MS., but, as he himself has recorded, the copy was made by an inferior scribe in a hand which is exceedingly difficult to read. I therefore communicated with Mr. A.T. Pringle, Director of Indian Records in the Home Department at Calcutta, himself a keen and critical student of Omar Khayyam, with a view to getting either a photographic reproduction, or a clean copy of this MS. made for me. Careful search and widely spread enquiry brought to light the fact that the MS. was lost, stolen, or strayed, so that Prof. Cowell's copy was the only record left of this portion of Edward FitzGerald's material. This copy I sent out to India, and had copied by a good writer, a copy being made at the same time to replace that which had been stolen.

I next addressed myself to the discovery of «that rare Calcutta _printed_ edition,» of whose existence, after searching in vain every European State library and many others, and every library in India of which I could learn, I began to have grave doubts, thinking that Prof. Cowell had inadvertently confused it with an edition _lithographed_ simultaneously at Calcutta and Teheran in 1836. In the summer, however, when I had given up all hope, one of Mr. Pringle's clerks picked up a copy of the long sought book in the Bazar at Calcutta, printed from type at Calcutta in 1836. A circumstance that greatly adds to the interest of this discovery, whilst at the same time it very greatly lessened my labours, lies in the fact that this edition is evidently printed from the lost Calcutta MS. itself, both introduction and quatrains being identical in readings and sequence. A few quatrains, including the repetitions, forming part of the MS. and nearly all those written in the margins of the MS. are omitted, but nearly all of these are added as an appendix to the book, the printer explaining in a short note that they were found in a _bayaz_ (or book of extracts), and were added in that place instead of in their _diwan_ (or alphabetical) order on account of their more than ordinarily antinomian tendency. A very interesting question arises hereon, whether these latter were printed into the book from the margins of the MS. after being purposely or accidentally omitted, _or_ whether they were written on to the margin of the MS. from this book at some date between 1836 and 1856. I think that the former is the more likely explanation, but in the absence of the MS. this question cannot be solved.

I find myself therefore in the interesting position of having the whole of FitzGerald's material before me; and though (so perfectly did Edward FitzGerald identify himself with his author's habit of mind) many other MSS. contain quatrains that closely resemble his marvellous paraphrase, there is nothing written by or attributed to Omar Khayyam which served FitzGerald for inspiration in making his first edition, other than what is to be found in the three, or rather two, texts above referred to. I have spoken already (and at length, in the Terminal Essay to my former volume) of the influences exerted by other Oriental poets upon his work, and especially that of the Mantik ut-tair, or Parliament of Birds of Ferid ud din Attar; where it was direct or exclusive I have set it down in the parallels which follow. The result of my observations may be summarised as follows:

Of Edward FitzGerald's quatrains, forty-nine are faithful and beautiful paraphrases of single quatrains to be found in the Ouseley or Calcutta MSS., or both.[14]

Forty-four are traceable to more than one quatrain, and therefore may be termed «composite» quatrains.

Two are inspired by quatrains found by FitzGerald only in Nicolas' text.

Two are quatrains reflecting the whole spirit of the original poem.

Two are traceable exclusively to the influence of the Mantik ut-tair of Ferid ud din Attar.

Two quatrains primarily inspired by Omar were influenced by the Odes of Hafiz.

And three, which appeared only in the first and second editions and were afterwards suppressed by Edward FitzGerald himself, are not--so far as a careful search enables me to judge--attributable to any lines of the original texts. Other authors may have inspired them, but their identification is not useful in this case.

The «fillip,» so to speak, given to FitzGerald's interest in the ruba'iyat, by the publication of Monsieur J.B. Nicolas' text and translation of 464 «_Les Quatrains de Khèyam_» (Paris, 1867), must not be lost sight of, and may be held responsible for many, if not most of the variations and additions that differentiate the second, third, and fourth editions from the first. This volume, as FitzGerald himself records in his Introduction to the second and subsequent editions, «reminded him of several things and instructed him in others.» Two of FitzGerald's later quatrains at least (Nos. 46 and 98) come from that text, and these I have never seen in any MS. text; and, in seeking the parallels to the present volume, I have collated exactly 5,235 ruba'iyat in the original Persian. I have appended to every Persian ruba'i in the following pages, references to the texts in which I have found the same ruba'i, in the identical form, or more or less varied, and it will be observed that, for the most part, the ruba'iyat which inspired FitzGerald are those which have so appealed to the Oriental mind as to be represented in nearly all the MSS. and texts under examination. The Ouseley MS. being the first text that occupied FitzGerald's attention, where his inspirational lines occur both in that MS. and the Calcutta MS., I have given the Ouseley MS. version, noting any important variations to be found in the Calcutta MS. It will be observed that FitzGerald's tendency, after the second edition, was to eliminate quatrains which were merely suggested by the general tone and sentiment of the original poem, and not the reflection or translation of particular and identifiable ruba'iyat. The reader is especially recommended, when studying these parallels, to turn to the corresponding quatrain in the first edition, for FitzGerald often diverged further from the originals in making his subsequent variations--notably, for instance, in the first and forty-eighth quatrains.

With regard to my own translations of the originals in the following pages, I may remark that the excessive baldness of the translation is intentional, for I deemed it better to put before the lovers of FitzGerald's poem the closest and most unpolished English rendering, rather than to attempt to clothe the literal meaning of the originals in graceful phraseology.

I desire to record in this place my most cordial thanks, for the invaluable assistance they have given me in the preparation of this volume, to Mr. A.T. Pringle, Professor E.B. Cowell, and Dr. E. Denison Ross, and to Mr. Aldis Wright, Edward FitzGerald's literary executor, and his publishers Messrs. Macmillan, for their very kind permission to reproduce in this volume the poem which has brought it into existence.

EDWARD HERON-ALLEN.

EXPLANATION OF THE REFERENCES IN THE FOLLOWING PARALLELS

The following are the alternative texts and translations referred to in the following parallels:--

O.--The Ouseley MS. No. 140 in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, dated A.H. 865 (A.D. 1460), containing 158 ruba'iyat. A facsimile and translation with notes, etc., were published by H.S. Nichols, Ltd. (London, 1898).

C.--The Calcutta MS. No. 1548 in the Bengal Asiatic Society's Library at Calcutta, containing 510 ruba'iyat. The original has been lost or stolen, but a copy has been made from the copy made for Edward FitzGerald at the instance of Prof. Cowell.

L.--The Lucknow lithograph. The edition referred to is that of A.H. 1312 (A.D. 1894), containing 770 ruba'iyat.

W.--The text and metrical translation published by E.H. Whinfield (London, Trübner, 1883), containing 500 ruba'iyat.

N.--The text and prose translation published by J.B. Nicolas (Paris, Imprimerie Impériale, 1867), containing 464 ruba'iyat.

S.P.--The text lithographed at St. Petersburg, A.H. 1308 (A.D. 1888), containing 453 ruba'iyat. Almost identical with N.

B.--A collection of poems lithographed at Bombay, A.H. 1297 (A.D. 1880), containing 756 ruba'iyat of Omar. Almost identical with L.

B. ii.--The MS. in the Public Library at Bankipur, dated A.H. 961-2 (A.D. 1553-4), containing 604 ruba'iyat.

P.--The MS. in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. Supplément Persan, No. 823, ff. 92-113. Dated A.H. 934 (A.D. 1527), containing 349 ruba'iyat.

P. ii.--Seven ruba'iyat written upon blank pages of MS. of the Diwan of Emad. Dated A.H. 786 (A.D. 1384). Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. Supplément Persan, No. 745. The handwriting is of the end of the 9th or beginning of the 10th century of the Hijrah.

P. iii.--Six ruba'iyat written in a handwriting of the 11th century of the Hijrah, on fol. 104 of a MS. collection of poems. Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. Supplément Persan, No. 793.

P. iv.--The MS. in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. Supplément Persan, No. 826, ff. 391-394. Dated A.H. 937 (A.D. 1530), containing 76 ruba'iyat.

P. v.--The MS. in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. Ancien Fonds., No. 349, ff. 181-210. Dated A.H. 920 (A.D. 1514), containing 213 ruba'iyat.

T.--The MS. in the Library of the Nawab of Tonk. Apparently copied about A.D. 1840 principally from C., containing 369 ruba'iyat.

E.C.--The quatrains translated by Prof. E.B. Cowell in his article in the «Calcutta Review,» No. 59, March, 1858, p. 149.

De T.--The ten quatrains translated from the Ouseley MS. by Garcin de Tassy in his «_Note sur les Ruba'iyat d'Omar Khaïyam._» (Paris, Imprimerie Impériale, 1857.)

V.--The metrical translation by John Payne, published by the Villon Society (London, 1898), containing 845 quatrains.

ANALYSIS OF EDWARD FITZGERALD'S QUATRAINS

I.

Wake! For the Sun, who scatter'd 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.

This version of the opening quatrain is gradually evolved through the four editions. The quatrain, which, in the first edition runs:

Awake! for Morning in the Bowl of Night Has flung the Stone that puts the Stars to Flight: And lo! the Hunter of the East has caught The Sultan's Turret in a Noose of Light.

is inspired by C. 134.

The Sun casts the noose of morning upon the roofs, Kai Khosru of the day, he throws a stone into the bowl: Drink wine! for the Herald of the Dawn, rising up, Hurls into the days the cry of «Drink ye!»

_Ref._:[15]L. 235, B. 232, C. 134, P. 320, T. 138.--W. 233, V. 242.

It is not surprising that Mr. Aldis Wright, in his editorial note at the end of Messrs. Macmillan's definitive edition (London, 1890), states that «the first stanza is entirely his own,» for, in this precise form the ruba'i is only to be found in the Calcutta MS. and in a recently discovered MS. copied largely from it and belonging to the Nawab of Tonk. The matter rests upon the word «stone» in the second line. The word means «to fling a stone into a cup or pot,» which is the signal for «striking camp» among tribes of nomad Arabs. All the other texts I have seen read wine for stone which has made the translators (Whinfield and Payne) properly render the passage «pours _wine_ into the cup.»

II.

Before the phantom of False morning died, Methought a Voice within the Tavern cried, «When all the Temple is prepared within, «Why nods the drowsy Worshipper outside?»

The inspiration for this quatrain is to be found in C. 5:

There came one morning a cry from our tavern: «Ho! our crazy, tavern-haunting profligate[16] «Arise! that we may fill the measure with wine, «Ere they fill up our measure (of life).»

_Ref._: L. 1, B. 1, C. 5, B. ii. 1, T. 3.--W. 1, N. 1, V. 1.

In FitzGerald's quatrain there is traceable the influence of one of the odes of Hafiz, translated by Prof. Cowell (in «Fraser's Magazine,» September, 1854), which he greatly admired. The lines in question run:

The morning dawns and the cloud has woven a canopy, The morning draught, my friends, the morning draught! It is strange that at such a season They shut up the wine tavern! Oh, hasten! Have they still shut up the door of the tavern? Open, oh thou Keeper of the Gates![17]

The influence of these lines is carried on into the next quatrain.

III.

And, 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.»

The inspiration for this quatrain is found in four ruba'iyat of the Calcutta MS., viz.: 641, 207 (ll. 3 and 4), 273, 247.

It is the hour for the morning draught, and the cock-crow, O Saki, Here are we, and the wine, and the street of the vintners, O Saki, What time is this for devotions? Be silent, O Saki, Let be the traditions,[18] and drink to the dregs, O Saki.

_Ref._: L. 685, B. 676, C. 461, S.P. 448, B. ii. 599.--W. 483, N. 454, V. 737.

Thou must drink wine, and gratify the pleasures of thy heart, It is clear that so long (and no longer) thou wilt remain in this world.

_Ref._: L. 281, B. 277, C. 207.--V. 285.

O Essence of Delight! Arise, it is the dawn! Softly, softly drink wine, and play the harp For those who are asleep do not find much, And none of those who are gone will ever come back.

_Ref._: L. 431, B. 427, P. 289, C. 273, B. ii. 307, T. 173, P. v. 163.--N. 235, V. 469.

It is the dawn! Arise, O strange boy! Fill up the crystal cup with ruby wine. For this moment (of existence) that is lent thee in this corner of mortality Thou may'st seek long, but thou shalt not find it again.

_Ref._: L. 402, B. 398, P. 224, S.P. 213, C. 247, B. ii. 282, P. iv. 21.--N. 214, V. 425.

IV.

Now the New Year reviving old Desires, The thoughtful Soul to Solitude retires, Where the WHITE HAND OF MOSES on the Bough Puts out, and Jesus from the Ground suspires.

This quatrain is translated from two ruba'iyat in the Ouseley MS., 13 and 80.

Now that there is a possibility of happiness for the world, Every living heart[19] has yearnings towards the desert, Upon every bough is the appearance of Moses' hand, In every breeze is the exhalation of Jesus' breath.[20]

_Ref._: P. 194, O. 13.--W. 116.

Now is the time when by the spring breezes[21] the world is adorned, And in hope of rain it opens its eyes,[22] The hands of Moses appear like froth upon the bough, And the breath of Jesus comes forth from the earth.

_Ref._: O. 80, L. 272, B. 268, C. 204, S.P. 186, P. 157.--W. 201, N. 186, V. 276.

V.

Iram indeed is gone with all his Rose, And Jamshyd's Sev'n-ring'd Cup where no one knows; But still a Ruby kindles in the Vine, And many a Garden by the Water blows.

This is a very composite quatrain, which cannot be claimed as a translation of all, or the main part of any, of the C. or O. quatrains. All the texts, as indeed all Persian poetry, are filled with references of which we find an echo here. In the authorities at our disposal, Jamshyd is referred to in C. 254. The Ruby in the Wine occurs in O. 39, 87, 149, and in C. 296, 304, 413, and 460. The Garden by the Water occurs in O. 151 (C. 415), and in C. 44 and 417. I have never found any reference to the Garden of Iram in quatrains attributed to Omar Khayyam.[23]

VI.

And David's lips are lockt; but in divine High-piping Pehlevi, with «Wine! Wine! Wine! Red Wine!»--the Nightingale cries to the Rose That sallow cheek of hers to 'incarnadine.

This quatrain (eliminating the reference to David[24]) is translated from O. 67.

It is a pleasant day, and the weather is neither hot nor cold; The rain has washed the dust from the faces of the roses; The nightingale in the Pehlevi tongue[25] to the yellow[26] rose Cries ever: «Thou must drink wine!»