(&8& A\ CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY PK esiaJATlasr""" ''""' ''"''?i?f„.f?,'.,.9H.Ma.yyam in English vers 3 1924 026 911 184 Cornell University Library The original of tliis book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924026911184 FITZGERALD'S OMAR KHAYYAM IN VERSE TOMB OP OMAR KHATtXm. ® ® RUBAIYAT OF OMAR KHAYYAM ® ® IN ENGLISH VERSE EDWARD FITZGERALD THE TEXT OF THE FOURTH EDITION, FOLLOWED BY THAT OF THE FIRST; WITH NOTES SHOWING THE EXTENT OF HIS INDEBTEDNESS TO THE PERSIAN ORIGINAL; A BIOGRAPHICAL PREFACE NEW-YORK AND BOSTON HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY 1888 BIOGEAPHIOAL PEEFAOE. EDWARD FITZGERALD, whom the world has already learned, in spite of his own efforts to remain within the shadow of anonymity, to look upon as one of the rarest poets of the century, was born at Bredfield, in Suffolk, on the 31st March, 1809. He was the third son of John Purcell, of Kilkenny, in Ireland, who, marrying Miss Mary Prances Fitzgerald, daughter of John Fitzgerald, of Wniiamstown, County Waterford, added that distinguished name to his own patronymic; and the future Omar was thus doubly of Irish extrac- tion. (Both the families of Purcell and Fitzgerald claim descent from Norman warriors of the eleventh century.) This circumstance is thought to have had some influence in attracting him to the study of Persian poetry, Iran and Erin being almost con- vertible terms in the early days of modern ethnol- ogy. After some years of primary education at the grammar school of Bury St. Edmunds, he entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1826, and 8 BIOGRAPHICAL PREFACE. there formed acquaintance with several young men of great abilities, most of whom rose to distinction before him, but never ceased to regard with affec- tionate remembrance the quiet and amiable asso- ciate of their college-days. Amongst them were Alfred Tennyson, James Spedding, William Bod- ham Donne, John Mitchell Kemble, and William Makepeace Thackeray; and their long friendship has been touchingly referred to by the Laureate in dedicating his last poem to the memory of Ed- ward Fitzgerald. " Buphranor," our author's ear- liest printed work, affords a curious picture of his academic life and associations. Its substantial reality is evident beneath the thin disguise of the symbolical or classical names which he gives to the personages of the colloquy; and the speeches which he puts into his own mouth are full of the humor- ous gravity, the whimsical and kindly philosophy, which remained his distinguishing characteristics tUl the end. This book was first published in 1851 ; a second and a third edition were printed some years later; all anonymous, and each of the latter two differing from its predecessor by changes in the text which were not indicated on the title-pages. " Euphranor " furnishes a good many character- izations which would be useful for any writer treat- ing upon Cambridge society in the third decade of BIOGRAPHICAL PREFACE. 9 this century. Kenelm Digby, the author of the " Broadstone of Honour," had left Cambridge before the time when Euphranor held his " dialogue," but he is picturesquely recollected as " a grand swarthy fellow who might have stepped out of the canvas of some knightly portrait in his father's haU — per- haps the living image of one sleeping under some cross-legged effigies in the church." In " Euphra- nor," it is easy to discover the earliest phase of the unconquerable attachment which Fitzgerald en- tertained for his college and his life-long friends, and which induced him in later days to make fre- quent visits to Cambridge, renewing and refresh- ing the old ties of custom and friendship. In fact, his disposition was affectionate to a fault, and he betrayed his consciousness of weakness in that re- spect by referring playfully at times to " a certain natural lubricity" which he attributed to the Irish character, and professed to discover especially in himself. This amiability of temper endeared him to many friends of totally dissimilar tastes and qualities; and, by enlarging his sympathies, en- abled him to enjoy the fructifying influence of studies pursued in communion with scholars more profound than himself, but less gifted with the power of expression. One of the younger Cam- bridge men with whom he became intimate during 10 BIOGRAPHICAL PREFACE. his periodical pilgrimages to the university, was Edward B. Cowell, a man of the highest attainment in Oriental learning, who resembled Fitzgerald himself in the possession of a warm and genial heart, and the most unobtrusive modesty. From Cowell he could easily learn that the hypothetical afBnity between the names of Erin and Iran be- longed to an obsolete stage of etymology ; but the attraction of a far-fetched theory was replaced by the charm of reading Persian poetry in companion- ship with his young friend who was equally com- petent to enjoy and to analyse the beauties of a literature that formed a portion of his regular studies. They read together the poetical remains of Khayyam — a choice of reading which sufficiently indicates the depth and range of Mr. Cowell's knowledge. Omar Khayyam, although not quite forgotten, enjoyed in the history of Persian liter- ature a celebrity like that of Occleve and Gower in our own. In the many Tazkirdt (memoirs or memo- rials) of Poets, he was mentioned and quoted with esteem ; but his poems, labouring as they did under the original sin of heresy and atheism, were seldom looked at, and from lack of demand on the part of readers, had become rarer than those of most other writers since the days of Firdausi. European scholars knew little of his works beyond his Arabic BIOGRAPHICAL PBEPACE. 11 treatise on Algebra, and Mr. Cowell may be said to have disentombed bis poems from oblivion. Now, thanks to tbe fine taste of tbat scbolar, and to the transmuting genins of Fitzgerald, no Persian poet is so well known in the western world as Abu-'l-fat'h 'Omar son of Ibrahim the Tentmaker of Naishapiir, whose manhood synchronises with the Norman conquest of England, and who took for his poetic name ftaJchallusJ the designation of his father's trade (Khayyam). The Bubd'iyydt (Quatrains) do not compose a single poem divided into a certain number of stanzas ; there is no continuity of plan in them, and each stanza is a distinct thought ex- pressed in musical verse. There is no other ele- ment of unity in them than the general tendency of the Epicurean idea, and the arbitrary divan form by which they are grouped according to the alphabetical arrangement of the final letters ; those in which the rhymes end in a constituting the first division, those with b the second, and so on. The peculiar attitude towards religion and the old ques- tions of fate, immortality, the origin and the des- tiny of man, which educated thinkers have assumed in the present age of Christendom, is found ad- mirably foreshadowed in the fantastic verses of Khayydm, who was no more of a Mohammedan than many of our best writers are Christians. His 12 BIOGRAPHICAL PREFACE. philosophical and Horatian fancies — graced as they are by the charms of a lyrical expression equal to that of Horace, and a vivid briUianee of imagina- tion to which the Roman poet could make no claim — exercised a powerful influence upon Fitzgerald's mind, and coloured his thoughts to such a degree that even when he oversteps the largest licence al- lowed to a translator, his phrases reproduce the spirit and manner of his original with a nearer ap- proach to perfection than would appear possible. It is usually supposed that there is more of Fitz- gerald than of Khayyam in the English RubdHyydt, and that the old Persian simply afforded themes for the Anglo-Irishman's display of poetic power ; but nothing could be further from the truth. The French translator, J. B. Nicolas, and the English one, Mr. Whinfleld, supply a closer mechanical re- flection of the sense in each separate stanza; but Mr. Fitzgerald has, in some instances, given a ver- sion equally close and exact ; in others, rejointed scattered phrases from more than one stanza of his original, and thus accomplished a feat of marvellous poetical transfusion. He frequently ttirns literally into English the strange outlandish imagery which Mr. Whinfleld thought necessary to replace by more intelligible banalities, and in this way the magic of his genius has successfully transplanted BIOGEAPHICAL PREFACE. 13 into the garden of English poesy exotics that bloom like native flowers. One of Mr. Fitzgerald's Woodbridge friends was Bernard Barton, the Quaker poet, with whom he maintained for many years the most intimate and cordial intercourse, and whose daughter Lucy he married. He wrote the memoir of his friend's life which appeared in the posthumous volume of Bar- ton's poems. The story of his married life was a short one. With all the overflowing amiability of his nature, there were mingled certain peculiarities or waywardnesses which were more suitable to the freedom of celibacy than to the staidness of matri- monial life. A separation took place by mutual agreement, and Fitzgerald behaved in this circum- stance with the generosity and unselfishness which were apparent in aU his whims no less than in his more deliberate actions. Indeed, his entire career was marked by an unchanging goodness of heart and a genial kindliness; and no one could complain of having ever endured hurt or ill-treatment at his hands. His pleasures were innocent and simple. Amongst the more delightful, he counted the short coasting trips, occupying no more than a day or two at a time, which he used to make in his own yacht from Lowestoft, accompanied only by a crew of two men, and such a friend as Cowell, with a 14 BIOGRAPHICAL PREFACE. large pasty and a few bottles of wine to supply their material wants. It is needless to say tliat books were also put into the cabin, and that the symposia of the friends were thus brightened by communion with the minds of the great departed. Fitzgerald's enjoyment of gnomic wisdom enshrined in words of exquisite propriety was evinced by the frequency with which he used to read Montaigne's essays and Madame de S6vigne's letters, and the various works from which he extracted and pub- lished his collection of wise saws entitled " Polo- nius." This taste was allied to a love for what was classical and correct in literature, by which he was also enabled to appreciate the prim and formal muse of Crabbe, in whose grandson's house he died. His second printed work was the " Polonius," already referred to, which appeared in 1852. It exemplifies his favourite reading, being a collection of extracts, sometimes short proverbial phrases, sometimes longer pieces of characterization or re- flection, arranged under abstract headings. He occasionally quotes Dr. Johnson, for whom he en- tertained sincere admiration; but the ponderous and artificial fabric of Johnsonese did not please him like the language of Bacon, Fuller, Sir Thomas Browne, Coleridge, whom he cites frequently. A disproportionate abundance of wise words was BIOGRAPHICAL PREFACE. 15 drawn from Carlyle; his original views, his for- cible sense, and the friendship with which Fitzger- ald regarded him, having apparently blinded the latter to the ungainly style and ungraceful man- nerisms of the Chelsea sage. (It was Thackeray who first made them personally acquainted forty years ago; and Fitzgerald remained always loyal to his first instincts of affection and admiration.*) Polonius also marks the period of his earliest at- tention to Persian studies, as he quotes in it the great Sufi poet Jal41-ud-dln-llumi, whose masnavi has lately been translated into English by Mr. Red- house, but whom Fitzgerald can only have seen in the original. He, however, spells the name Jalla- ladin, an incorrect form of which he could not have been guilty at the time when he produced Omar Khayyam, and which thus betrays that he had not long been engaged with Irani literature. * The close relation that subsisted between Fitzgerald and Carlyle has lately been made patent by an article in the Historical Review upon the Squire papers, — those celebrated documents purporting to be contemporary records of Crom- well's time, — which were accepted by Carlyle as genuine, but which other scholars have assertedfrom internal evidence to be modem forgeries. However the question may be de- cided, the fact which concerns us here is that our poet was the negotiator between Mr. Squire and Carlyle, and that his correspondence with the latter upon the subject reveals the intimate nature of their acquaintance. 16 BIOGRAPHICAL PREFACE. He was very fond of Montaigne's essays, and of Pascal's Pensees; but his Polonius reveals a sort of dislike and contempt for Voltaire. Amongst the Germans, Jean Paul, Groethe, Alexander von Humboldt, and August Wnhelm von Schlegel at- tracted him greatly; but he seems to have read little German, and probably only quoted trans- lations. His favourite motto was "Plain Living and High Thinking," and he expresses great rever- ence for all things manly, simple, and true. The laws and institutions of England were, in his eyes, of the highest value and sacredness ; and whatever Irish sympathies he had would never have diverted his affections from the Union to Home Eule. This is strongly illustrated by some origiual lines of blank verse at the end of Polonius, annexed to his quotation, under "Esthetics," of the words in which Lord Palmerston eulogised Mr. Gladstone for having devoted his Neapolitan tour to an in- spection of the prisons. Fitzgerald's next printed work was a transla- tion of Six Dramas of Calderon, published in 1853, which was unfavourably received at the time, and consequently withdrawn by bim from circulation. His name appeared on the title-page, — a concession to publicity which was so unusual with him that it must have been made under strong pressure from BIOGRAPHICAL PREFACE. 17 his friends. The book is in nervous blank verse, a mode of composition which he handled with great ease and skUl. There is no waste of power in dif- fuseness and no employment of unnecessary epi- thets. It gives the impression of a work of the Shakespearean age, and reveals a kindred felicity, strength, and directness of language. It deserves to rank with his best efforts in poetry, but its ill- success made him feel that the publication of his name was an unfavourable experiment, and he never again repeated it. His great modesty, how- ever, would sufficiently account for this shyness. Of "Omar Khayyim," even after the little book had won its way to general esteem, he used to say that the suggested addition of his name on the title would imply an assumption of importance which he considered that his " transmogriftcation " of the Persian poet did not possess. Fitzgerald's conception of a translator's privilege is well set forth in the prefaces of his versions from Calderon, and the Agamemnon of ^schylus. He maintained that, in the absence of the perfect poet, who shall re-create in his own language the body and soul of his original, the best system is that of a paraphrase conserving the spirit of the author, — a sort of literary metempsychosis. Calderon, ^s- chylus, and Omar Khayyim were all treated with 18 BIOGRAPHICAL PEEPACE. equal licence, so far as form is concerned, — the last, perhaps, the most arbitrarily ; but the result is not unsatisfactory as having given us perfect English poems instinct with the true flavour of their prototypes. The Persian was probably some- what more Horatian and less melancholy, the Greek a httle less florid and mystic, the Spaniard more lyrical and fluent, than their metaphrast has made them ; but the essential spirit has not escaped in transfusion. Only a man of singular gifts could have performed the achievement, and these works attest Mr. Fitzgerald's right to rank amongst the finest poets of the century. About the same time as he printed his Calderon, another set of trans- lations from the same dramatist was published by the late D. F. MacCarthy; a scholar whose ac- quaintance with Castilian literature was much deeper than Mr. Fitzgerald's, and who also pos- sessed poetical abilities of no mean order, with a totally different sense of the translator's duty. The popularity of MacCarthy's versions has been con- siderable, and as an equivalent rendering of the original in sense and form his work is valuable. Spaniards familiar with the English language rate its merit highly; but there can be little question of the very great superiority of Mr. Fitzgerald's work as a contribution to English literature. It is BIOGRAPHICAL PREFACE. 19 indeed only from this point of view that we should regard all the literary labours of our author. They are English poetical work of fine quality, dashed with a pleasant outlandish flavour which heightens their charm; and it is as English poems, not as translations, that they have endeared themselves even more to the American English than to the mixed Britons of England. It was an occasion of no small moment to Mr. Fitzgerald's fame, and to the intellectual gratifica- tion of many thousands of readers, when he took his little packet of Buhd'iyydt to Mr. Quaritch in the latter part of the year 1858. It was printed as a small quarto pamphlet, bearing the publishei-'s name but not the author's ; and although apparently a complete failure at first, — a failure which Mr. Fitzgerald regretted less on his own account than on that of his publisher, to whom he had gener- ously made a present of the book, — received, never- theless, a suflcient distribution by being quickly reduced from the price of five shillings and placed in the box of cheap books marked a penny each. Thus forced into circulation, the two hundred cop- ies which had been printed were soon exhausted. Among the buyers were Dante G-abriel Rossetti, Mr. Swinburne, Captain (now Sir Richard) Bur- ton, and Mr. "William Simpson, the accomplished 20 BIOGRAPHICAL PEEPACE. artist of the Illustrated London News. The in- fluence exercised by the first three, especially by Rossetti, upon a clique of yonng men who have since grown to distinction, was sufficient to attract observation to the singular beauties of the poem anonymously translated from the Persian. Most readers had no possible opportunity of discovering whether it was a disguised original or an actual translation ; — even Captain Burton enjoyed prob- ably but little chance of seeing a manuscript of the Persian Rub4'iyy4t. The Oriental imagery and allusions were too thickly scattered throughout the verses to favour the notion that they could be the original work of an Englishman ; yet it was shrewd- ly suspected by most of the appreciative readers that the " translator " was substantially the author and creator of the poem. In the refuge of his anonymity, Fitzgerald derived an innocent gratifi- cation from the curiosity that was aroused on all sides. After the first edition had disappeared, in- quiries for the little book became frequent, and in the year 1868 he gave the MS. of his second edition to Mr. Quaritch, and the Rub4'iyyat came into cir- culation once more, but with several alterations and additions by which the number of stanzas was somewhat increased beyond the original seventy- five. Most of the changes were, as might have BIOGRAPHICAL PREFACE. 21 been expected, improvements; but in some in- stances the author's taste or caprice was at fault, — notably in the first Buhd'iy. His fastidious desire to avoid anything that seemed haroque or unnatu- ral, or appeared like plagiarism, may have influ- enced him ; but it was probably because he had already used the idea in his rendering of J^mi's Saldmin, that he sacrificed a fine and novel piece of imagery in his first stanza and replaced it by one of much more ordinary character. If it were from a disUke to pervert his original too largely, he had no need to be so scrupulous, since he dealt on the whole with the Rubd'iyydt as though he had the licence of absolute authorship, changing, transpos- ing, and manipulating the substance of the Persian quatrains with singular freedom. The vogue of "old Omar" (as he would affectionately call his work) went on increasing, and American readers took it up with eagerness. In those days, the mere mention of Omar Khayydm between two strangers meeting fortuitously acted like a sign of free- masonry and established frequently a bond of friendship. Some curious instances of this have been related. A remarkable feature of the Omar- cult in the United States was the circumstance that single individuals bought numbers of copies for gratuitous distribution before the book was re- 22 BIOGRAPHICAL PREFACE. printed in America. Its editions have been rela- tively numerous, wlien we consider how restricted was the circle of readers who could understand the. peculiar beauties of the work. A third edition appeared in 1872, with some further alterations, and may be regarded as virtually the author's final revision, for it hardly differs at all from the text of the fourth edition, which appeared in 1879. This last formed the first portion of a volume en- titled " Rub^iyat of Omar Khayyam ; and the Sala- man and Absal of Jami; rendered into English verse." The Sal4mdn (which had already been printed in separate form in 1 856) is a poem chiefly in blank verse, interspersed with various metres (although it is all in one measure in the original) embodying a love-story of mystic significance ; for J4mi was, unlike Omar Khayydm, a true Sufi, and indeed differed in other respects, his celebrity as a pious Mussulman doctor being equal to his fame as a poet. He lived in the fifteenth century, in a period of literary brilliance and decay; and the rich exuberance of his poetry, full of far-fetched conceits, involved expressions, overstrained ima- gery, and false taste, offers a strong contrast to the simpler and more forcible language of Khayyam. There is little use of Arabic in the earlier poet ; he preferred the vernacular speech to the mongrel BIOGRAPHICAL PREFACE. 23 language which was fashionable among the heirs of the Saracen conquerors ; but Jami's composition is largely embroidered with Arabic. Mr. Fitzgerald had from his early days been thrown into contact with the Crabbe family ; the Reverend George Crabbe (the poet's grandson) was an intimate friend of his, and it was on a visit to Morton Rectory that Fitzgerald died. As we know that friendship has power to warp the judgment, we shaU not probably be wrong in supposing that his enthusiastic admiration for Orabbe's poems was not the product of sound, impartial criticism. He attempted to reintroduce them to the world by pub- lishing a little volume of "Readings from Crabbe," produced in the last year of his life, but without success. A different fate awaited his "Agamem- non : a tragedy taken from ^schylus," which was first printed privately by him, and afterwards pub- lished with alterations in 1876. It is a very free rendering from the Greek, and full of a poetical beauty which is but partly assignable to ^schylus. Without attaining to anything like the celebrity and admiration which have followed Omar Khay- yim, the Agamemnon has achieved much more than a succes d'estime. Mr. Fitzgerald's renderings from the Greek were not confined to this one essay ; he also translated the two (Edipus dramas of Soph- 24 BIOGRAPHICAL PREFACE. ocles, but left them unflnislied in manuscript till Prof. Eliot Norton had a sight of them about seven or eight years ago and urged him to complete his work. When this was done, he had them set in type, but only a very few proofs can have been struck off, as it seems that, at least in England, no more than one or two copies were sent out by the author. In a similar way he printed translations of two of Calderon's plays not included in the published " Six Dramas" — namely. La Vida es Suefio, and El Magico Prodiginso, (both ranking among the Span- iard's finest work ; ) but they also were withheld from the public and all but half a dozen friends. When his old boatman died, about ten years ago, he abandoned his nautical exercises and gave up his yacht for ever. During the last few years of his life, he divided his time between Cambridge, Crabbe's house, and his own home at Little Grange, near Woodbridge, where he received occasional vis- its from friends and relatives. This edition of the "Omar Khayyam" is a modest memorial of one of the most modest men who have enriched English literature with poetry of distinct and permanent value. His best epitaph is found in Tennyson's "Tiresias and other poems," published immediately after our author's quiet exit from life, in 1883, in the seventy-fifth year of his age. M. K. OMAR KHAYYAM'S GRAVE. IN reference to the allusion quoted from Nizami (on page 37) to Omar Khayyam's prophecy about his own grave, the following letter from Nishapur will have a considerable interest. The writer is a man of wide reputation as one of the travelling ar- tists of the Illustrated London Neivs : NiSHAPUB, 27th October, 1884. Deae Mr. Quaritch : From the association of your name with that of Omar Khayam I feel sure that what I enclose in this letter will be acceptable. The rose-leaves I gathered to-day, growing beside the tomb of the poet at this place, and the seeds are from the same bushes on which the leaves grew.* I suppose you are aware that I left early last month with Sir Peter Lumsden to accompany the Afghan Boundary Commission in my old capacity * These seeds were handed over to Mr. Baker, of Kew Gar- dens, who planted them, and they have grown up success- fully, but as yet they have not produced flowers. 26 OMAR KHAYYAM'S GRAVE. as special artist for the Illustrated London News. We travelled by way of the Black Sea, Tiflis, Baku, and the Caspian, to Tehran; from that place we have been marching eastward for nearly a month now, and we reached Nishapur this morning. For some days past, as we marched along, I have been making inquiries regarding Omar Khayam and Nishapur ; I wanted to know if the house he lived in stiU existed, or if any spot was yet associ- ated with his name. It would seem that the only recognised memorial now remaining of him is his tomb. Our Mehmandar, or " Guest-Conductor," — while the Afghan Boundary Commission is on Per- sian territory it is the Guest of the Shah, and the Mehmandar is his representative, who sees that all our wants are attended to, — appears to be familiar with the poet's name, and says that liis works are still read and admired. The Mehmandar said he knew the tomb, and promised to be our guide when we reached Nishapur. We have just made the pil- grimage to the spot ; it is about two miles south of the present Nishapur ; so we had to ride, and Sir Peter, who takes an interest in the matter, was one of the party. We found the ground nearly all the way covered with mounds, and the soil mixed with fragments of pottery, sure indications of former habitations. As we neared the tomb, long ridges of earth could be seen, which were no doubt the remains of the walls of the old city of Nishapur. To the east of the tomb is a large square mound of earth, which is supposed to be the site of the Ark, OMAR KHAYYAM'S GRAVE. 27 or Citadel of the original city. As we rode along, the blue dome, which the Mehmandar had pointed out on the way as the tomb, had a very imposing appearance, and its importance improved as we neared it ; this will be better understood by stating that city walls, houses, and almost all structures in that part of Persia, are built of mud. The blue dome, as well as its size, produced in my mind, as we went towards it, a great satisfaction; it was pleasing to think that the countrymen of Omar Khayam held him in such high estimation as to erect so fine a monument, as well as to preserve it, — this last being rarely done in the East, — to his memory. If the poet was so honoured in his own country, it was little to be wondered at that his fame should have spread so rapidly in the lands of the West. This I thought, but there was a slight disappointment in store for me. At last we reached the tomb, and found its general arrangements were on a plan I was familiar with in India ; whoever has visited the Taj at Agra, or any of the large Mohammedan tombs of Hindostan, will easily un- derstand the one at Nishapur. The monument stands in a space enclosed by a mud wall, and the ground in front is laid out as a garden, with walks. The tomb at Nishapur, with all its surroundings, is in a very rude condition ; it never was a work which could claim merit for its architecture, and although it is kept so far in repair, it has still a very decayed and neglected appearance. Even the blue dome, which impressed me in the distance, I 28 OMAR KHAYYAM'S GRAVE. found on getting near to it was in a ruinous state from large portions of the enamelled plaster having fallen off. Instead of the marble and the red stone of the Taj at Nishapur, — with the exception of some enamelled tiles producing a pattern round the base of the dome, and also in the spandrils of the door and windows, — there we find only bricks and plaster. The surrounding wall of the enclosure was of crumbling mud, and could be easily jumped over at any place. There is a rude entrance by which we went in and walked to the front of the tomb ; all along I had been under the notion that the whole structure was the tomb of Omar Khayam ; and now came the disenchantment. The place turned out to be an Imamzadah, or the tomb of the Son of an Imam. The Son of an Imam inherits his sanctity from his father, and his place of burial becomes a holy place where pilgrims go to pray. The blue dome is over the tomb of such a person, who may have been a brute of the worst kind, — that would not have affected his sanctity, — instead of the poet, whom we reverence for the qualities which belonged to himself. When we had as- cended the platform, about three feet high, on which the tomb stood, the Mehmandar turned to the left, and in a recess formed by three arches and a very rude roof, which seemed to have been added to the corner of the Imamzadah, pointed to the tomb of Omar Khayam. The discovery of a "Poet's Corner" at Nishapur, naturally recalled Westminster Abbey to my mind and revived my OMAR KHAYYAM'S GRAVE. 29 spirits from the depression produced by finding that the principal tomb was not that of the Poet. The monument over the tomb is an oblong mass of brick covered with plaster, and without ornament,, — the plaster falling off in places ;. on this and on the plaster of the recess are innumerable scribblings in Persian character. Some were, no doubt, names, for the British John Smith has not an exclusive tendency in this respect ; but many of them were continued through a number of lines, and I guessed they were poetry, and most probably quotations from the Rubaiyat. Although the " Poet's Corner" was in rather a dilapidated state, stDl it must have been repaired at no very distant date; and this shows that some attention has been paid to it, and that the people of Nishapur have not quite for- gotten Omar Khayam. The Imamzadah — this word, which means Son of an Imam, applies to the person buried as well as to the tomb — was Mohammed Marook, brother of the Imam Reza, whose tomb at Meshed is considered so sacred by the Shias; — the Imam Reza was the eighth Imam, and died in 818 ; this gives us an ap- proximate date for his brother, and it is, if I mis- take not, a couple of centuries before the time of Omar Khayam; and the Imamzadah — here I mean the building — would have been erected, most prob- ably, about that number of years before the poet required his resting-place. Behind the Imamzadah is a Kubberstan, or " Region of Graves," and the raised platform in front of the tomb contains in its 30 OMAR KHAYYAM'S GRAVE. rough pavement a good many small tomb-stones, shewing that people are buried there, and that the place had been in the past a general grave-yard. All this is owing to the hereditary sanctity which belongs to the Son of an Imam, and we are perhaps indebted to Mohammed Marook, no matter what his character may have been, for the preservation of the site of Omar Khayam's burial place; the preservation of the one necessarily preserved the other. In front of the Imamzadah is the garden, with some very old and one or two large trees, but along the edge of the platform in front of Omar Khayam's tomb I found some rose bushes ; it was too late in the season for the roses, but a few hips were still remaining, and one or two of these I secured, as well as the leaves, — some of which are here en- closed for you ; I hope you will be able to grow them in England, — they will have an interest, as in all probability they are the particular kind of roses Omar Khayam was so fond of watching as he pon- dered and composed his verses. It may be worth adding that there is also at Nishapur the tomb of another poet who lived about the same time as Omar Khayam, — his name was Ferid ed din Attar ; according to Vambery, he was " a great mystic and philosopher. He wrote a work called 'Mantik et Teyr, the Logic of Birds.' In this the feathered creatures are made to contend in a curious way on the causes of existence, and the Source of Truth. 'Hudhud,' the All-Know- OMAR khayyAm's grave. 31 ing magical bird of Solomon, is introduced, as the Teacher of Birds ; and also Simurg, the Phoenix of the Orientals, and Symbol of the Highest Light." In this it is understood that the Birds represent humanity, Hudhud is the Prophet, and the Simurg stands for Deity. This tomb I shall not have time to visit. Another three marches take iis to Meshed, and then we shall be close to the Afghan frontier. I am sending a sketch of Omar Khayam's tomb to the Illustrated London News. Believe me Yours very truly, William Simpson. (The sketch above referred to appears in. the present volume as a frontispiece.) OMAR KHATyIm, THE ASTRONOMER-POET OF PERSIA. (BY EDWAED FITZGBEALD.) OMAR KHAYYAM was born at Naishd.piir in Khorasan in tlie latter half of our Eleventh, and died within the First Quarter of our Twelfth Century. The slender Story of Ms Life is curi- ously twined about that of two other very con- siderable Figures in their Time and Country : one of whom tells the Story of all Three. This was Nizdm ul Mulk, Vizyr to Alp Arslan the Son, and MaJit Shah the Grandson, of Toghrul Beg the Tartar, who had wrested Persia from the feeble Successor of Mahmud the Great, and founded that SeljuMan Dynasty which finally roused Europe into the Crusades. This Nizdm ul Mulk, in his Wasiyat — or Testament — which he wrote and left as a Memorial for future Statesmen — relates the following, as quoted in the Calcutta Review, No. 59, from Mirkhond's History of the Assassins : 34 OMAR KHAYYAM, " ' One of the greatest of the wise men of Kho- 'rassan was the Imkm MowafEak of Naish^piir, a ' man highly honoured and reverenced, — may God 'rejoice his soul; his illustrious years exceeded ' eighty-five, and it was the universal belief that ' every boy who read the Koran or studied the tra- ' ditions in his presence, would assuredly attain to 'honour and happiness. For this cause did my ' father send me from Tiis to Naish4pur with ' Abd-us-samad, the doctor of law, that I might ' employ myself in study and learning under the ' guidance of that illustrious teacher. Towards me 'he ever turned an eye of favour and kindness, ' and as his pupil I felt for him extreme affection ' and devotion, so that I passed four years in his ' service. When I first came there, I found two ' other pupils of mine own age newly arrived, ' Hakim Omar Khayyam, and the ill-fated Ben ' Sabbah. Both were endowed with sharpness of ' wit and the highest natural powers ; and we three 'formed a close friendship together. When the 'Im4m rose from his lectures, they used to join me, ' and we repeated to each other the lessons we had 'heard. Now Omar was a native of Naish&piir, ' while Hasan Ben Sabbah's father was one Ali, a ' man of austere life and practice, but heretical in ' his creed and doctrine. One day Hasan said to THE ASTBONOMER-POET OP PERSIA. 35 ' me and to Khajrydm, ' It is a universal belief that 'the pupils of the Imdm MowafEak will attain 'to fortune. Now, even if we all do not attain ' thereto, without doubt one of us wiU ; what then 'shall be our mutual pledge and bond?' "We ' answered, ' Be it what you please.' ' Well,' he ' said, ' let us make a vow, that to whomsoever ' this fortune falls, he shall share it equally with ' the rest, and reserve no pre-eminence for himself.' " Be it so,' we both replied, and on those terms we 'mutually pledged our words. Years roUed on, ' and I went from Khorassan to Transoxiana, and ' wandered to Ghazni and Cabul ; and when I ' returned, I was invested with ofQee, and rose to 'be administrator of affairs during the Sultanate ' of Sultan Alp Arslan.' "He goes on to state, that years passed by, and both his old school-friends found him out, and came and claimed a share in his good for- tune, according to the school-day vow. The Vi- zier was generous and kept his word. Hasan demanded a place in the government, which the Sultan granted at the Vizier's request; but dis- contented with a gradual rise, he plunged into the maze of intrigue of an oriental court, and failing in a base attempt to supplant his bene- factor, he was disgraced and fell. After many 36 OMAR khayyIm, mishaps and wanderings, Hasan became the head of the Persian sect of the Ismailians, — a party of fanatics who had long murmured in obscurity, but rose to an evil eminence under the guidance of his strong and evil will. In a. d. 1090, he seized the castle of Alamiit, in the province of Riidbar, which lies in the mountainous tract south of the Caspian Sea; and it was from this mountain home he obtained that evil celebrity among the Crusaders as the OLD MAN OF THE MOUNTAINS, and spread terror through the Mohammedan world; and it is yet disputed whether the word Assassin, which they have left in the language of modem Europe as their dark memorial, is derived from the hashish, or opiate of hemp-leaves (the Indian ihang), with which they maddened themselves to the sullen pitch of oriental desperation, or from the name of the founder of the dynasty, whom we have seen in his quiet coDegiate days at Naishapiir. One of the countless victims of the Assassin's dagger was Nizam-ul-Mulk himself, the old school-boy friend.^ ISome of Omar's Rubdiydt warns 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. Att4r makes Niz4m-nl-Mulk use the very words of his friend Omar [Rub. xxviii.], "When Niz5,m-ul-Mulk was in the Agony (of Death) he said, 'Oh God! I am passing away in the hand of the Wind.' " THE ASTRONOMER-POfiT OF PERSIA. 37 "Omar Khayydm also came to the Vizier to claim the share; but not to ask for title or office. ' The greatest boon you can confer on ' me/ he said, ' is to let me live in a corner under 'the shadow of your fortune, to spread wide the 'advantages of Science, and pray for your long 'life and prosperity.' The Vizier tells us, that, when he found Omar was really sincere in his refusal, he pressed him no further, but granted him a yearly pension of 1200 niithMls of gold, from the treasury of Naishdpiir. "At Naish4pur thus lived and died Omar Khayydm, 'busied,' adds the Vizier, 'in winning 'knowledge of every kind, and especially in As- ' tronomy, wherein he attained to a very high pre- ' eminence. Under the Sultanate of Malik Shah, 'he came to Merv, and obtained great praise for 'his proficiency in science, and the Sultan show- ' ered favours upon him.' "When Malik Shah determined to reform the calendar, Omar was one of the eight learned men employed to do it ; the result was the Jaldli era (so called from Jalal-ud-din, one of the king's names) — ' a computation of time,' says Gibbon, ' which surpasses the Julian, and approaches the accuracy of the Gregorian style.' He is also the author of some astronomical tables, entitled Ziji- 38 OMAR KHAYYAM, Malikshdhi," and the Frencli have lately republished and translated an Arabic Treatise of his on Algebra. "His Takhallus or poetical name (Khayyam) signifies a Tent-maker, and he is said to have at one time exercised that trade, perhaps before Ni- zam-ul-Mulk's generosity raised him to independ- ence. Many Persian poets similarly derived their names from their occupations ; thus we have Attar, ' a druggist,' Assar, ' an oil presser,' &c.i Omar himself alludes to his name in the following whim- sical lines : — 'Khayydm, who stitched the tents of science, Has fallen in grief's furnace and been suddenly burned ; The shears of Fate have cut the tent ropes of "his life, And the broker of Hope has sold him for nothing!' "We have only one more anecdote to give of his Life, and that relates to the close ; it is told in the anonymous preface which is sometimes pre- fixed to his poems; it has been printed in the Persian in the appendix to Hyde's Veterum Per- sariim Beligio, p. 529 ; and D'Herbelot alludes to it in his Bibliothfeque, under Khiani : — ^ 1 Though all these, like our Smiths, Archers, Millers, Fletchers, &e., may simply retain the Surname of an hered- itary calling. 2 " Philosophe Musulman qni a vecu en Odeur de Saintet^ vers la Fin du premier et le Commencement du second Si^cle," no part of which, except the " Philosophe," can apply to our Khayydm. THE ASTRONOMEB-POET OP PERSIA. 39 " ' It is written in the chronicles of the ancients 'that this King of the Wise, Omar Khayydm, died ' at Naishipiir in the year of the Hegira, 517 (a. d. ' 1123) ; in science he was unrivalled, — the very ' paragon of his age. Khwajah Niz&mi of Samar- 'cand, who was one of his pupils, relates the ' following story : ' I often used to hold conversa- ' tions with my teacher, Omar Khayydm, in a gar- ' den ; and one day he said to me, ' My tomb shall 'be in a spot where the north wind may scatter ' roses over it.' I wondered at the words he spake, ' but I knew that his were no idle words, i Years 'after, when I chanced to revisit Naishipur, I ' went to his final resting-place, and lo ! it was just 1 The Rashness of the Words, aoeording to D'Herbelot, consisted in being so opposed to those in the Kordn : " No Man knows where he shall die." — This Story of Omar re- minds me of another so naturally — and, when one remem- bers how wide of Ms humble mark the noble sailor aimed — so pathetically told by Captain Cook — not by Doctor Hawkes- worth — in his Second Voyage. 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 Jtfarai — 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 coul4 pronounce it ; and then ' Stepney Marai no Toote ' was echoed through a 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.' " 40 OMAR KHAYYAM, ' outside a garden, and trees laden witli fruit ' stretched their boughs over the garden wall, and ' dropped their flowers upon his tomb, so as the ' stone was hidden under them.' " Thus far — without fear of Trespass — from the Calcutta Review. The writer of it, on reading in India this story of Omar's Grave, was reminded, he says, of Cicero's Account of finding Archimedes' Tomb at Syracuse, buried in grass and weeds. I think Thorwaldsen desired to have roses grow over him ; a wish religiously fulfilled for him to the present day, I believe. However, to return to Omar. Though the Sultan "shower'd Favours upon him," Omar's Epicurean Audacity of Thought and Speech caused him to be regarded askance in his own Time and Country. He is said to have been especially hated and dreaded by the Siifis, whose Practice he ridiculed, and whose Faith amounts to little more than his own when stript of the Mysti- cism and formal recognition of Islamism under which Omar would not hide. Their Poets, includ- ing H4fiz, who are (with the exception of Firdausi) the most considerable in Persia, borrowed largely, indeed, of Omar's material, but turning it to a mystical Use more convenient to Themselves and THE ASTRONOMEE-POET OF PERSIA. 41 tlie People they addressed ; a People quite as quick of Doubt as of Belief ; as keen of Bodily Sense as of Intellectual ; and delighting in a cloudy compo- sition of both, in which they could float luxuri- ously between Heaven and Earth, and this World and the Next, on the wings of a poetical expres- sion, that might serve indifferently for either. Omar was too honest of Heart as well as of Head for this. Having failed (however mistakenly) of finding any Providence but Destiny, and any "World but This, he set about making the most of it; preferring rather to soothe the Soul through the Senses into Acquiescence with Things as he saw them, than to perplex it with vain disquietude after what they migM be. It has been seen, how- ever, that his Worldly Ambition was not exorbi- tant ; and he very likely takes a humorous or per- verse pleasure in exalting the gratification of Sense above that of the Intellect, in which he must have taken great delight, although it failed to answer the Questions in which he, in common with aU men, was most vitally interested. For whatever Reason, however, Omar, as before said, has never been popular in his own Country, and therefore has been but scantily transmitted abroad. The MSS. of his Poems, mutilated beyond the average Casualties of Oriental Transcription, 42 OMAB KHAYYAM, are so rare in the East as scarce to have reacht Westward at all, in spite of all the acquisitions of Arms and Science. There is no copy at the India House, none at the Bibliothfeque Nationale of Paris. "We know but of one in England : No. 140 of the Ouseley MSS. at the Bodleian, written at Shiraz, a. d. 1460. This contains but 158 Rubiiyat. One in the Asiatic Society's Library at Calcutta (of which we have a Copy), contains (and yet in- complete) 516, though swelled to that by all kinds of Repetition and Corruption. So Von Hammer speaks of his Copy as containing about 200, while Dr. Sprenger catalogues the Lucknow MS. at double that number.^ The Scribes, too, of the Ox- ford and Calcutta MSS. seem to do their Work under a sort of Protest; each beginning with a Tetrastich (whether geniiine or not), taken out of its alphabetical order; the Oxford with one of Apology ; the Calcutta with one of Expostulation, supposed (says a Notice prefixed to the MS.) to have arisen from a Dream, in which Omar's mother asked about his future fate. It may be rendered thus : — 1 " 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." THE ASTRONOMEB-POET OP PERSIA. 43 " Oh Thou who bum'st in Heart for those who burn "In Hell, whose fires thyself shall feed la turn ; "How long be crying, 'Mercy on them, Grod!' " Why, who art Thou to teach, and He to learn ? " The Bodleian Quatrain pleads Pantheism by way of Justification. " If I myself upon a looser Creed "Have loosely strung the Jewel of Good deed, " Let this one thing for my Atonement plead : " That One for Two I never did mis-read." The Eeviewer, to whom I owe the Particulars of Omar's Life, concludes his Review by comparing him with Lucretius, both as to natural Temper and Genius, and as acted upon by the Circumstances in which he lived. Both indeed were men of sub- tle, strong, and cultivated Intellect, fine Imagina- tion, and Hearts passionate for Truth and Justice ; who justly revolted from their Country's false Re- ligion, and false, or foolish. Devotion to it; but who f eU. short of replacing what they subverted by such better Hope as others, with no better Revela- tion to guide them, had yet made a Law to them- selves. Lucretius, indeed, with such material as Epicurus furnished, satisfied himself with the theory of a vast machine fortiiitously constructed, and acting by a Law that implied no Legislator ; 44 OMAR KHAYYAM, and so composing himself into a Stoical rather than Epicurean severity of Attitude, sat down to contemplate the mechanical Drama of the Uni- verse which he was part Actor in ; himself and all about him (as in his own sublime description of the Roman Theatre) discoloured with the lurid re- flex of the Curtain suspended between the Specta- tor and the Sun. Omar, more desperate, or more careless of any so complicated System as resulted in nothing but hopeless Necessity, flung his own Genius and Learning with a bitter or humorous jest into the general Ruin which their insuflcient glimpses only served to reveal ; and, pretending sensual pleasure as the serioiis purpose of Life, only diverted himself with speculative problems of Deity, Destiny, Matter and Spirit, Grood and Evd, and other such questions, easier to start than to run down, and the pursuit of which becomes a very weary sport at last ! With regard to the present Translation. The original Rubaiyat (as, missing an Arabic Gut- tural, these Testrastichs are more musically called) are independent Stanzas, consisting each of four Lines of equal, though varied. Prosody; sometimes all rhyming, but oftener (as here imita- ted) the third line a blank. Sometimes as in the Greek Alcaic, where the penultimate line seems THE ASTBONOMEB-POET OF PEESIA. 45 to lift and suspend the Wave that falls over in the last. As usual with such kind of Oriental Verse, the Rub^iyit follow one another according to Alphabetic Ehyme — a strange succession of Grave and Gay. Those here selected are strung into some- thing of an Eclogue, with perhaps a less than equal proportion of the " Drink and make-merry," which (genuine or not) recurs over-frequently in the Origi- nal. Either way, the Result is sad enough : saddest perhaps when most ostentatiously merry: more apt to move Sorrow than Anger toward the old Tent- maker, who, after vainly endeavouring to unshackle his Steps from Destiny, and to catch some authen- tic Glimpse of To-moebow, fell back upon To-day (which has outlasted so many To-morrows !) as the only Ground he got to stand upon, however mo- mentarily slipping from under his Feet. IFrom the Third Edition.'] While the second Edition of this version of Omar was preparing, Monsieur Nicolas, French Consul at Resht, published a very careful and very good Edition of the Text, from a lithograph copy at Teheran, comprising 464 Rubaiyat, with translation and notes of his own. 46 OMAE KHAYYAM, Mons. Nicolas, whose Edition has reminded me of several things, and instructed me in others, does not consider Omar to be the material Epi- curean that I have literally taken him for, but a Mystic, shadowing the Deity under the figure of Wine, Wine-bearer, &c., as Haflz is supposed to do; in short, a SM Poet Like Haflz and the rest. I cannot see reason to alter my opinion, formed as it was more than a dozen years ago when Omar was first shown me by one to whom I am indebted for all I know of Oriental, and very much of other, literature. He admired Omar's Ge- nius so much, that he would gladly have adopted any such Interpretation of his meaning as Mons. Nicolas' if he could.^ That he could not, appears by his Paper in the Calcutta Review already so largely quoted; in which he argues from the Poems themselves, as well as from what records remain of the Poet's Life. And if more were needed to disprove Mons. Nicolas' Theory, there is the Biographical Notice which he himself has drawn up in direct con- tradiction to the Interpretation of the Poems 1 Perhaps would have edited the Poems himself some years ago. He may now as little approve of my Version on one side, as of Mons. Nicolas' Theory on the other. THE ASTEONOMER-POET OF PERSIA. 47 given in his Notes. (See pp. 13-14 of his Preface.) Indeed I hardly knew poor Omar was so far gone till his Apologist informed me. For here we see that, whatever were the Wine that H^flz drank and sang, the veritable Juice of the Grape it was which Omar used, not only when carous- ing with his friends, but (says Mons. Nicolas) in order to excite himself to that pitch of De- votion which others reached by cries and "hurle- mens." And yet, whenever Wine, Wine-bearer, &c., occur in the Text — which is often enough — Mons. Nicolas carefully annotates "Dieu," "La Divinit6," &c. : so carefully indeed that one is tempted to think that he was indoctrinated by the SM with whom he read the Poems. (Note to Rub. ii. p. 8.) A Persian would naturally wish to vindicate a distinguished Countryman; and a Siifi to enrol him in his own sect, which already comprises all the chief Poets of Persia. What historical Authority has Mons. Nicolas to show that Omar gave himself up "avec passion a I'etude de la philosophic des Soufis"? (Preface, p. xiii.) The Doctrines of Pantheism, Material- ism, Necessity, &c., were not peculiar to the Siifi; nor to Lucretius before them; nor to Epicurus before him; probably the verj'^ original Irre- ligion of Thinking men from the first; and very 48 OMAR KHAYYAM, likely to be the spontaneous growth of a Philoso- pher living in an Age of social and political har- barism, under shadow of one of the Two and Seventy ReHgions supposed to divide the world. Von Hammer (according to Sprenger's Oriental Catalogue) speaks of Omar as " a Free-thinker, and a great opponent of Sufism ; " perhaps because, while holding much of their Doctrine, he would not pre- tend to any inconsistent severity of morals. Sir W. Ouseley has written a note to something of the same effect on the fly-leaf of the Bodleian MS. And in two Rubdiyat of Mons. Nicolas' own Edition Siif and Sufi, are both disparagingly named. No doubt many of these Quatrains seem unac- countable unless mystically interpreted ; but many more as unaccountable unless literally. "Were the "Wine spiritual, for instance, how wash the Body with it when dead? "Why make cups of the dead clay to be filled with — "La Divinite" by some suc- ceeding Mystic ? Mons. Nicolas himself is puzzled by some " bizarres " and " trop Orientales " allusions and images — " d'une sensualite quelquef ois r6vol- tante" indeed — which "les convenances" do not permit him to translate ; but still which the reader cannot but refer to " La Divinitfe." i No doubt 1 A note to Quatrain 234: admits that, however clear the mystical meaning of such Images must be to Europeans, THE ASTRONOMER-POET OP PERSIA. 49 also many of the Quatrains in the Teheran, as in the Calcutta, Copies, are spurious; such Buhdiydt being the common form of Epigram in Persia. But this, at best, tells as much one way as another; nay, the Siifl, who may be considered the Scholar and Man of Letters in Persia, would be far more likely than the careless Epicure to interpolate what favours his own view of the Poet. I observed that very few of the more mystical Quatrains are in the Bodleian MS., which must be one of the oldest, as dated at Shiraz, A. H. 865, A. D. 1460. And this, I think, especially distinguishes Omar (I cannot help caUing him by his— no, not Christian — famihar name) from all other Persian Poets : That, whereas with them the Poet is lost in his Song, the Man in Allegory and Abstraction ; we seem to have the Man — the Bonhomme — Omar himself, with all his Humours and Passions, as frankly before us as if they are not quoted without "rougissant" even by laymen in Persia — "Quant aux termes de tendresse qui oommen- oent ce quatrain, comme tant d'autres dans ce reoueil, nos leoteurs, habituSs maintenant k l'6tranget6 des expressions si souvent employees par Kh^yam pour rendre ses pens6es sur I'amour divin, et a la singularity des images trop orien- tales, d'une sensuality quelquefois r^voltante, n'auront pas de peine k se persuader qu'il s'agit de la Divinity, bien que cette conviction soit vivement diseut^e par les mouUahs musul- mans, et mSme par beaucoup de laiques, qui rougissent v^ritablement d'une pareille licence de leur oompatriote a I'^gard des ohoses spirituelles." 50 OMAR KHAYYAM, we were really at Table with him, after the Wine had gone round. 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 made his Salaam to Mohammed at the beginning and end of his Song. Under such conditions Jelaluddin, J4mi, Att^r, and others sang ; using "Wine and Beauty indeed as Images to illustrate, not as a Mask to hide, the Divinity they were celebrating. Perhaps some Allegory less liable to mistake or abuse had been better among so inflammable a People : much more so when, as some think with Hafiz and Omar, the abstract is not only likened to, but identified with, the sensual Image; hazardous, if not to the Devotee himself, yet to his weaker Brethren ; and worse for the Profane in proportion as the Devotion of the Initiated grew warmer. And all for what ? To be tantalized with Images of sensual enjoyment which must be renounced if one would approximate a G-od, who according to the Doctrine, is Sensual Matter as well as Spirit, and into whose Universe one expects unconsciously to merge after Death, without hope of any post- humous Beatitude in another world to compen- sate for all one's self-denial in this. Lucretius' THE ASTRONOMER-POET OP PERSIA. 51 blind Divinity certainly merited, and probably got, as niTich self-sacrifice as this of the Siifl ; and the burden of Omar's Song — if not "Let ns eat" — is assuredly — " Let us drink, for To-morrow we die!" And if H4fiz meant quite otherwise by a similar language, he surely miscalculated when he devoted his Life and Genius to so equivocal a Psalmody as, from his Day to this, has been said and sung by any rather than spiritual Worship- pers. However, as there is some traditional presump- tion, and certainly the opinion of some learned men, in favour of Omar's being a Sufi — and even something of a Saint — those who please may so interpret his "Wine and Cup-bearer. On the other hand, as there is far more historical certainty of his being a Philosopher, of scientific Insight and Ability far beyond that of the Age and Country he lived in ; of such moderate worldly Ambition as becomes a Philosopher, and such moderate wants as rarely satisfy a Debauchee ; other read- ers may be content to believe with me that, while the Wine Omar celebrates is simply the Juice of the Grape, he bragg'd more than he drank of it, in very defiance perhaps of that Spiritual Wine which left its Votaries sunk in Hypocrisy or Dis- gust. rubaiyAt OMAR KHAYYAM OF NAISHAPUR. rubAiyAt OMAR KHAYYAM OF NAISHAPUR. FOURTH EDITION. TTTAKE ! 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. 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 ? " 56 BUBAIYAT OP OMAR KHAYYija. Fourth Edition. Ill 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." 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. 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. 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. Fourth Edition. EUBAITAt OP OMAE KHAYyAM. 57 VII 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. VIII Whether at Naishapiir 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. IX Each Morn a thousand Roses brings, you say ; Yes, but where leaves the Rose of Yesterday ? And this first Summer month that brings the Rose Shall take Jamshyd and Kaikobad away. X Well, let it take them ! What have we to do With Kaikobad the Great, or Kaikhosrii ? Let Zal and Rustum bluster as they will. Or Hatim call to Supper — heed not you. 58 RUBAITAT OF OMAB KHAYYAM. Fourth Edition. XI With me along the strip of Herbage strewn That just divides the desert from the sown, Where name of Slave and Sultan is forgot — And Peace to Mahmtid on his golden Throne ! XII A Book of Verses underneath the Bough, A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread — and Thou Beside me singing in the Wilderness — Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow ! XIII Some for the Glories of this World ; and some Sigh for the Prophet's Paradise to come ; Ah, take the Cash, and let the Credit go. Nor heed the rumble of a distant Drum ! XIV Look to the blowing Rose about us — " Lo, " Laughing," she says, " into the world I blow, " At once the silken tassel of my Purse "Tear, and its Treasure on the Garden throw." Fourth Edition. EUBAiyAt OF OMAE KHAYYAM. 59 XV And those who husbanded the Golden grain, And those who flung it to the winds Hke Rain, AHke to no such aureate Earth are turn'd As, buried once. Men want dug up again. XVI The Worldly Hope men set their Hearts upon Turns Ashes — or it prospers ; and anon. Like Snow upon the Desert's dusty Face, Lighting a little hour or two — was gone. XVII Think, in this batter'd Caravanserai Whose Portals are alternate Night and Day, How Sultan after Sultan with his Pomp Abode his destin'd Hour, and went his way. XVIII They say the Lion and the Lizard keep The Courts where Jamshyd gloried and drank deep And Bahram, that great Hunter — the Wild Ass Stamps o'er his Head, but cannot break his Sleep. 60 EUBIiyIt of OMAK KHAYYAM, Fourth Edition. XIX I sometimes think that never blows so red The Rose as where some buried Caesar bled ; That every Hyacinth the Garden wears Dropt in her Lap from some once lovely Head. XX And this reviving Herb whose tender Green Fledges the River-Lip on which we lean — Ah, lean upon it lightly ! for who knows From what once lovely Lip it springs unseen ! XXI Ah, my Beloved, fill the Cup that clears To-DAY of past Regret and future Fears : To-morrow ! — Why, To-morrow I may be Myself with Yesterday's Sev'n thousand Years. XXII For some we loved, the loveliest and the best That from his Vintage rolling Time hath prest. Have drunk their Cup a Round or two before. And one by one crept silently to rest. Fourtli Edition. BUBAIYAT OP OMAE KHAYYAm. 61 XXIII And we that now make merry in the Room They left, and Summer dresses in new bloom, Ourselves must we beneath the Couch of Earth Descend — ourselves to make a Couch — for whom ? XXIV Ah, make the most of what we yet may spend, Before we too into the Dust descend ; Dust into Dust, and under Dust, to lie, Sans Wine, sans Song, sans Singer, and — sans End! XXV Alike for those who for To-DAY prepare, And those that after some To-MORROW stare, A Muezzin from the Tower of Darkness cries, " Fools ! your Reward is neither Here nor There." XXVI Why, all the Saints and Sages who discuss'd Of the two Worlds so wisely — they are thrust Like foolish Prophets forth ; their Words to Scorn Are scatter'd, and their Mouths are stopt with Dust. 62 BUBAIYAT OF OMAR KHAYYAM. Fourtli Edition. XXVII Myself when young did eagerly frequent Doctor and Saint, and heard great argument About it and about : but evermore Came out by the same door where in I went. XXVIII With them the seed of Wisdom did I sow, And with mine own hand wrought to make it grow ; And this was all the Harvest that I reap'd — " I came like Water, and like Wind I go." XXIX Into this Universe, and Why not knowing Nor Whence, like Water willy-nilly flowing ; And out of it, as Wind along the Waste, I know not Whither, willy-nilly blowing. XXX What, without asking, hither hurried Whence ? And, without asking, Whither hurried hence ! Oh, many a Cup of this forbidden Wine Must drown the memory of that insolence ! Fourth Edition. RUBAIYAT OF OMAR KHAYYAM. 63 XXXI Up from Earth's Centre through the Seventh Gate I rose, and on the Throne of Saturn sate, And many a Knot unravel'd by the Road ; But not the Master-knot of Human Fate. XXXII There was the Door to which I found no Key ; There was the Veil through which I might not see : Some Httle talk awhile of Me and Thee There was — and then no more of Thee and Me. XXXIII Earth could not answer ; nor the Seas that mourn In flowing Purple, of their Lord forlorn ; Nor roUing Heaven, with all his Signs reveal'd And hidden by the sleeve of Night and Morn. XXXIV Then of the THEE IN Me who works behind The Veil, I lifted up my hands to find A Lamp amid the Darkness ; and I heard, As from Without — " The Me within Thee blind ! " 64 RUBAIYAT OF OMAR KHAYYAM. Fourth Edition. XXXV Then to the Lip of this poor earthen Urn I lean'd, the Secret of my Life to learn : And Lip to Lip it murmur'd — " While you live, " Drink ! — for, once dead, you never shall return." XXXVI I think the Vessel, that with fugitive Articulation answer'd, once did live, And drink ; and Ah ! the passive Lip I kiss'd, How many Kisses might it take — and give ! xxxvii For I remember stopping by the way To watch a Potter thumping his wet Clay : And with its all-obliterated Tongue It murmur'd — " Gently, Brother, gently, pray ! " XXXVIII And has not such a Story from of Old Down Man's successive generations roU'd Of such a cloud of saturated Earth Cast by the Maker into Human mould ? > Fourth Edition. RUBAIYAT OF OMAR KHAYyIm. 65 XXXIX I And not a drop that from our Cups we throw ' For Earth to drink of, but may steal below I To quench the fire of Anguish in some Eye There hidden — far beneath, and long ago. XL As then the Tulip for her morning sup Of Heav'nly Vintage from the soil looks up. Do you devoutly do the like, till Heav'n To Earth invert you — like an empty Cup. xu Perplext no more with Human or Divine, To-morrow's tangle to the winds resign. And lose your fingers in the tresses of The Cypress-slender Minister of Wine. XLII And if the Wine you drink, the Lip you press, End in what All begins and ends in — Yes ; Think then you are To-DAY what YESTERDAY You were — To- MORROW you shall not be less. 66 EUBAIyAt of OMAR KHAYYAM. Fourth Edition. XLIII So when the Angel of the darker Drink At last shall find you by the river-brink. And, offering his Cup, invite your Soul Forth to your Lips to quaff — you shall not shrink. XLIV Why, if the Soul can fling the Dust aside. And naked on the Air of Heaven ride, Wer't not a Shame — wer't not a Shame for him In this clay carcase crippled to abide ? XLV 'T is but a Tent where takes his one day's rest A Sultan to the realm of Death addrest ; The Sultan rises, and the dark Ferrash Strikes, and prepares it for another Guest. \ XLVI And fear not lest Existence closing your Account, and mine, should know the like no more ; The Eternal Saki from that Bowl has pour'd Millions of Bubbles like us, and will pour. Fourtli Edition. EUBAIYAT OF OMAR KHAYYAM. 67 XLVII When You and I behind the Veil are past, Oh, but the long, long while the World shall last, Which of our Coming and Departure heeds As the Sea's self should heed a pebble-cast. XLVIII A 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 ! XLIX Would you that spangle of Existence spend About THE SECRET — quick about it, Friend ! A Hair perhaps divides the False and True, And upon what, prithee, does life depend ? A Hair perhaps divides the False and True ; Yes ; and a single Alif were the clue — Could you but find it — to the Treasure-house, And peradventure to The Master too ; 68 BUBAiYAT of OMAE KHAYYAM. Fouith Edition. LI Whose secret Presence, through Creation's veins Running Quicksilver-Hke eludes your pains ; Taking all shapes from Mah to Mahi ; and They change and perish all — but He remains ; LII A moment guess'd — then back behind the Fold Immerst of Darkness round the Drama roll'd Which, for the Pastime of Eternity, He doth Himself contrive, enact, behold. LIII But if in vain, down on the stubborn floor Of Earth, and up to Heav'n's unopening Door, You gaze TO-day, while You are You — how then To-morrow, You when shall be You no more ? Liv Waste not your Hour, nor in the vain pursuit Of This and That endeavour and dispute ; Better be jocund with the fruitful Grape Than sadden after none, or bitter, Fruit. Fourtli Edition. RUBAIYAt OP OMAR KHAYYAM. 69 LV You know, my Friends, with what a brave Carouse I made a Second Marriage in my house ; Divorced old barren Reason from my Bed, And took the Daughter of the Vine to Spouse. LVI For " Is " and " Is-NOT" though with Rule and Line, And " Up-and-down " by Logic I define. Of all that one should care to fathom, I Was never deep in anything but — Wine. LVII ,Ah, but my Computations, People say, I Reduced the Year to better reckoning ? — Nay, 'T was only striking from the Calendar ) Unborn To-morrow, and dead Yesterday. LVIII And lately, by the Tavern Door agape, Came shining through the Dusk an Angel Shape Bearing a Vessel on his Shoulder ; and He bid me taste of it ; and 't was — the Grape ! 70 RUBAIYAT OP OMAR KHAYYAM. Fourth Edition. LIX The Grape that can with Logic absolute The Two-and-Seventy jarring Sects confute : The sovereign Alchemist that in a trice Life's leaden metal into Gold transmute : LX The mighty Mahmud, Allah-breathing Lord, That all the misbelieving and black Horde Of Fears and Sorrows that infest the Soul Scatters before him with his whirlwind Sword. LXI Why, be this Juice the growth of God, who dare Blaspheme the twisted tendril as a Snare ? A Blessing, we should use it, should we not ? And if a Curse — why, then. Who set it there? LXII I must abjure the Balm of Life, I must. Scared by some After-reckoning ta'en on trust, Or lured with Hope of some Diviner Drink, To fill the Cup — when crumbled into Dust! Fourth Edition. EUBAIYAT OP OMAE KHAYYAM. 71 LXIII Oh threats of Hell and Hopes of Paradise ! One thing at least is certain — This Life flies ; One thing is certain and the rest is Lies ; The Flower that once has blown for ever dies. LXIV Strange, is it not ? that of the myriads who Before us pass'd the door of Darkness through. Not one returns to tell us of the Road, Which to discover we must travel too. LXV The Revelations of Devout and Learn'd Who rose before us, and as Prophets burn'd. Are all but Stories, which, awoke from Sleep They told their comrades and to Sleep return'd. LXVI I sent my Soul through the Invisible, Some 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 : " 72 RUBAIYAT OF OMAR KHAYYAM. Fourtli Edition. LXVII Heav'n but the Vision of fulfiU'd Desire, And Hell the Shadow from a Soul on fire Cast on the Darkness into which Ourselves, So late emerg'd from, shall so soon expire. LXVIII We are no other than a moving row Of Magic Shadow-shapes that come and go Round with the Sun-illumin'd Lantern held In Midnight by the Master of the Show ; LXIX But helpless Pieces of the Game He plays Upon this Chequer-board of Nights and Days : Hither and thither moves, and checks, and slays. And one by one back in the Closet lays. LXX The 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 ! Fourtli Edition. RUBAiYAT OF OMAR KHAYyIm. 73 LXXI (The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, Moves on : nor all your Piety nor Wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it. LXXII And that inverted Bowl they call the Sky, Whereunder crawling coop'd we live and die, Lift not your hands to It for help — for it As impotently moves as you or L LXXIII With Earth's first Clay They did the Last Man 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 Yesterday This Day's Madness did prepare ; To-MORROW'S Silence, Triumph, or Despair: Drink ! for you know not whence you came, nor why: Drink ! for you know not why you go, nor where. 74 RUBlirAT OF OMAR KHAYYAM. Fourth Edition. LXXV I tell you this — When, started from the Goal, Over the flaming shoulders of the Foal Of Heav'n Parwin and Mushtari they flung, In my predestin'd Plot of Dust and Soul LXXVI The Vine had struck a fibre : which about If clings my Being — let the Dervish flout; Of my Base metal may be filed a Key, That shall unlock the Door he howls without. LXXVII And this I know : whether the one True Light Kindle to Love, or Wrath-consume me quite. One flash of It within the Tavern caught Better than in the Temple lost outright. LXXVIII What ! out of senseless Nothing to provoke A conscious Something to resent the yoke Of unpermitted Pleasure, under pain Of Everlasting Penalties, if broke ! Pourtli Edition. EUBAIYAT OF OMAR KHAYYAM. 75 LXXIX What ! from his helpless Creature be repaid Pure Gold for what he lent him dross-allay'd — Sue for a Debt we never did contract, And cannot answer — Oh the sorry trade ! LXXX Oh Thou, who didst with pitfall and with gin Beset the Road I was to wander in, Thou wilt not with Predestin'd Evil round Enmesh, and then impute my Fall to Sin ! LXXXI Oh Thou, who Man of baser Earth didst make. And ev'n with Paradise devise the Snake : For all the Sin wherewith the Face of Man Is blacken'd — Man's forgiveness give — and take ! 76 RUBAIYAT OP OMAR KHAYYAM. Fourth Edition. LXXXII As under cover of departing Day Slunk hunger-stricken Ramazan away, Once more within the Potter's house alone I stood, surrounded by the Shapes of Clay. LXXXIII Shapes of all Sorts and Sizes, great and small, That 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 Said one among them — " Surely not in vain My substance of the common Earth was ta'en And to this Figure moulded, to be broke. Or trampled back to shapeless Earth again. LXXXV Then said a Second — " Ne'er a peevish Boy " Would break the Bowl from which he drank in joy; " And He that with his hand the Vessel made " Will surely not in after Wrath destroy." Fourtli Edition. BUBIIYAt OF OMAR KHATYAm. 77 LXXXVI After a momentary silence spake Some Vessel of a more ungainly make : " They sneer at me for leaning all awry : " What ! did the Hand then of the Potter shake ? " LXXXVI I Whereat some one of the loquacious Lot — I think a Sufi pipkin — waxing hot — " All this of Pot and Potter — Tell me then, " Who is the Potter, pray, and who the Pot ? " LXXXVIII "Why," said another, " Some there are who tell " 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." LXXXIX " Well," murmur'd one, " Let whoso make or buy, " My Clay with long Oblivion is gone dry : " But fill me with the old familiar Juice, " Methinks I might recover by and by." 78 EITbIiyAt of OMAB KHAYyIM. Fourth Edition. XC So while the Vessels one by one were speaking, The little Moon look'd in that all were seeking : And then theyjogg'd each other, "Brother! Brother! " Now for the Porter's shoulder-knot a-creaking ! " XCI Ah, 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 That ev'n my buried Ashes such a snare Of Vintage shall fling up into the Air As not a True-believer passing by But shall be overtaken unaware. Fourth Edition. RUBAITAT OP OMAE KHATYAm. 79 XCIII Indeed the Idols I have loved so long Have done my credit in this World much wrong : Have drown'd my Glory in a shallow Cup, And sold my reputation for a Song. xciv Indeed, indeed, Repentance oft before I swore — but was I sober when I swore ? And then and then came Spring, and Rose-in-hand My thread-bare Penitence apieces tore. XCV And much as Wine has play'd the Infidel, And robb'd me of my Robe of Honour — Well, I wonder often what the Vintners buy One half so precious as the stuff they sell. XCVI 1 Yet Ah, that Spring should vanish with the Rose ! That Youth's sweet-scented manuscript should close ! The Nightingale that in the branches sang, Ah whence, and whither flown again, who knows ! 80 EUBAIYAT OF OMAR KHATYAM. Fourth Edition. XCVII Would but the Desert of the Fountain yield One glimpse — if dimly, yet indeed, reveal'd, To which the fainting Traveller might spring. As springs the trampled herbage of the field ! XCVIII Would but some winged Angel ere too late Arrest the yet unfolded Roll of Fate, And make the stern Recorder otherwise Enregister, or quite obliterate ! xcix Ah Love ! could you and I with Him conspire To grasp this sorry Scheme of Things entire, Would not we shatter it to bits — and then Re-mould it nearer to the Heart's desire ! Fourth Edition. RUBAIYAt OF OMAR KHAYYAM. 81 C Yon rising Moon that looks for us again — How oft hereafter will she wax and wane ; How oft hereafter rising look for us Through this same Garden — and for one in vain ! CI And when like her, oh Saki, you shall pass Among the Guests Star-scatter'd on the Grass, And in your joyous errand reach the spot Where I made One — turn down an empty Glass ! TAMAM. RUBAIYAT OMAR KHAYYAM OF NAISHAPUR. FIRST EDITION. 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. II Dreaming, when Dawn's Left Hand was in the Sky, I heard a Voice within the Tavern cry, "Awake, my Little ones, and fill the Cup "Before Life's Liquor in its Cup be dry." 84 KUBAiyAT OP OMAR KHAYYAM. First Edition. Ill And, as the Cock crew, those who stood before The Taver7i shouted — "Open then the Door! " You know how little while we have to stay, "And, once departed, may return no more." 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. Iram indeed is gone with all its Rose, And Jamshj/d's Sev' n-ring' d Cup where no one knows; But still the Vine her ancient Ruby yields. And still a Garden by the Water blows. VI And David's Lips are lock't ; but in divine High piping Pehlevi, with "Wine! Wine! Wine! "Red Wine /" — the Nightingale cries to the Rose That yellow Cheek of Iter's to 'incarnadine. First Edition. RUBilYAf OF OMAK KHAYYAM. 85 Vll Come, fill the Cup, and in the Fire of Spring The Winter Garment of Repentance fling : The Bird of Time has but a little way To fly — and Lo ! the Bird is on the Wing. VIII And look — a thousand Blossoms with the Day Woke — and a thousand scatter' d into Clay : And this first Summer Month that brings the Rose Shall take Jamshyd and Kaikobdd away. IX But come with old Khayyam, and leave the Lot Of Kaikobdd and Kaikhosru forgot : Let Rustum lay about him as he will. Or Hdtim Tai cry Supper — heed them not. X With me along some Strip of Herbage strown That Just divides the desert from the sown. Where name of Slave and Sultan scarce is known, And pity Sultan Mahmud on his Throne. 86 ETJBilYAT OF OMAE KHAYYAm. First Ediaon. XI Here with a Loaf of Bread beneath the Bough, A Flask of Wine, a Book of Verse — and Thou Beside me singing in the Wilderness — And Wilderness is Paradise enow. XII " How sweet is mortal Sovranty ! " — think some : Others — " How blest the Paradise to come ! " Ah, take the Cash in hand and waive the Rest ; Oh, the brave Music of a distant Drum! XIII Look to the Rose that blows about us — " Lo, " Laughing," she says, " into the World L blow : "At once the silke7i Tassel of my Purse " Tear, and its Treasure oti the Garden throw." XIV The Worldly Hope men set their Hearts upon Turns Ashes — or it prospers ; and anon, Like Snow upon the Desert's dusty Face Lighting a little Hour or two — is gone. First Edition. EUBAITAT OP OMAR KHAYYAM, 87 XV And those who husbanded the Golden Grain, And those who flung it to the Winds like Rain, Alike to no such aureate Earth are turn'd As, buried once. Men want dug up again. XVI Think, in this battered Caravanserai Whose Doorways are alternate Night and Day, How Sultan after Sultan with his Pomp Abode his Hour or two, and went his way. xvn They say the Lion and the Lizard keep The Courts where Jamshyd gloried and drank deep : And Bahrdm, that great Hunter — the Wild Ass Stamps o'er his Head, and he lies fast asleep. XVIII T sometimes think that never blows so red The Rose as where some buried Ccesar bled; That every Hyacinth the Garden wears Dropt in its Lap from some once lovely Head. 88 BUBAIYAT OP OMAR KHAYYAM. First Edition. XIX And this delightful Herb whose tender Green Fledges the River's Lip on which we lean — Ah, lean upon it lightly ! for who knows From what once lovely Lip it springs unseen ! XX Ah, my Beloved, fill the Cup that clears To-day of past Regrets and future Fears — To-morrow ? — Why, To-morrow I may be Myself with Yesterday's Sev'n Thousand Years. XXI Lo ! some we loved, the loveliest and best That Time and Fate of all their Vintage prest. Have drunk their Cup a Round or two before, And one by one crept silently to Rest. XXII And we, that now make merry in the Room They left, and Summer dresses in ?iew Bloom, Ourselves must we beneath the Couch of Earth Descend, ourselves to make a Couch — for whom ? First Editlou. EUBilYAT OP OMAB KHAYTAm. 89 XXIII Ah, make the most of what we yet may spend. Before we too into the Dust descend ; Dust into Dust, and under Dust, to lie. Sans Wine, sans Song, sans Singer, and — sans End! XXIV Alike for those who for T o -J) KY prepare. And those that after a To-MORROW stare, A Muezzin from the Tower of Darkness cries " Fools ! your Reward is neither Here nor There ! " XXV Why, all the Saints and Sages who discuss' d Of the Two Worlds so learnedly, are thrust Like foolish Prophets forth ; their Words to Scorn Are scattered, and their Mouths are stopt with Dust. XXVI Ok, come with old Khayyam, and leave the Wise To talk ; one thing is certain, that Life flies ; One thing is certain, and the Rest is Lies ; The Flower that once has blown for ever dies. 90 RUBAryAT of OMAB KHAYYAM. First Edition. XXVII Myself when young did eagerly frequent Doctor and Saint, and heard great Argument About it and about : but evermore Came out by the same Door as in I went. XXVIII With them the Seed of Wisdom did T sow, And with my own hand labour' d it to grow : And this was all the Harvest that I reap' d — " I came like Water, and like Wind I go." XXIX Into this Universe, and why 7iot knowing, iVi?r whence, like Water willy-nilly flowing : And out of it, as Wind along the Waste, T know not whither, willy-nilly blowing. XXX What, without asking, hither hurried whence ? And, without asking, whither hurried hence ! Another and another Cup to drown The Memory of this Impertinence ! First Edition. EUBIiyIt OF OMAR KHAYYAm. 91 XXXI Up from Earth's Centre through the Seventh Gate T rose, and on the Throne of Saturn sate, And many Knots unraveVd by the Road ; But not the Knot of Human Death and Fate. XXXII There was a Door to which I found no Key : There was a Veil past which I could not see : Some little Talk awhile of Me and Thee There seemed — and then no more ^Thee and Me. xxxni Then to the rolling Heav'n itself I cried. Asking, " What Latnp had Destiny to guide " Her little Children stumbling in the Dark ? " And — " A blind Understanding ! " Heav'n replied. XXXIV Then to this earthen Bowl did I adjourn My Lip the secret Well of Life to learn : And Lip to Lip it murmur' d — " While you live " Drink I — for once dead you never shall return." 92 RUBAIYAt of OMAR KHAYYIjM. First Edition. XXXV I think the Vessel, that with fugitive Articulation answered, once did live, And merry -inake ; and the cold Lip I kissed How many Kisses might it take — and give ! XXXVI For in the Market-place, one Dusk of Day, T watch' d the Potter thumping his wet Clay : And with its all obliterated Tongue It murmur' d — " Gently, Brother, gently, pray ! " XXXVJI Ah, fill the Cup : — what boots it to repeat How Time is slipping underneath our Feet : Unborn To-MORROW, and dead Y'E'al'EKaKY, Why fret about them 2/TO-DAY be sweet ! [From Preface. Oil, if my soul can fling his Dust aside. And naked on the Air of Heaven ride. Is 't not a Shame, is 't not a Shame for Him So long in this Clay Suburb to abide ? Ftot Edition. BUBAIYAT OP OJIAB KHAYYAM. 93 Or is that but a Tent, where rests anon A Sultan to his Kingdom passing on, And which the swarthy Chamberlain shall strike Then when the Sultan rises to be gone ?'\ xxxvni Otie Moment in Annihilation's Waste, One Moment, of the Well of Life to taste — The Stars are setting and the Caravan Starts for the Dawn of Nothing — Oh, make haste ! XXXIX How long, how long, in infinite Pursuit Of This and That endeavour and dispute ? Better be merry with the fruitful Grape, Than sadden after none, or bitter. Fruit. XL You know, my Friends, how long since in my House For a new Marriage I did make Carouse : Divorced old barren Reason from my Bed, And took the Daughter of the Vine to Spouse. 94 RUBAIYAt op OMAE KHATYAM. Plrst Edition. XLI For " Is " and " Is-NOT " though with Rule and Line, And " Up-and-down " without, T could define, I yet in all I only cared to know. Was never deep in anything but — Wine. XLII And lately, by the Tavern Door agape. Came stealing through the Dusk an Angel Shape Bearing a Vessel on his Shoulder ; and He bid me taste of it; and 't was — the Grape 1 XLin The Grape that can with Logic absolute The Two-and- Seventy jarring Sects confute : TJie subtle Alchemist that in a Trice Life's leaden Metal into Gold transmute. XLIV The mighty Mahmiid, the victorious Lord, That all the misbelieving and black Horde Of Fears and Sorrows that itifest the Soul Scatters and slays with his enchanted Sword. First Edition. EUBAiyAT OP OMAB ICHAYYAM. 95 XLV But leave the Wise to wrangle, and with me The Quarrel of the Universe let be : And in some corner of the Hubbub coucht, Make Game of that which makes as much of Thee. XL VI For in and out, above, about, below, ' T is nothing but a Magic Shadow-show, Play'd in a Box whose Candle is the Sun, Round which we Phantom Figures come and go. XL VII And if the Wine you drink, the Lip you press. End in the Nothing all Things end in — Yes — Then fancy while Thou art. Thou art but what Thou shall be — Nothing — Thou shall not be less. XL VI II While the Rose blows along the River Brink, With old Khayyam the Ruby Vintage drink : And when the Angel with his darker Draught Draws up to Thee — take that, and do not shrink. 96 RUBAiYAT op OMAR KHAYYAM. First Edition. XLIX ' T is all a Chequer-board of Nights and Days Where Destiny with Men for Pieces plays : Hither and thither moves, and mates, and slays, And one by one back in the Closet lays. L The Ball no Question makes of Ayes and Noes, But Right or Left, as strikes the Player, goes; And He that toss'd Thee down into the Field, He knows about it all — HE knows — HE knows ! LI The Moving Finger writes ; and, having writ. Moves on : nor all thy Piety nor Wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it. LII And that inverted Bowl we call The Sky, Whereunder crawling coopH we live and die, Lift not thy hands to It for help — for It Rolls impotently on as Thou or /. First Edition. BUBAIYAT OF OMAR KHAYYAm. 97 LIII With Earth' s first Clay They did the Last Maris knead, And then of the Last Harvest sow'd the Seed: Yea, the first Morning of Creation wrote What the Last Dawn of Reckoning shall read. LIV I tell Thee this — When starting front the Goal, Over the shoulders of the flaming Foal Of Heav'n Par win and Mushtari they flung. In my predistirid Plot ^f Dust and Soul LV The Vine had struck a Fibre ; which about If clings my Being — let the Sufi flout ; Of my Base Metal may be filed a Key, That shall unlock the Door he howls without. LVI And this I know: whether' the one True Light, Kindle to Love, or Wrath-cojisume me quite, One Glimpse of It within the Tavern caught Better than in the Temple lost outright. 98 RUBAIYAT of OMAB KHAYYAM. First Edition, LVII Oh, Thou, who didst with Pitfall and with Gin Beset the Road I was to wander in. Thou wilt not with Predestination round Enmesh me, and impute my Fall to Sin f LVII I Oh, Thou, who Man of baser Earth didst make And who with Eden didst devise the Snake; For all the Sin wherewith the Face of Man Is blackened, Man's Forgiveness give — and take ! KUZA-NAMA. LIX Listen again. One Evening at the Close Of Ramazdn, ere the better Moon arose, In that old Potter's Shop I stood alone With the clay Population round in Rows. Eirst Edition. BUBIAYAT OP OMAR KHAYYAM. 99 LX And, strange to tell, among that Earthen Lot Some could articulate, while others not : And suddenly one more impatient cried — " Who. is the Potter, pray, and who the Pot ? " LXI Then said another — " Surely not in vain "My Substance from the common Earth was ta'en, " That He who subtly wrought me into Shape " Should stamp rne back to common Earth again." LXII Another said — " Why, ne'er a peevish Boy, " Would break the Bowl from which he drank in Joy ; " Shall He that made the Vessel in pure Love " And Fansy, in an after Rage destroy ! " LX/II None ansiver'd this ; but after Silence spake A Vessel of a more ungainly Make : " They sneer at me for leaning all awry; " What / did the Hand then of the Potter shake ? " 100 RUBIAyaT of OMAR KHAYYAM. First Edition. LXIV Said one — " Folks of a surly Tapster tell, '' And daub his Visage with the Smoke of Hell; " They talk of some strict Testing of us — Pish ! " He's a Good Fellow, and 't will all be well." LXV Then said another with a long-drawn Sigh, " My Clay with long oblivion is gone dry : " But, fill me with the old familiar Juice, " Methinks T might recover by-and-bye ! " LXVI So while the Vessels one by one were speaking, One spied the little Crescent all were seeking : And then they jogg'd each other, "Brother! Brother! " Hark to the Porter's Shoulder-knot a-creaking ! " First Eflltion. BUBIAYAT OP OMAR KHAYYAM. 101 LXVII Ah, with the Grape my fading Life provide, And wash my Body whence the Life has died. And in the Windingsheet of Vine-leaf wrapt. So bury me by some sweet Garden-side. LXVIII That ev'n my buried Ashes such a Snare Of Perfume shall fling up into the Air, As not a True Believer passing by But shall be overtaken unaware. LXIX Indeed the Idols I have loved so long Have done my Credit in Men's Eye much wrong: Have drown' d my Honour in a shallow Cup, And sold my Reputation for a Song. LXX Indeed, indeed. Repentance oft before I swore — but was I sober when I swore f And then and then came Spring, and Rose-in-hand My thread-bare Penitence apieces tore. 102 JIUBAiYAT of OMAB KHAYYAM. First Edition. LXXI And much as Wine has play'd the Infidel, And robb'd me of my Robe of Honour — well, I often wonder what the Vintners buy One half so precious as the Goods they sell. LXXII Alas, that Spring should vanish with the Rose ! That Youth's sweet-scented Manuscript should close ! The Nightingale that in the Branches sang. Ah, whence, and whither flown again, who knows I LXXIII Ah Love I could thou and I with Fate conspire To grasp this sorry Scheme of Things entire. Would tiot we shatter it to bits — and then Re-mould it nearer to the Heart's Desire ! LXXIV Ah, Moon of my Delight who know'st no wane. The Moon of Heav'n is rising once agaitt : How oft hereafter rising shall she look Through this same Garden after me — in vain ! First Edition. EUBAIYAT OP OMAR KHAYYIm, 103 LXXV And when Thyself with shining Foot s halt pass Among the Guests Star-scatter' d on the Grass, And in thy joyous Errand reach the Spot Where I made one — turn down an empty Glass ! TAMAM SHUD. I^OTES. [Tlie references are, except in the first note only, to the stamas of the Fourth edition.'] (Stanza I.) Flinging a Stone into tlie Cup was the signal for " To Horse ! " in the Desert. (II.) The "False Dawn;'''' Subhi Kdzib, a transient Light on the Horizon about an hour before the Siibhi sddik or True Dawn ; a well-known Phenomenon in the East. (IV.) New Year. Beginning with the Vernal Equi- nox, it must be remembered; and (howsoever the old Solar Year is practically superseded by the clumsy Lunar Year that dates from the Mohammedan Hijra) stiU com- memorated by a Festival that is said to have been ap- pointed by the very Jamshyd whom Omar so often talks of, and whose yearly Calendar he helped to rectify. " The sudden approach and rapid advance of the Spring," says Mr. Binning, " are very striking. Before the Snow is well off the Ground, the Trees burst into Blossom, and the Flowers start from the Soil. At Naw Mooz (their New Year's Day) the Snow was lying in patches on the HUls and in the shaded VaEies, while the Fruit-trees in the Garden were budding beautifully, and green Plants and Flowers springing upon the Plains on every side — ' And on old Hyems' Chin and icy Crown ' An odorous Chaplet of sweet Summer buds ' Is, as in mockery, set — ' — Among the Plants newly appear'd I recognized some Acquaintances I had not seen for many a Year : among NOTES. 105 these, two varieties of the Thistle ; a coarse species of the Daisy, Uke the Horse-gowan ; red and white clover ; the Dock ; the blue Corn-flower ; and that vidgar Herb the Dandelion rearing its yeUow crest on the Banks of the Water-courses." The Nightingale was not yet heard, for the Eose was not yet blown : but an almost identical Blackbird and Woodpecker helped to make up some- thing of a North-country Spring. " The White Hand of Moses." Exodus iv. 6 ; where Moses draws forth his Hand — not, according to the Persians, " leprous as Snow," — but ivhite, as our May- blossom in Spring perhaps. According to them also the Healing Power of Jesus resided in his Breath. (V.) Iram, planted by King ShaddAd, and now sunk somewhere in the Sands of Arabia. Jamshyd's Seven- ring'd Cup was typical of the 7 Heavens, 7 Planets, 7 Seas, &c., and was a Divining Cup. (VI.) Pehlem, the old Heroic Sanskrit of Persia. Hdflz also speaks of the Nightingale's Pehlevi, which did not change with the People's. I am not sure if the fourth line refers to the Red Rose looking sickly, or to the Yellow Rose that ought to be Red ; Red, White, and Yellow Roses all common in Persia. I think that Southey in his Common-Place Book, quotes from some Spanish author about the Rose being White tm 10 o'clock ; "Rosa Perfecta " at 2 ; and " per- feeta incamada " at 5. (X.) Rustum, the " Hercules '' of Persia, and Zal his Father, whose exploits are among the most celebrated in the Shdhndma. Hatim Tai, a well-known type of Ori- ental Generosity. (Xni.) A Drum — beaten outside a Palace. (XIV.) That is, the Rose's Golden Centre. (XVIII.) Persepolis: caU'd also Takht-i-Jamshyd — The Throne of Jamshyd, "King Splendid," of the lOG NOTES. mythical Peshdddian Dynasty, and supposed (according to the Shah-ndma) to have been founded and built by him. Others refer it to the Work of the Genie Bang, J4n Ibn J4n — who also buUt the Pyramids — before the time of Adam. Baheam GtR.— Bahram of the Wild Ass — a Sassanian Sovereign — had also his Seven Castles (like the King of Bohemia ! ) each of a different Colour : each with a Eoyal Mistress within ; each of whom tells him a Story, as told in one of the most famous Poems of Persia, written by Amir Khusraw : aU these Sevens also figuring (according to Eastern Mysticism) the Seven Heavens ; and perhaps the Book itself that Eighth, iato which the mystical Seven transcend, and within which they revolve. The Ruins of Three of those Towers are yet shown by the Peasantry; as also the Swamp in which Bahrdm sunk, hke the Master of Eavenswood, while pursuing his Ghir. The Palace that to Heav'n his piUars 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." [Included in Nicolas' s edition as No. 350 of the Bubdiyydt, and also in Mr. Whinfield's translation.] This Quatrain Mr. Bianing found, among several of Hafiz and others, inscribed by some stray hand among the ruuis of Persepolis. The Ringdove's ancient Pehlevi Coo, Coo, Coo, signifies also in Persian " Where ? Where f Where ? " In Att4r's " Bird-parliament " she is reproved by the Leader of the Birds for sitting still, and for ever harping on that one note of lamentation for her lost Ytisuf. Apropos of Omar's Red Roses in Stanza xix, I am re- minded of an old English Superstition, that our Anem- NOTES, 107 one Pulsatilla, or purple " Pasque Flower,'' (wMch. grows plentifully about the Fleam Dyke, near Cam- bridge,) grows only where Danish. Blood has been spilt. (XXI). A thousand years to each Planet. (XXXI.) Saturn, Lord of the Seventh Heaven. (XXXII.) Me-AND-Thee : some dividual Existence or Personality distinct from the Whole. (XXXVII.) One of the Persian Poets — Att4r, I think — has a pretty story about this. A thirsty Traveller dips his hand into a Spring of Water to drink from. By-and-by comes another who draws up and drinks from an earthen bowl, and then departs, leaving his Bowl behind him. The first Traveller takes it up for another draught ; but is surprised to find that the same Water which had tasted sweet from his own hand tastes bitter from the earthen Bowl. But a Voice — from Heaven, I think — teUs him the clay from which the Bowl is made was once Man ; and, into whatever shape renew'd, can never lose the bitter flavour of MortaUty. (XXXIX.) The custom of throwing a little Wine on the ground before drinking stiU continues in Persia, and perhaps generally in the East. Mons. Nicolas con- siders it " un signe de Ub6ralite, et en meme temps un avertissement que le buveur doit vider sa coupe jusqu'^ la dernifere goutte." Is it not more likely an ancient Superstition ; a Libation to propitiate Earth, or make her an Accomplice in the illicit Revel 1 Or, perhaps, to divert the Jealous Eye by some sacrifice of superfluity, as with the Ancients of the West ? With Omar we see something more is signified ; the precious Liquor is not lost, but sinks into the ground to refresh the dust of some poor Wine-worshipper foregone. Thus Hdfiz, copying Omar in so many ways : " When thou drinkest Wine pour a draught on the ground. Wherefore fear the Sin which brings to another Gain ? " 108 NOTES. (XLIII.) According to one beautiful Oriental Legend, Azrael accomplishes his mission by holding to the nostril an Apple from the Tree of Life. This, and the two foUowiag Stanzas would have been withdrawn, as somewhat de trop, from the Text, but for advice which I least like to disregard. (LI.) From Mah to Mahi ; from Fish to Moon. (LVI.) A Jest, of course, at his Studies. A curious mathematical Quatrain of Omar's has been poiated out to me ; the more curious because almost exactly paraUel'd by some Verses of Doctor Donne's, that are quoted ia 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 obhquely run ; Thy firmness makes my circle just. And me to end where I begun. (LIX.) The Seventy-two Eehgions supposed to divide the World, including Islamism, as some think : but others not. NOTES. 109 (LX.) AUuding to Sultan MahmM's Conquest of India and its dark people. (LXVIII.) Fdnusi Ithiydl, a Magie-lanthom stiU used in India; the cyliadrioal Interior being paiated witli various Figures, and so Ughtly poised and ventilated as to revolve round the lighted Candle within. (LXX). A very mysterious Line in the Original : O dd-nad ddnad 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 " Pan- theism." My Sheikh, whose knowledge fiows 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 wiU, 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 agaia — from a very different quarter — "I had ;' to refer the other day to Aristophanes, and came by 110 NOTES. chance on a curious SpeaMng-pot story in the Vespse, which I had quite forgotten. 4>tXoxXsu)V. "Axoue, /i-rj (ftuf^- iv SupapEi fuvii lots 1.1435 xaxlal' iyivov. KarrjYOpoi;. Taux' 6^1!) (jiapTUpo|ji.at. N > Compounded of three stanzas < 413 234 ™-' (448 247 82 in the original is — In the Springtime, biding with one who is hourl-fair. And a flask of wine, if 't is to be had — somewhere On the tillage's grassy skirt — Alack! though most May think it a sin, I feel that my heaven is there ! 114 NOTES BY THE EDITOR. (P.) (N.) (W.) 413 in the original — A flask of red wine, and a volume of song, together — Halt a loaf, — Just enough the ravage of Want to tether : Such is my wish — then, thou in the waste with me — Oh ! sweeter were tliis than a monarch's crown and feather I (A parallel is also found in No. 146 of the Persian, which runs thus — He who doth here below hut half a loaf possess, Who for his own can claim some sheltering nook's recess, He who to none is either lord or thrall — Go ! tell Mm he enjoys the world's fuU happiness !) xni. Compounded of two stanzas, the first of C 61 which is not in the printed text .... ^ 92 43 The Persian of N. 92, may be rendered thus — I know not if He who kneaded my clay to man Belong to the host of Heaven or the Hellish clan ; — A life mid the meadows, with Woman, and Music, and Wine, Heaven's cash is to me ; — let Heaven's credit thy fancy trepan ! xrv. Not found in the Persian of Nicolas 189 XV 156 95 This is very beautiful in Fitzgerald. The exact rendering of the Persian is — Darling, ere griefs our nightly couch enfold again. Bid wine he brought, red sparkling as of old, again ! — And tliou, weak fool ! think not that thou art gold : When buried, none will dig thee up from the mould again I XVI. Not found in the Persian or in Whinfleld. XVII 67 34 This old inn caU'd the world, that man shelters his head in, (Pied curtains of Dawn and of Dusk o'er It spreading;) — 'T is the banqueting-haU many Jamshide have quitted. The couch many Bahrams have found their last bed in ! NOTES BY THE EDITOR. 115 (*"'•' (N.) (W.) sviir 69 35 Here, where Bahrain oft flUed his Chalice high, elate, Now, heasts of prey the ruined palace violate ;— Lite the wild ass he lassoed, the great Hunter Lies in the noose of Huntsman Death, annihilate. XIX. Not in Nicolas' Persian text 58 XX 59 31 The verdure sweet yon rivulet's bank arraying there, ". 'T is the down on an angel's lip," in homely saying, there — O tread not thereon disdainfully! — it springeth From the dust of some tuUp-cheek that lies decaying there I XXI 269 167 Let not the morrow make thee, friend, down-hearted ! Draw profit of the day yet undeparted : We '11 join, when we to-morrow leave this mansion, The hand seven thousand years ago that started 1 XXII. A very beautiful stanza which I do not find in the Persian, xxni 348 205 The wheel of Heaven thy death and mine is bringing, friend ! Over our lives the cloud of doom 't is flinging, friend ! Come, sit upon this turf, for little time is left Ere fresher turf shall from our dust be springing, friend I XXIV. Complementary to the sense of xxni, with an addition not ui the Persian. XXV 337 198 Myriad minds at work, of sects and creeds to learn, The Doubtful from the Sure all puzzled to discern : Suddenly from the Dark the crier raised a cry — " Not this, nor that, ye fools ! the path that ye must turn ! " How delicately and skUfully Fitzgerald turns the Persian expression hteraUy into a common English phrase, "neither here nor there,'' to which he lends new force 116 NOTES BY THJE EDITOR. (F.) CN.) fW.) and effect ! Instead of " from the dark, the Crier," Whinfleld has " from behind the veil a Voice," while Fitzgerald ex- presses it ia a fine paraphrase, " A Muezzin from the tower of Darkness." XXVI. Evidently from a Persian source which I cannot identify. It resembles N. 120, W. 82, which correspond to the following — Tlie learned, the cream of manMnd, "who have clxlveB Intellect's chariot over the heights of heaven — ( Void and o'erturned, like that blue sky they trace. Ar e dazed, when they to measure Thee have striven ! xxvn 225 143 Forth, like a hawk, from Mystery's world I fly. Seeking escape to win from the Low to the High : But finding none that more of It knows than I, Out through the door I go that I entered by ! XXVIII. Not in Nicolas 185 XXIX. ) Paraphrased from the original (not XXX. i in Nicolas) of (34 There is a hint of it in N. 42 and in "W. 12, which corresponds to N. 22. This last may be rendered — This life is but three days' space, and It speeds apace, Like wind that sweeps away o'er the desert's face : So long as it lasts, two days ne'er trouble my mind, —The day undawned, and the day that has run Its race, > Neither in Nicolas < (,„„ XXXII. S I 203 XXXIII. A fine stanza ; not in N. or in W. xxxrv. Not in N. or W. XXXV. Not in the Persian text of Nicolas 149 NOTES BY THE EDITOR. 117 (F.) (N.) (W.) A similar thouglit is contained in N. 389, W. 223 — Sprung from the Four, and the Seven I I see that never The Four and the Seven respond to thy brain's endeavour— Drinlr wine ! for I tell thee, four times o'er and more, Return there is none I — Once gone, thou art gone for ever 1 (The four elements and the seven heavens from which man derives his essence.) XXXVI. Perhaps suggested by N. 28, W. 17. xxxvn 211 137 xxxvin. Perhaps suggested by N. 119. XXXIX 188 110 XL 40 (294 ^^ ? 359 XLii. Partly altered from 49 28 xiiii. Not in Nicolas 139 xiiiv. Not in Nicolas 218 XLV 80 37 A very fine and sufficiently close rendering, but the final ' ' prepares it for another guest " contains an idea which confuses the rela- tions between the body and the soul. This is closer — Thy body 's a tent, where the Soul, like a King in quest Of the goal of Nought, is a momentary guest ; — He arises ; Death's farrdsh uproots the tent. And the King moves on to another stage to rest. 5 137 90 ^^ hl9 190 XLvn. Not found in the original. XLVin. Ditto. Perhaps suggested by N. 80 and N. 214. The latter (214) may be rendered — 118 NOTES BY THE EDITOR. (P.) (N.) (W.) Up ! smooth-faced boy, the daybreak shines for thee : Brimin'd with red wine let the crystal goblet be ! This hoiir is lent thee In the House of Dust : — Another thou may'st seek, hut ne'er shalt see ! XLix., L., LI. Not found. These three and the preceding one are probably founded on N. 365 and N. 214 blended. Lii 443 244 Liii 49 28 Liv. Not found. LV 181 106 A double-sized beaker to measure my wine I '11 take ; Two doses to match my settled design I '11 take ; With the first, I '11 divorce me from Faith and from Beason quite, With the next, a new bride in the Child of the Vine I 'U take I This is a conceit derived from the Moham- medan law of divorce. Similar imagery is used in N. 259. LYi. Not found. Perhaps suggested from the same source as xxxv. LVII. Not found. Derived from N. 22, which is noticed under xxix-xxx. Lviii. ., 329 A tolerably close paraphrase of the Persian words, but conveying a totally different sense. Lix 179 105 Only the last line differs to any considerable degree, and Fitzgerald has in it replaced the original with a superior idea. ■J ^ Not found. LXI. NOTES BY THE EDITOR. 119 Suggested by several of the ruhdiyyat. { 38 Lxxxrv. LXXXV. LXXXVI. LXXXVIII. Lxxxix ^290 185 115 When Fate, at her foot, a broken wreck shall fling me. And when Fate's hand, a poor plucked fowl shall wring me ; Beware, of my clay, aught else than a bowl to make, That the scent of the wine new life in tune may bring me ! xo. Not in the original. xci. 109 76 Let wine, gay comrades, be the food I 'm fed upon ; — These amber cheeks its ruby light be shed upon ! Wash me in 't, when I die ; — and let the trees Of my vineyard yield the bier that I lie dead upon 1 XCII. ^ xciii. > Not in the original. xciv. ) xcv 463 115 Since the Moon and the Star of Eve first shone on high. Nought has been known with ruby Wine could vie : Strange, that the vintners should in trafSe deal ! Better than what they sell, what could they buy J XCVI 128 86 Ah ! that young Life should close its volume bright away 1 Mirth's springtime green, that it should pass from sight away ! Ah ! for the Bird of Joy whose name is Youth : We know not when she came, nor when took flight away ! 122 NOTES BY THE EDITOR. (N.) (W.: xovii. Not found in the original. xcviii. i Suggested by N. 216, 340, 457; W. xcix. ) 140,200,251. N. 340 may be rendered thus : If I like God o'er Heaven's Mgti fate could reign, I 'd sweep away the present Heayen's domain. And from Its ruins sucli a new one build That an honest heart its wish could aye attain ! N. 457 is as follows : I would God were this whole world's scheme renewing, — And now ! at once ! that I might see it doing ! That either from His roll my name were cancelled, Or lucMer days for me from Heaven accruing ! 94 8 is as follows : Since none can be our surety for to-morrow, Sweeten, my love, thy heart to-day from sorrow : Drink wine, fair Moon, In wlne-Mght, for the moon Will come again, and miss us, many a morrow ! 94. The moon cleaves the skirt of the night — then, oh 1 drink Wine ! For never again will moment like this he thine. Be gay ! and remember that many and many a moon On the surface of earth again and again wOl shine ! CI. .192 112 Appoint ye a tryst, happy comrades, anon 1 And when — as your revel in gladness comes on — The Saki takes goblet in hand, oh ! remember. And bless, while you drink, the poor fellow that 's gone I NOTES BY THE EDITOR. 123 The following may be added, as characteristic of the spirit of Omar Khayyam : N. 2. Thou ! chosen one from earth's full muster-roll to me ! Dearer than my two eyes, than even my soul to me ! — Though nothing than life more precious we esteem, Yet dearer art thou, my love, a hundredfold to me ! N. 4. Nothing but pain and wretchedness we earn in This world that for a moment we sojourn in : We go ! — no problem solved alas ! discerning ; Myriad regrets within our bosoms burning ! N. 5. O master ! grant us only this, we prithee : Preach not ! but mutely guide to bhss, we prithee 1 " We walk not straight 1 " —Nay, It is thou who sctulntest ! Go, heal thy sight, and leave us in peace, we prithee : N. 6. Hither ! come hither, love ! my heart doth need thee ; Come, and expound a riddle I wUl read thee. The earthen jar bring too, — and let us drlnlr, love ! Ere, turned to clay, to earthenware they knead thee I N. 7. Wash me when dead in the juice of the vine, old friends ! Let your funeral service be drinking and wine, old friends ! And If you would meet me again when the Doomsday comes, Search the dust of the tavern, and sift from it mine, old friends ! N. 13. Howe'er with beauty's hue and bloom endow'd I be. Of tuUp-cheek and cypress-form though proud I be ; Yet know I not why the Limner chose that, here, in this Mint- house of clay, amid the painted crowd I be ! 124 NOTES BY THE EDITOR. N. 57. Unworthy of Hell, unfit for Heaven, I be— God knows what clay He used wlien He moulded me 1 Foul as a punk, ungodly as a monk, No f altli, no world, no iope of Heaven I see ! N. 88. Wicked, men call me ever ; yet blameless I ! TMnk how it is, ye Saints ! — My life, ye cry, Breaks all Heaven's laws — Good lack ! I have no sin, That needs reproach, save wenching and drink ! — then, why > N. 388. Oh ! Thou hast shattered to bits my jar of wine, my Lord ! Thou hast shut me out from the gladness that was mine, my Lord ! Thou hast spUt and scattered my wine upon the clay — O dust in my mouth ! if the drunkness be not Thine, my Lord ! According to the testimony of an old MS., according to M. Nicolas, tlie third line of this stanza ought to run thus : " I drink the wine ; 't is Thou who f eel'st its power — "