Topic: The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

[Nichi]

90 quatrains ... will post only a few at a time. (It will be a continuing saga.)
My memory was refreshed about it as M referenced it in his "Death" thread.

On death, the Mystic’s double catches The Sultan's Turret in a Noose of Light. And carries it away on a melody of fantastic possibilities - contained only by the imagination.

Such is the prize of those who have mastered the second task, and who have secured for themselves the death of a Mystic - the Vehicle of Adventure!

[Nichi]

The Rubayyat of Omar Khayyam

Translated into English in 1859
by Edward FitzGerald


I.
        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."

III.
        And, as the Cock crew, those who stood before
        The Tavern shouted -- "Open then the Door!
        You know how little while we have to stay,
        And, once departed, may return no more."

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.

V.
        Iram* indeed is gone with all its Rose,
        And Jamshyd'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 hers to incarnadine.

VII.
        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.
        Whether at Naishapur 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.
     

**Iram of the Pillars
**Jamshyd was a powerful Persian mythological king. He was said to have had a magical seven-ring cup, which was filled with the elixir of immortality, and allowed him to observe the universe.
http://lit.genius.com/Edward-fitzgerald-the-rubaiyat-of-omar-khayyam-5th-edition-annotated#note-2036994

[Nichi]

The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, circa 1910


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