by Omar Khayyam
Chapter 5 of 8 • 310 min read • Published 1120
is on the Wing. A'^ vm Whether at Naishdpur or Babylon, Whether the Cup with sweet or bitter run, The Wine of Life keepd oozing drop by drop. The Leaves of Life keep falling one by one. [113] SECOND EDITION IX Morning 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 Kaikobdd away. Well, let it take them ! What have we to do With Kaikob^ the Great, or Kaikhosru? Let Rustum cry "To Battle^ as he likes. Or Hdtim Tai "To Supper!''— heed not you.
XI With me along the strip of Herbage strown That just divides the desert from the sown, Where name of Slave and Sultin is foigot — And Peace to M^hmud on his golden Throne! [115] f ) t i 4 * SECOND EDITION XII Hm wMi ft little Bread beneath the Bough, A Fluk of Wiiie, a Book of Verse — and Thou Beside me singing in the Wilderness — Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow! xin Some for the Glories of This World; and some Sigh for the Prophet^s Paradise to come; Ah, take the Cash, and let the Promise go, Nor heed the rumble of a distant Drum !
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XIV Were it not Folly, Spider-like to spin The Thread of present Life away to win What? for ourselves, who know not if we shall Breathe out the very Breath we now breathe in ! [117] SECOND EDITION 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.* For those who husbanded the Golden grain, And those who flung it to the winds like Rain, Alike to no such aureate Earth are turned As, buried once.
Men want dug up again. xvn 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. [119] ^ Tln-y s«y III.- l.i.iii . Illf Courts wlKTf .1 And H:iliriliu.
Ib^ n i£) SECOND EDITION xvm TUnk, in this battered Caravanserai Whose Portals are alternate Night and Day, How Sult^ after Sult^ with his Pomp Abode his destin'^d Hour, and went his way. XIX Tliqr say the Lion and the Lizard keep Th^ Courts where Jamsh^d gloried and drank deep: And Bahr&m, that great Hunter — the Wild Ass Stamps o'^er his Head, but cannot break his Sleep.
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XX Hie Palace that to Heav'^n his pillars threw, And Kings the forehead on his threshold drew — I saw the solitary Ringdove there, And ^^Coo, coo, coo,** she cried; and ^^Coo, coo. ooo. [l»l] SECOND EDITION Ah, my Belovdd, fill the Cup that clears To-DAT of past Regrets and future Fears: To-morrow! — Why, To-morrow I may be Myself with Yesterday'^s Sev^n thousand Years. xxn For some we loved, the loveliest and the best That firom his Vintage rolling Time has prest, Have drunk their Cup a Round or two before, And one by one crept silently to rest. xxm 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? [IMJ SECOND EDITION XXIV I sometimes think that never blows so red The Rose as where some buried Caesar bled; That eveiy Hyacinth the Gkuxlen wears Dropt in her Lap from some once lovely Head.
XXV And this delightful Herb whose living Green Fledges the Riveras Lip on which we lean — Ah, lean upon it lightly! for who knows From what once lovely Lip it springs unseen! XXVI 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 — End! [196] SECOND EDITION xxvn Alike for those who for To-day prepare. And those that after some To-mobrow stare, A Muezzin from the Tower of Darkness cries, ^^Fools! your Reward is neither Here nor There !^ xxvin Another Voice, when I am sleeping, cries, **The Flower should open with the Morning skies/ And a retreating Whisper, as I wake — *^The Flower that once has blown for ever dies.^ XXIX Why, all the Saints and Sages who discussed 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. f M7 1 n SECOND EDITION 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.
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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.'*' Into this Universe, and Why not knowings Nor Whence, like Water willy-nilly flowing: And out of it, as Wind along the Waste, I know not Whithevy willy-niDy blowing. [ W9] SECOND EDITION xxxm What, without asking, hither hurried Whence?
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