Omar Khayyam

“ In all the province of Khorasan there is not any city larger than Nishapur, nor any blessed with a more pure and temperate air." No doubt it was some of these gardens that called forth Omar's encomiums.
But it is in the Kufríya, or antinomian quatrains, and in the Munáját, or pious aspirations, that the most remarkable and characteristic features of Omar's poetry are exhibited. The glaring contrast between these two classes of his poetry has led his readers to take very opposite views of him, according as they looked at one or the other side of the shield. ”

“ These hypocrites, who build on saintly show,
Treating the body as the spirit's foe,
If they will shut their mouths with lime, like jars,
My jar of grape-juice I will then forego.
236. L. B. B. reads arra, of which I can make no sense. Bar fark niham, 'I will put aside;' bar fark (line 4) 'on their mouths.'
237.
Many have come, and run their eager race,
Striving for pleasures, luxuries, or place,
And quaffed their wine, and now all silent lie,
Enfolded in their parent earth's embrace.
237. C. L. A. I.
238. ”

“ Hear now Khayyám's advice, and bear in mind,
Consort with revellers, though they be maligned.
Cast down the gates of abstinence and prayer.
Yea, drink, and even rob, but, oh! be kind!
368. C. L. N. A. B. I. J. A rather violent extension of the doctrine, Mercy is better than sacrifice.
369.
This world a body is, and God its soul,
And angels are its senses, who control
Its limbs—the creatures, elements, and spheres;
The ONE is the sole basis of the whole. ”

“ For instance, some grammarians, speaking loosely, say that after alif, waw and silent he, the izáfat is expressed by hamza or ya. What they mean to say is, by hamza i maksúr, or ya i maksúr,—"kasra bearing" hamza or ya. One has only to scan a verse containing one of these hamzas or yas to see that they are always followed by kasra expressed or understood. For the izáfat, wherever it occurs, invariably adds a syllable to the word preceding it, and no Persian syllable consists of less than one consonant and one vowel. The fact is, the izáfat, when expressed, is always expressed by kasra. ”

“ And hold a creed like mine, which is, to drain
The cup of wine, not that of misery.
371. L. N. So the Ecclesiast, "There is nothing better for a man than that he should eat, and drink, and make his soul enjoy good in his labour." ”

“ Men you may cheat by hypocritc arts,
But how cheat Him to whom all hearts are bare?
177. C. L. N. A. I. J.
178.
Ah! wine lends wings to many a weary wight,
And beauty spots to ladies' faces bright;
All Ramazan I have not drunk a drop,
Thrice welcome then, O Bairam's blessed night! ”

“ C. L. N. A. I. Farídun and Kai Khosrau were ancient kings of Persia. Kai Khosrau is usually identified with Cyrus.
438.
O rose! all beauties' charms thou dost excel,
As wine excels the pearl within its shell;
O fortune! thou dost ever show thyself
More strange, although I seem to know thee well!
438. N. Mimání, You resemble.
439.
From this world's kitchen crave not to obtain
Those dainties, seeming real, but really vain,
Which greedy worldlings gorge to their own loss;
Renounce that loss, so loss shall prove thy gain!
439. L. N. B.
440. ”

“ I saw a sage, who a great wine-jug bore;
I said, "O Shaikh, have you no shame?" Said he,
"Allah hath boundless mercy in his store."
284. C. L. N. A. I. J. Sar mast, a compound, hence izáfat omitted. Saboyey, hamza (for conjunctive yá) followed by yá i tankír. See Lumsden, ii. 269.
285.
Life's fount is wine, Khizer its guardian,
I, like Elias, find it where I can;
'Tis sustenance for heart and spirit too,
Allah himself calls wine "a boon to man."
285. C. L. N. A. I. J. Koran, ii. 216. Elias discovered the water of life.
286.
Though wine is banned, yet drink, for ever drink! ”

“ The state of the case is this:—Out of all the quatrains passing under Omar's name hardly any stand alone. Almost every one belongs to a family, more or less numerous, to the other members of which it bears a strong family likeness. One can say with some confidence that all these replicas, paraprases and variations of the same ideas can hardly be the work of one and the same hand; but to distinguish with certainty the handiwork of the master from that of his imitators is a task probably beyond the powers of any foreign critic living 800 years after the poems in question were written. ”

“ In truth wine is a spirit thin as air,
A limpid soul in the cup's earthen ware;
No dull dense person shall he friend of mine
Save wine-cups, which are dense and also rare.
291. L. N. B. Láyik . . . . man: izáfat omitted because of the intervening words. Lumsden, ii., 250.
292.
O wheel of heaven! no ties of bread you feel,
No ties of salt, you flay me like an eel!
A woman's wheel spins clothes for man and wife,
It does more good than you, heavenly wheel!
292. C. L. N. A. I. J.
293. ”

“ A knowledge of the commonplace, at least, of Oriental literature, philosophy, and religion is as necessary to the general reader of the present day as an acquaintance with the Latin and Greek classics was a generation or so ago. Immense strides have been made within the present century in these branches of learning; Sanskrit has been brought within the range of accurate philology, and its invaluable ancient literature thoroughly investigated ”

“ If a Latin poem is neat, elegant and musical, it is enough, but English readers are not so easily satisfied." Much of Omar's matter, when literally translated, seems very trite and commonplace, many of the "conceits," of which he is so fond, very frigid, and even his peculiar grotesque humour often loses its savour in an English replica. The translator is often tempted to elevate a too grovelling sentiment, to "sharpen a point" here and there, to trick out a commonplace with some borrowed modern embellishment. ”

“ Trübner & Co., in a spirit of enterprise which does them infinite credit, have determined to supply the constantly-increasing want, and to give in a popular, or, at least, a comprehensive form, all this mass of knowledge to the world."—Times. ”

“ The poems in praise of scenery again offer a strong contrast to modern treatment of the same theme. The only aspects of nature noticed by Omar are such as affect the senses agreeably—the bright flowers, the song of the nightingale, the grassy bank of the stream, and the shady garden associated in his mind with his convivial parties. The geographer translated by Sir W. Ouseley says of Nishapur, "The city is watered by a subterranean canal, which is conveyed to the fields and gardens, and there is a considerable stream that waters the city and the villages about it—this stream is named Saka. ”

“ L. An echo of the Asharians' discussions on the Divine attributes.
403.
Let not base avarice enslave thy mind,
Nor vain ambition in its trammels bind;
Be sharp as fire, as running water swift.
Not, like earth's dust, the sport of every wind!
403. L. C. A. I. J.
404. ”

“ The people who the heavenly world adorn,
Who come each night, and go away each morn,
Now on Heaven's skirt, and now in earth's deep pouch.
While Allah lives, shall aye anew be born!
215. L. B. Earth's pouch, i.e. "beneath the earth." Rezaye. L. Reads dídaye. Both readings are probably wrong.
216.
Slaves of vain wisdom and philosophy,
Who toil at Being and Nonentity,
Parching your brains till they are like dry grapes,
Be wise in time, and drink grape-juice, like me! ”

“ Buhler, Inspector of Schools in India, writes:—"When I was Professor of Oriental Languages in Elphinstone College, I frequently felt the want of such a work to which I could refer the students."
Professor Cowell, of Cambridge, writes:—"It will be especially useful to the students in our Indian colleges and universities. I used to long for such a book when I was teaching in Calcutta. Hindu students are intensely interested in the history of Sanskrit literature, and this volume will supply them with all they want on the subject." ”

“ I drown in sin—show me Thy clemency!
My soul is dark—make me Thy light to see!
A heaven that must be earned by painful works,
I call a wage, not a gift fair and free.
۹۳
(Persian characters)
93. C. L. N. A. I. J. Arabic words like razá' drop the hamza in Persian, except with the izáfat: (Bl. Prosody 14) . For this hamza, ya is often used, as here.
94.
Did He who made me fashion me for hell,
Or destine me for heaven? I can not tell.
Yet will I not renounce cup, lute, and love,
Nor earthly cash for heavenly credit sell.
۹۴
(Persian characters)
94. ”

“ To-day is Friday, as the Moslem says,
Drink then from bowls served up in quick relays;
Suppose on common days you drink one bowl,
To-day drink two, for 'tis the prince of days.
۷۴
(Persian characters)
74. Bl. C. L. N. A. I. J. Friday is the day "of assembly," or Sabbath.
75.
The very wine a myriad forms sustains,
And to take shapes of plants and creatures deigns
But deem not that its essence ever dies,
Its forms may perish, but its self remains.
۷۵
(Persian characters)
75. ”

“ In deciding on the form to be taken by a new translation of Omar, the fact of the existence of a previous verse translation of universally acknowledged merit ought not, of course, to be left out of account. The successor of a translator like Mr. Fitzgerald, who ventures to write verse, and especially verse of the metre which he has handled with such success, cannot help feeling at almost every step that he is provoking comparisons very much to his own disadvantage. ”

“ Beal's rendering of the Chinese translation is a most valuable aid to the critical study of the work. It contains authentic texts gathered from ancient canonical books, and generally connected with some incident in the history of Buddha. Their great interest, however, consists in the light which they throw upon everyday life in India at the remote period at which they were written, and upon the method of teaching adopted by the founder of the religion. ”

“ As Shahrastáni was born in 479 A.H., and during some part of his life resided at Nishapur, [4] he is a very good authority for the facts recorded by him, though it is evident he was no friend to Omar. The passage is as follows:—
"Omar Al Khayyám, Imám of Khorásán, and the greatest scholar of his time, was versed in all the learning of the Greeks. He was wont to exhort men to seek the One Author of all by purifying the bodily actions in order to the sanctification of the soul. He also used to recommend the study of Politics as laid down in Greek authors. ”

“ A translator who writes in verse must of course claim the liberty of altering the form of the expression over and over again, but the substituted expressions ought to be in keeping with the author's style, and on the same plane of sentiment as his. It is beyond the province of a translator to attempt the task of "painting the lily." But it is easier to lay down correct principles of translation than to observe them unswervingly in one's practice. ”

“ As regards metre, there is no doubt that the quatrain of ten-syllable lines which has been tried by Hammer, Bicknell, and others, and has been raised by Mr. Fitzgerald almost to the rank of a recognised English metre, is the best representative of the Rubá'í. It fairly satisfies Conington's canon, viz. that there ought to be some degree of metrical conformity between the measure of the original and the translation, for though it does not exactly correspond with the Rubá'í, it very clearly suggests it. ”

“ A lady who has collated all the MSS. of Omar in Europe tells me she has found in one place and another no less than 1200 quatrains attributed to him. She has, however, in an article in Frazer for May 1879, expressed the opinion that the number of genuine quatrains is not more than 250 or 300, and I am inclined to think this estimate high enough. But when one comes to consider which particular quatrains are to be pronounced genuine, and which imitations, it is not always easy to form a confident decision. ”

“ Wine-houses flourish through this thirst of mine,
Loads of remorse weigh down this back of mine;
Yet, if I sinned not, what would mercy do?
Mercy depends upon these sins of mine.
۱۳۰
(Persian characters)
130. C. Bl. L. A. I. J. Bl. quotes similar sentiments from Nizámi and Háfiz. Mercy is God's highest attribute, and sin is required to call it forth.
131.
Thy being is the being of Another,
Thy passion is the passion of Another.
Cover thy head, and think, and thou wilt see,
Thy hand is but the cover of Another.
۱۳۱
(Persian characters)
131. ”

“ Tell Khayyam, for a master of the schools.
He strangely misinterprets my plain rules;
Where have I said that wine is wrong for all?
'Tis lawful for the wise, but not for fools.
350.
My critics call me a philosopher,
But Allah knows full well they greatly err;
I know not even what I am, much less
Why on this earth I am a sojourner!
350. C. L. A. I. J. Filsafat meant the Greek philosophy as cultivated by Persian rationalists, in opposition to theology. Renan, Averroes, p, 91.
351.
The more I die to self, I live the more,
The more abase myself, the higher soar ”

“ Your origin and end are both in earth,
But now you are above earth, not below!
457. C. L. N. A. I. J.
458.
You know all secrets of this earthly sphere,
Why then remain a prey to empty fear?
You cannot bend things to your will, but yet
Cheer up for the few moments you are here!
458. C. L. N. A. I. J. Scan chún wákĭfĭyāy.
459.
Behold, where'er we turn our ravished eyes,
Sweet verdure springs, and crystal Kausars rise;
And plains, once bare as hell, now smile as heaven:
Enjoy this heaven with maids of Paradise!
459. C. L. N. A. B. I. J.
460. ”

“ C. L. N. A. I. Compare the "sortes Virgilianœ." Line 4 is freely paraphrased. In line 4, scan máhīyyŏ. Bl., Prosody, p. 11.
444.
Winter is past, and spring-tide has begun,
Soon will the pages of life's book be done!
Well saith the sage, "Life is a poison rank,
And antidote, save grape-juice, there is none." ”