Omar Khayyam, tr. by Edward Henry Whinfield

“ Vexed by this wheel of things, that pets the base,
My sorrow-laden life drags on apace;
⁠Like rosebud, from the storm I wrap me close,
And blood-spots on my heart, like tulip, trace.
246
Youth is the time to pay court to the vine,
To quaff the cup, with revelers to recline;
⁠A flood of water once laid waste the earth,
Hence learn to lay you waste with floods of wine.
247
The world is baffled in its search for Thee,
Wealth can not find Thee, no, nor poverty;
⁠Thou'rt very near us, but our ears are deaf,
Our eyes are blinded that we may not see! ”

“ Wine is a melting ruby, cup its mine;
Cup is the body, and the soul is wine;
⁠These crystal goblets smile with ruddy wine
Like tears, that blood of wounded hearts enshrine.
106
Drink wine! 'tis life etern, and travail's meed,
Fruitage of youth, and balm of age's need:
⁠'Tis the glad time of roses, wine, and friends;
Rejoice thy spirit---that is life indeed.
107
Drink wine! long must you sleep within the tomb,
Without a friend, or wife to cheer your gloom ”

“ Death yields the tree of immortality;
⁠Since 'Isa breathed new life into my soul,
Eternal death has washed its hands of me!
44
Like tulips in the Spring your cups lift up,
And, with a tulip-cheeked companion, sup
⁠With joy your wine, or e'er this azure wheel
With some unlooked-for blast upset your cup.
45
Facts will not change to humor man's caprice,
So vaunt not human powers, but hold your peace;
⁠Here must we stay, weighed down with grief for this.
That we were born so late, so soon decease.
46
Khayyam! why weep you that your life is bad? ”

“ We make the wine-jar's lip our place of prayer,
And drink in lessons of true manhood there,
⁠And pass our lives in taverns, if perchance
The time misspent in mosques we may repair.
340
Man is the whole creation's summary,
The precious apple of great wisdom's eye;
⁠The circle of existence is a ring,
Whereof the signet is humanity.
341
With fancies, as with wine, our heads we turn,
Aspire to heaven, and earth's low trammels spurn;
⁠But, when we drop this fleshly clog, 'tis seen
From dust we came, and back to dust return. ”

“ 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!
351
The more I die to self, I live the more,
The more abase myself, the higher soar;
⁠And, strange! the more I drink of Being's wine,
More sane I grow and sober than before. ”

“ This is a token that the "Truth " is wine.
201
Now is the time earth decks her greenest bowers,
And trees, like Musa's hand, grow white with flowers!
⁠As 'twere at 'Isa's breath the plants revive,
While clouds brim o'er, like tearful eyes, with showers.
202
Oh burden not thyself with drudgery,
Lord of white silver and red gold to be;
⁠But feast with friends, ere this warm breath of thine
Be chilled in death, and earthworms feast on thee.
203
The showers of grape juice, which cupbearers pour,
Quench fires of grief in many a sad heart's core. ”

“ Man is a cup, his soul the wine therein,
Flesh is a pipe, spirit the voice within;
⁠O Khayyam, have you fathomed what man is?
A magic lantern with a light therein!
492
O skyey wheel, all base men you supply
With baths, mills, and canals that run not dry,
⁠While good men have to pawn their goods for bread:
Pray, who would give a fig for such a sky? ”

“ These ruby lips, and wine, and minstrel boys,
And lute, and harp, your dearly cherished toys,
⁠Are mere redundancies, and you are naught,
'Till you renounce the world's delusive joys.
457
Bow down, heaven's tyranny to undergo,
Quaff wine to face the world, and all its woe;
⁠Your origin and end are both in earth,
But now you are above earth, not below! ”

“ Allah hath promised wine in Paradise,
Why then should wine on earth be deemed a vice?
⁠An Arab in his cups cut Hamzah's girths---
For that sole cause was drink declared a vice.
149
Now of old joys naught but the name is left,
Of all old friends but wine we are bereft,
⁠And that wine new, but still cleave to the cup,
For save the cup, what single joy is left?
150
The world will last long after Khayyam's fame
Has passed away, yea, and his very name;
⁠Aforetime we were not, and none did heed.
When we are dead and gone, 'twill be tie same. ”

“ The rosy grape-juice from your wine-cup drain.
⁠You are not gold, that, hidden in the earth,
Your friends should care to dig you up again!
176
My coming brought no profit to the sky,
Nor does my going swell its majesty;
⁠Coming and going put me to a stand,
Ear never heard their wherefore nor their why.
177
The heavenly Sage, whose wit exceeds compare,
Counteth each vein, and numbereth every hair;
⁠Men you may cheat by hypocritic arts,
But how cheat Him to whom all hearts are bare?
178
Ah! wine lends wings to many a weary wight,
And beauty spots to ladies' faces bright ”

“ 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, O heavenly wheel!
293
Did no fair rose my paradise adorn,
I would make shift to deck it with a thorn;
⁠And if I lacked my prayer-mats, beads, and Shaikh,
Those Christian bells and stoles I would not scorn.
294
"If heaven deny me peace and fame, " I said,
"Let it be open war and shame instead;
⁠The man who scorns bright wine had best beware,
I'll arm me with a stone, and break his head! " ”

“ Sweet is rose-ruddy wine in goblets gay,
And sweet are lute and harp and roundelay;
⁠But for the zealot who ignores the cup,
'Tis sweet when he is twenty leagues away!
86
Life, void of wine, and minstrels with their lutes,
And the soft murmurs of Iraqian futes,
⁠Were nothing worth: I scan the world and see:
Save pleasure, life yields only bitter fruits. ”

“ And earth laid bare of old friends torn away!
⁠O live this present moment, which is thine,
Seek not a morrow, mourn not yesterday!
387
Since all man's business in this world of woe
Is sorrow's pangs to feel, and grief to know,
⁠Happy are they that never come at all,
And they that, having come, the soonest go!
388
By reason's dictates it is right to live,
But of ourselves we know not how to live,
⁠So Fortune, like a master, rod in hand,
Raps our pates well to teach us how to live! ”

“ The joyous souls who quaff potations deep,
And saints who in the mosques sad vigils keep,
⁠Are lost at sea alike, and find no shore,
One only wakes, all others are asleep.
223
Not-being's water served to mix my clay,
And on my heart grief's fire doth ever prey,
⁠And blown am I like wind about the world,
And last my crumbling earth is swept away.
224
Small gains to learning on this earth accrue,
They pluck life's fruitage, learning who eschew ”

“ With my heart's blood he filled this cup of mine!
381
To drain the cup, to hover round the fair,
Can hypocritic arts with these compare?
⁠If all who love and drink are going wrong,
There's many a wight of heaven may well despair!
382
'Tis wrong with gloomy thoughts your mirth to drown---
To let grief's millstone weigh your spirits down;
⁠Since none can tell what is to be, 'tis best
With wine and love your heart's desires to crown.
383
'Tis well in reputation to abide,
'Tis shameful against heaven to rail and chide ”

“ Their converse is a plague 'tis best to fly.
78
O foolish one! this molded earth is naught;
This parti-colored vault of heaven is naught;
⁠Our sojourn in this seat of life and death
Is but one breath, and what is that but naught?
79
Some wine, a Houri (Houris if there be) ,
A green bank by a stream, with minstrelsy;---
⁠Toil not to find a better Paradise
If other Paradise indeed there be!
80
To the wine-house I saw the sage repair,
Bearing a wine-cup, and a mat for prayer;
⁠I said, "O Shaikh, what does this conduct mean?"
Said he, "Go drink! the world is naught but air." ”

“ To please the righteous life itself I sell,
And, though they tread me down, never rebel;
⁠Men say, "Inform us what and where is hell?"
Ill company will make this earth a hell.
233
The sun doth smite the roofs with Orient ray
And, Khosrau like, his wine-red sheen display;
⁠Arise, and drink! the herald of the dawn
Uplifts his voice, and cries, "Oh, drink to-day!"
234
Comrades! when e'er you meet together here,
Recall your friend to mind, and drop a tear;
⁠And when the circling wine-cups reach his seat,
Pray turn one upside down his dust to cheer. ”

“ Ne'er for one moment leave your cup unused!
Wine keeps heart, faith, and reason too, amused;
⁠Had Iblis swallowed but a single drop,
To worship Adam he had ne'er refused!
314
Come, dance! while we applaud thee, and adore
Thy sweet Narcissus eyes, and grape-juice pour;
⁠A score of cups is no such great affair,
But 'tis enchanting when we reach three score! ”

“ O turn away those roguish eyes of thine!
Be still! seek not my peace to undermine!
⁠Thou say'st, "Look not. " I might as well essay
To slant my goblet, and not spill my wine.
262
In taverns better far commune with Thee,
Than pray in mosques, and fail Thy face to see!
⁠O first and last of all Thy creatures Thou,
'Tis Thine to burn, and Thine to cherish me!
263
To wise and worthy men your life devote,
But from the worthless keep your walk remote;
⁠Dare to take poison from a sage's hand,
But from a fool refuse an antidote. ”

“ And watch the games that wheel is wont to play.
368
Hear now Khayyam's advice, and bear in mind,
Consort with revelers, though they be maligned,
⁠Cast down the gates of abstinence and prayer,
Yea, drink, and even rob, but, oh! be kind!
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.
370
Last night that idol who enchants my heart,
With true desire to elevate my heart,
⁠Gave me his cup to drink ”

“ 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.
95
From right and left the censors came and stood,
Saying, "Renounce this wine, this foe of good";
⁠But if wine be the foe of holy faith,
By Allah, right it is to drink its blood!
96
The good and evil with man's nature blent,
The weal and woe that heaven's decrees have sent---
⁠Impute them not to motions of the skies---
Skies than thyself ten times more impotent. ”

“ Since none but He has power to will aright.
358
"For once, while roses are in bloom, " I said,
"I'll break the law, and please myself instead,
⁠With blooming youths, and maidens' tulip cheeks
The plain shall blossom like a tulip-bed. "
359
Think not I am existent of myself,
Or walk this blood-stained pathway of myself;
⁠This being is not I, it is of Him.
Pray what, and where, and whence is this "myself"?
360
Endure this world without my wine I cannot!
Drag on life's load without my cups I cannot! ”

“ Could I abjure my Magian wine? no, never!
420
We rest our hopes on Thy free grace alone,
Nor seek by merits for our sins to atone;
⁠Mercy drops where it lists, and estimates
Ill done as undone, good undone as done.
421
This is the form Thou gavest me of old,
Wherein Thou workest marvels manifold;
⁠Can I aspire to be a better man,
Or other than I issued from Thy mold?
422
O Lord! to Thee all creatures worship pay,
To Thee both small and great forever pray,
⁠Thou takest woe away, and givest weal,
Give then, or, if it please Thee, take away! ”

“ And thus she made complaint, "Coo, Coo, Coo, Coo!"
393
We come and go, but for the gain, where is it?
And spin life's woof, but for the warp, where is it?
⁠And many a righteous man has burned to dust
In heaven's blue rondure, but their smoke, where is it?
394
Life's well-spring lurks within that lip of thine!
Let not the cup's lip touch that lip of thine!
⁠Beshrew me, if I fail to drink his blood,
For who is he, to touch that lip of thine? ”

“ Wine's power is known to wine-bibbers alone,
To narrow heads and hearts 'tis never shown;
⁠I blame not them who never felt its force,
For, till they feel it, how can it be known?
165
Needs must the tavern-hunter bathe in wine,
For none can make a tarnished name to shine ”

“ Is the sole cause I drink me drunk with wine.
67
Drunkards are doomed to hell, so men declare,
Believe it not, 'tis but a foolish scare;
⁠Heaven will be empty as this hand of mine,
If none who love good drink find entrance there. ”

“ Ah! seasoned wine oft falls to rawest fools,
And clumsiest workmen own the finest tools;
⁠And Turki maids, fit to delight men's hearts,
Lavish their smiles on beardless boys in school!
142
Whilom, ere youth's conceit had waned, methought
Answers to all life's problems I had wrought;
⁠But now, grown old and wise, too late I see
My life is spent, and all my lore is naught.
143
They who of prayer-mats make such great display
Are fools to bear hypocrisy's hard sway ”

“ O Love, forever doth heaven's wheel design
To take away thy precious life, and mine;
⁠Sit we upon this turf, 'twill not be long
'Ere turf shall grow upon my dust, and thine!
391
When life has Bed, and we rest in the tomb,
They'll place a pair of bricks to mark our tomb ”