RUBAIYAT
Omar Khayyam
1
AWAKE ! for the 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.
Sunrise, the sun(stone), when it rises(is flung) into the sky(the Bowl of Night), causes the stars to become invisible(it puts to flight). Flinging a stone into the cup was the signal for ‘to horse’ in the desert. The image thus compares the start of the day to the start of a journey. The Hunter of the East is again the rising Sun, the noose of Light being the hunters lasso.
Flinging a stone into a cup or pot is the signal for striking camp among the nomadic Arab tribes. Among some nomadic tribes the signal for ‘striking camp’ was given by casting a stone into a bowl.
2
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.’
Dawn's Left Hand(“the phantom of false morning” in 2nd and subsequent editions).
The False Dawn: Subhi Kasib, a transient light on the horizon about an hour before Subhi Sadik or True Dawn; a well known phenomenon in the East. The Persians call the morning Grey or Dusk, ‘Wolf and Sheep’ while almost at odds with which is which.
In this verse is the first of many references to the Tavern and drinking wine, the recurring theme of the poem being “eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die, and there is nothing after death”. The last two lines use cup in a dual sense- “fill the cup” in the third line means “pour a cup of wine to drink” while the cup in the last line is the first of many symbolic references to human beings, cups being made from clay as Adam and Eve was made from clay by God. The life disappearing from the body of a human being at death is like wine drying out in a cup.
3
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.’
This verse continues the Dawn theme in verses 1 and 2. With a cock crowing, lines 3 and 4 say in effect, life is all too short and when we die, that is it… there is no coming back(Drink, for once dead you never shall return).
The injunction to drink while you live, for once dead there is no going back either to the Tavern or to the world of the living.
4
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.
The “New Year reviving old Desires” is a symbolic reference to the renewal of Nature associated with the Spring Equinox, here associated with human thoughts and feelings. The Spring revival is here illustrated with the twinned references to blossoms bursting forth on the trees(the WHITE HAND OF MOSES on the Bough puts out) and flowers bursting forth from the ground(Jesus from the Ground suspires).
The White Hand of Moses and Jesus are both blossoming plants of Spring named after the two prophets. The name of the first, a white tree blossom(on the Bough), relates to two verses in the Quran(Surah 7.108 and 26.33) and to a similar verse in the Bible(Exodus 4.6) in which the hand of Moses is miraculously turned as white as snow(or leprous) by god. In Persian poetry hand and leaf are poetically interchangeable. As for “Jesus from the ground suspires”, this means that the plant bursts forth in life from the ground [suspires = breathes forth, is used because the life giving power of the prophet Jesus was believed to reside in his breath].
5
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.
Iram with its lofty pillars was a fabulously wealthy garden city, adorned with trees and fruits and flowers, said to have been destroyed by God for its wickedness, and long ago lost in the desert sands of southern Arabia. It is equated with the lost city of Ubar and the Omanum Emporium of Ptolemy, its legendary wealth being a result of frankincense trade. It was dubbed “the Atlantis of the Sands” by Bertram Thomas, an explorer who had ventured across the so called “Empty Quarter” of Arabia.
Jamshyd is a legendary Persian king. He is the one who found Wine first by accident. He is said to have owned a fabulous cup whose precise nature is every bit as mysterious as the Christian Holy Grail. It is sometimes said that it was used for the magical purposes of drinking the Elixir of Life, but, more usually it is associated with Divination. Its interior is said to have been decorated with 7 rings, corresponding to the 7 regions of the world, the 7 seas and the 7 heavens. This would give anyone using the cup for scrying purposes the power to see what was happening in any corner of the 7 regions of the world.
The overall theme of Verse 5 is that everything man made must perish, but that nature herself continues on regardless of time -- “still the Vine her ancient ruby(grapes/wine) yields...etc.
6
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 her’s to’ incarnadine.
This is a very obscure verse. David is the author of the psalms in the Bible, but instead of singing his holy songs(psalms), he calls for wine, perhaps because, from Omarian point of view, singing about wine is ultimately just as significant as singing about God. Actually, there is a little more to it than this, as we shall see shortly.
Originally, the Nightingale could not sing very well and all the Roses were white. But then one day the Nightingale noticed the Rose and fell deeply in love with her. So inspired was he by her beauty that he actually began to sing melodiously for the first time, but only that, in pressing his body against the flower, a thorn pierced his breast and his blood poured over the white Rose turning it red. Thus were created together the song of the Nightingale and the Red Rose.
“In Persian poetry the Nightingale(Bulbul) is constantly represented as the lover of the Rose(Gul)”
In Persian literature yellow is the colour of sickness and misery, so that the Nightingale song, in turning the yellow cheek of the rose to incarnadine(colour of health) is effectively infusing it with health and happiness.
David is here not literally the Psalmist, but a fore-image of the Nightingale, whose song is not a Psalm but a bird call “Wine! Wine! Red Wine!” If repeated over and over again, would have the characteristic repetitiveness of birdsong. That is why David's lips are “lock’t”- they are locked in repetitive bird call; why they are “high piping”-which relates more to birdsong than a sung Psalm; and why he sings in “Pehlevi”, ancient language of Persia -- which relates more easily to the Persian Nightingale than to Jewish David.
In Fitzgeralds note, Hafiz also speaks of the Nightingales Pehlevi, which did not change with Peoples, ie in Persian lore Nightingale's song preserves the original language of Pehlevi, whilst that of the People changes with time.
7
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.
“Come fill the Cup”- the eat, drink and be merry theme again; don't regret the past(winter), live for today(spring)- for life is short. “The Bird of Time” image is very neat.
8
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 Kaikobad away.
For every thousand flowers that grow, a thousand others die(return to dust, earth or clay); more than this, at the same time as a single Rose blossoms in a garden, great kings may pass away-- Kaikobad, like Jamshyd in Verse 5, was a legendary Persian king, mentioned in the epic poem of Persia, “The Shahnama”. The Blossoms in line 1 and the clay in line 2, have deeper connotations, for the Blossoms are symbolic of people and the clay symbolic of “the dust of ground” from which God created Man and to which on death, Man must return: “Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust”, as it says in the Book of Common Prayer.
9
But come with old Khayyam, and leave the Lot
Of Kaikobad and Kaikhosru forgot:
Let Rustum lay about him as he will,
Or Hatim Tai cry Supper-- heed them not.
Kaikobad and Kaikhosru are legendary kings of the Persian Kayanian dynasty or Kayanids. Kaikhosru was the great grandson of Kaikobad.
Rustum(Rostam) is the Hercules of Persia(according to Fitzgerald). He was all action hero, who according to Shahnama, required the milk of 10 nurses at birth and felled a rampaging elephant while still a child. He grew up to slay a dragon, outwit a cunningly disguised witch, single handedly rout an army and destroy a demon known as the White Deev, these being the power of the so called Seven Labours of Rostam(which of course nature compares with 12 labours of Hercules). A key episode of the Shahnama is the story of Rostam and Sohrab. Sohrab is the son of Rostam by the Princess Tahmina, but grew up with his father being unknown of his existence. The two were destined to meet, unrecognized by each other, in single combat at the head of two armies. Rostam slew Sohrab, but only knew that he was his son after the event- the core of the tragedy.
Hatim Tai ie, Hatim of the tribe Tai, is the epitome of generosity and hospitality, just as Rostam is the epitome of courage and strength. It is said that while Hatim’s mother was pregnant with him, she dreamt that she was given a choice between 10 ordinary sons or 1 son of extraordinary generosity.
Verse 9 means let you and I forgot the Lot(fate) of Kings Kaikobad and Kaikhosru, ignore the feats of the greatest heroes, Rostam and ignore Hatim Tai too, that great chieftain famed throughout the world for his hospitality(for they are all of no real consequence).
10
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.
Following form Verse 9, ignore all that earthly power and come with me to a quiet place where no one cares who is a Sultan and who is a Slave; indeed let us pity Sultan Mahmud(of Ghazni) with all the problems that his kingship brings him(“strown”,used to rhyme with “sown”, is an old form of the word “strewn”, meaning “scattered”; the wording is a bit artificial but is intended to convey the idea of a piece of land, at the edge of the desert, where grass and flowers grow but which is not cultivated and is thus, symbolically, well away from it all in other words, well away from the ordered court of the Sultan and all its power struggles). The linking of Slave and Sultan in line 3 is a reference to “celebrated passion of Mahmud for his Slave boy Ayaz, frequently cited by the Persian poets as an instance of the unpredictable vagaries of human love”.
11
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.
In the quiet place of Verse 10, with bread to eat and wine to drink, and with you reading poetry to me, such a place would be Paradise(“Enow” is an old fashioned poetical word for “enough”). This is one of the most famous verses in Fitzgerald's translation and one much illustrated and though there is a possible antecedent for it in the original verses of Omar Khayyam it is amusing to reflect that one of the verses Fitzgerald actually used in his translation featured a loaf of bread, a gourd of wine and a leg of mutton. The poet's companion in this picnic verse is a “tulip cheeked girl”.
The water met its master and blushed(wine) – Lord Byron
12
‘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!
How enticing is earthly kingship; how enticing is the promise of heaven after we die; but better to take the good things you have now(“the cash in hand”), than to long for things we might never have or which are unattainable(“the brave music of a distant drum”). A recurring idea throughout the Rubaiyat is that not only is Heaven unattainable, but that life after death does not exist.
13
Look to the Rose that blows 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.’
The treasure of the Rose is pollen, from which other Roses will grow, its Purse is the stamen of the flower. The idea is that real Treasure has nothing to do with money or commerce or power. The carefree words of the laughing Rose contrast nicely with serious thoughts of mankind's “worldly hopes” in the next verse.
14
The Worldly Hope men set their Hearts upon
Turns Ashes--or it prospers; and anon,
Like Snow upon the Desert’s dusty Face
Lightning a little Hour or two--is gone.
The aims of Worldly hopes are fleeting, no matter whether that hope ends in failure(burnt to ashes) or success(for even success is like Snow, it melts and is gone all too soon ). Everything is transient.
15
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.
Those who are cautious with wealth(store the Golden Grain) and those who are reckless with it(scatter their Golden Grain to the winds) all share the same fate-- they alike become rotting corpses which, once buried no one want dug up again(Aureate Earth= gold infused earth, linking up with the Golden Grain). Objects of devotion, often revered for their healing powers, the bones of the saintly dead have long been dug up and put on display to the faithful, who far from shunning them, have sought to get as close to them as possible.
16
Think, in this batter’d Caravanserai
Whose Doorways are alternate Night and Day,
How Sultan after Sultan with his Pomp
Abode his Hour or two and went his way.
Here the world is compared to a Caravanserai, a desert accommodation built for the use of travellers, whose entrances and exits are days and nights. Whose guests(sultans,kings and emperors) come and go(born and die). The theme is transience of earthly power.
17
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, and he lies fast asleep.
The Lion and the Lizard as the inhabitants of the ruins of the former palaces of kings is the type of image beloved of the Biblical prophets. Isaiah chapter 34 is particularly fine example of doom-laden invective, directed against the Edomites, whose land shall be laid waste by the Lord: “The cormorant and the bittern shall possess it; the owl also and the raven shall dwell in it… and the thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof; and it shall be an habitation of dragons, and a court of owls. The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet the wild beasts of the island, and the satyr shall cry to his fellow; the screech owl also shall rest there, and find for herself a place of rest”.
As for Bahram, he is not a legendary king but a real one, and one of the most popular kings of Iranian history-- namely, the Sasanid king Bahram(420-438 AD). His nickname Bahram Gor comes from his love of hunting the Onager or Wild Ass(gor). One legend has it that he actually earned his nickname by slaying a lion and an onager with a single arrow. According to one account he even died whilst out hunting, though another account does say that he died a natural death in summer of 438 AD.
The meaning of verse 17 is that the former palace of Jamshyd(verse 5&8) now in ruins, has become the haunt of wild animals like the Lion and the Lizard; and Bahram lies buried in some unknown place where the wild animals that he once hunted now walk over his grave while he lies still in death(fast asleep).[The word “gor” can mean both wild ass and grave]
18
I sometimes think that never blows so red
The Rose as where some buried Caesar bled;
The every Hyacinth the Garden wears
Dropt in its Lap from some once lovely Head.
A poetic notion that the redness of a Rose is derived from the blood of some slaughtered King(Caesar) who died on the spot where it grows; that every Hyacinth marks the spot where some beauty died.
19
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!
This continues the theme of the last verse -- in effect it says that in sitting on a River bank, just think that the Herb on which you sit might mark the spot where some unknown person died. There is a pun here, in that the herb is on the Lip(bank) of the river, and grows from the Lip of the long dead person.
20
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.
“The Cup that clears” is a glass of wine(compare the Cup in verse 7); the meaning is not unlike drinking to drown one's sorrows over past regrets and future fears. The end of the verse seems to mean something like “tomorrow, the me of today will just be another part of history”. According to some in Omar Khayyam’s day, yesterday's 7000 years was reckoned to be the number of years of human history that had elapsed since the creation of Adam and Eve.
21
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.
The endless procession of Birth and Death. The best of humanity is compared to a good wine Vintage; their lives are compared to drinking a cup of wine before they creep off to Rest(die).
22
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?
This verse continues the theme of verse 21 and is largely self explanatory. We today are compared to “summer dresses in new Bloom”(flowers in bloom), who will all too soon wither and die to make way for the next generation of flowers. “The couch of Earth” is like “the River's Lip on which we lean”.
23
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!
Make the most of life before you die, for when you die, that is it! Sans = Without
The “sans wine” of this verse recalls an epitaph form “the Greek Anthology”: “Wine- bibbing old Maronis, the Jar drier, lies here and on her tomb, significant to all, stands an Attic cup. She laments beneath the earth not for her husband and children whom she felt indigence, but solely because the cup is empty.
24
Alike for those who for To-Day 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 !’
A Muezzin is the man who calls the faithful to prayer from the minaret or tower of a Mosque. The sense here is presumably one of a disembodied Voice calling from the great unknown. The lost line seems to show the Voices contempt for the Human preoccupation with rewards(for virtue, endeavour, piety and such like) -- for there aren't any, neither today nor tomorrow-- because on a cosmic scale such human qualities are of no consequence whatsoever. At least one illustrator of the Rubaiyat has pictured the Muezzin as the Grim reaper or Angel of death.
25
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 scatter’d, and their Mouths are stopt with Dust.
“The Two Worlds” are presumably this world and the next. The meaning here seems to be that no matter how hard Saints and Sages try, “The Two Worlds” retain their mystery almost in scorn of all their learning, their efforts thus being rendered worthless, like the babblings of “foolish Prophets”(deluded Messiahs and such like). The said Saints and Sages simply end up dead like the rest of us, their mouths with which they argued so learnedly, being filled up with the earth(Dust) in which they are buried.
26
Oh, 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 had blown forever dies.
One of the most famous verses of the Rubaiyat, the last line being a particularly poignant expression of Omar khayyam's belief that once we die that's it ! The first line, “come with old Khayyam” recalls verses 9-11. The use of flower as a symbol of the transience of human life recalls the imagery of verse 9.
27
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.
The phrase “great argument about it and about” presumably refers to endless and ultimately unresolved, philosophical debate about the nature of things. Compare verse 25 above. “Come out by the same door as in I went” means “come out not really knowing any more than when I went in, despite all the learned argument”.
28
With them the seed of wisdom did I sow,
And with my own hand laboured it to grow:
And this was all the harvest that I reapd--
'I came like water and like wind I go.’
The development of the poet's philosophical studies are likened to a crop--seed, harvest --and yet the end result is the realisation of the utter transience of earthly life, and the pointlessness of philosophising. ' I cave like water, and like wind I go”. Compare the reference to the wind in John 3.8. Also the epitaph on the tomb of the poet John Keats in Rome: “Here lies one whose name was written in water.”
29
Into this Universe, and why not knowing,
Nor whence, like water and Willy nilly flowing:
And out of it, as wind along the waste,
I know not whither, Willy nilly blowing.
This expands on verse 28.
30
What, without asking, hither hurried whence?
And, without asking, whither hence!
Another and another cup to drown
The memory of this impertinence!
“Another and another cup”(of wine). The meaning is similar to that of “the cup that clears” in verse 20. The “impertinence”is the way we are buffeted along by fate without being asked and all, all too often, without any choice in the matter. This verse, on account of its last line, is sometimes referred to as “the chiding verse”, though actually this line seems not to be found in any Persian original.
31
Up from Earth's centre through the seventh gate
I rose, and on the throne of Saturn sate,
And many Knots unravel’d by the Road:
But not the Knot of Human Death and Fate.
At the time of Omar Khayyam, the earth was generally believed to be at the centre of the universe, and surrounded by seven spheres associated with the then known seven planets. In order of distance from the earth, the spheres were those of the moon, Mercury, Venus, the sun Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.
The sense of this verse is that the poet ascended to the outermost sphere of the universe, so that he could view the whole “from the outside”, and though this journey made many things clear to him, he could still not see the answer to the riddle of human death and Fate. It is sometimes said that Omar Khayyam, as an astronomer was ahead of his time and advocated a sun centred model of universe rather than the more obvious earth centred one, but this verse does seem to be earth centred because it is Fitzgerald's translation and is a poetic reference rather than an astronomical one.
32
There was a door to which I found no key:
There was a veil past which I could not see:
Some little talk a while of Me and Thee
There seemed and then no more of These and Me.
The door and veil are methodical barriers which prevent us from seeing answer to the riddle of human death and fate. The idea seems to be that while the mysterious voices behind these barriers talk about us, we live; but once they stop talking, we must die. It is interesting, in Islam, death is believed to be a door to the realm of afterlife, which according to official tradition starts with the grave.
33
Then to the rolling heaven itself I cried:
Asking, ‘what lamp had destiny to guide
Her little children stumbling in the dark ?’
And--- ‘A blind understanding!’ heav'n replied.
There is no lamp to guide us through life, we must just stumble through it as best we can with “a blind understanding”.
34
Turn to this earthen Bowl did I adjourn
My lip the secret well of life to learn:
And lip to lip it murmured -- ‘while you live
Drink ! -- for once dead you never shall return.’
This is the first of many references to earthen bowls or pots, which for Omar Khayyam are both drinking vessels and symbolic of people(Adam being made from clay or Earth; hence Earth to earth, ashes to ashes etc). In some cases, he pictures the clay from which an earthen vessel is made as being that formed from the body of some long dead person which was turned back into Earth again. Here in drinking from the Bowl, the poets lip presses on the lip of the Bowl --compare the similar lip theme in verse 19. Here again we have Omar's philosophy, repeated throughout the poem, but here expressed by the earthen wine Bowl, “Drink! For once dead you never shall return!”.
35
I think the vessel, that with fugitive
Articulation answered, once did live,
And merry make; and the cold lip I kissed
How many kisses might it take --and give !
“The vessel” here is the earthen Bowl of the previous verse. The lip of the Bowl becomes the lip of someone once living, and thus once capable of giving kisses.
The idea that on death, we return to earth or clay from which can be made a vessel or cup ie Bowl is but one idea. Another idea is that our clay may become that of simple building bricks. Thus, for example, Hafiz wrote that, “this ruined world is resolved, when we are dead, to make only bricks of our clay!”.
36
For in the marketplace, one dusk of day,
I watched the Potter thumping his wet clay:
And with its all obliterated tongue
It murmured -- ‘gently, brother, gently, pray!’
This is the first reference to the Potter, whose shop makes a major appearance in verse 59 - 66. The clay that the Potter thumps, like the earthen drinking vessel in verse 34, was once human.
The Tagalog story in Philippines is a very similar one. God carefully shapes a small clay figure but does not know how much heat is needed to bake it. Left too long in the oven, the image comes out burned black. This is the negro. The next figure is underbaked and comes out pasty white, the caucasian. The third time God takes his clay from the oven at exactly the right moment, when it is a lovely warm brown. So the Brien man, the Malay and filipino, begins his career by pleasing God.
37
Ah, fill the cup :-- what boots it to repeat
How time is slipping underneath our feet:
Unborn tomorrow, and dead yesterday,
Why fret about them if today be sweet !
“Fill the cup” --drink(compare verse 34)--live for today ! “What boots it to repeat ?” means “What good does it do us to repeat ?”
38
One 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 !
Life is compared to a caravan journeying through a desert(annihilation's waste) with an oasis (well of life). The end of journey is the Dawn of nothing (death, annihilation),so why make haste to set off on the journey ? The phrase “Dawn(= Beginning) of nothing” is presumably used as an effective opposite of “dawn of afterlife” or “dawn of paradise”.
39
How long, how long, in infinite pursuit
Of this and that endeavour and dispute ?
Better be merry with fruitful grape
Than sadden after none, or bitter, fruit.
Similar in meaning of verse 27- 30: why bother trying to figure out the meaning of it all, just eat, drink and be merry - “the fruitful grape” is the wine, in contrast to the fruitless task (bitter fruit) of philosophising.
40
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.
“Make carouse”= celebrate. The meaning is that the poet gave up philosophy (old barren reason) and took up drinking instead (the daughter of the vine = wine)
Song: Given Up by Linkin Park
41
For 'Is’ and 'Is - Not’ though with Rule and Line,
And 'Up - And - Down’ without I could define,
I yet in all I only cared to know,
Was never deep in anything but -- Wine.
This continues the theme of verse 40, with philosophy, jokingly described in terms of geometrical construction, rejected in favour of drinking wine.
42
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 'twas -- the Grape !
The start of another series of “Drink!” verses. The poet is introduced to wine (the Grape) by an Angel shape. Compare the Angel of death in verse 48.
43
The Grape that can with Logic absolute
The two and seventy jarring sects confute:
The subtle Alchemist that in a trice
Life's leaden metal into gold transmute.
The precise meaning of this verse is not clear, but the meaning of the first two lines seems to be that wine (the Grape) can be befuddle (confute) the logic of even the wisest theologian and his arguments. The 72 jarring (arguing) sects are interpreted in different ways. Some say that the different religions of the world are 72 in number; others that Islam was supposed to splintered into 73 sects, the true original religion of prophet Muhammad, plus 72 sects.
Either way, the meaning is one of heated theological dispute, which disputes can all be defeated (hence “settled”) but the befuddling effects of wine! The last two lines, I'm not clear, but I guess that wine is the Alchemist, the cup that cheers, that enables the drinker to forget his problems (life's leaden metal) and see things in a more cheerful light (gold). The ultimate aim of Alchemy was to be able to transmute Lead into Gold, but here the Alchemist is transmuting life's problems into a state of cheerfulness (Isaac Newton practised Alchemy in secret).
44
The mighty Mahmud, the victorious Lord,
That all the misbelieving and black Horde
Of fears and sorrows that infest the soul’
Scatters and slays with his enchanted sword.
Again not clear, but the poet seems to compare wine to “the mighty Mahmud” -- this being the Mahmud of Ghazni, mentioned previously in verse 10, who, in pursuit of bringing Islam to India, slaughtered “a misbelieving and black Horde” of Hindus. For the poet, wine (Mahmud) slaughters “the fears and sorrows that infest the soul “(the black Horde of Hindus). It makes you feel happy.
45
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.
The verse means : but let the wise argue (wrangle) about the meaning of it all (the quarrel of the universe); let you and I find a quiet corner (Hubbub = noise of philosophical argument) and just laugh about (make game of) the very idea of trying to find the meaning of it all, exactly as the universe itself seems to laugh at us for not being able to find that meaning, if indeed there is one ! Compare, perhaps the contempt expressed in the line, “fools ! Your reward is neither here nor there !”, back in verse 24.
46
For in and out, above, about, below,
Tis nothing but a magic shadow show,
Play’s in a box whose candle is the sun,
Round which we Phantom figures come and go.
The reference here is to a magic lantern, a set of opaque images of people, animals and such like, imprinted onto a cylinder made of transparent material, which is made to revolve around a central lamp, in ancient times a candle. As the cylinder revolves, the shadows of the images are projected onto the walls of the room, revolving round the room as the cylinder revolves. The poet here compare the world to one of these magic lanterns, it's central lamp, not a candle, but the sun (this perhaps contributing to the occasional claims that Omar Khayyam either knew of the Earth's rotation or advocated heliocentric universe), and we are it's projected shadows “come and go” having the double meaning of “come and go as the lantern revolves” and “live and die”(as time marches on).
This fleeing shadow analogy is similar to that found in the famous speech in MACBETH
“To morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, creeps in this petty pace from day to day, To the last syllable of recorded time; And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle ! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player, That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury ,signifying nothing.”
47
And if the wine you drink, the lip you press,
End in the nothing all things end in -- Yes --
Then fancy while thou art, you art but what
Thou shalt be -- Nothing-- Thou shalt not be less.
And if everything you do in this life, like the pleasures of wine and women (“the lip you press could be the lip of a woman, as in verse 19, but possibly again the lip of a wine Bowl, as in verse 34, or both as in verse 35), end in nothing --well don't worry, just think about it, you can't be less than nothing, so whatever you do in this life, it can't be worse than indulging in wine and women!
48
While the Rose blows along the river brink,
With old Khayyam and Ruby vintage drink:
And when the Angel with his darker draught
Draws up to Thee -- take that, and do not shrink.
Given the previous verse, as long as Roses grow on the River Brink(=River Bank, referring back to the imagery of verse 18 - 19), come with me and drink wine (the Ruby Vintage). But when “the Angel with its darker Draught”[= the Angel of death (his “darker Draught” is the drink of death) comes for you (“draws up to thee”), accept it (“do not shrink”) just as you did when the Angel shape brought you your wine {verse 42}]
49
Tis 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 closet lays.
Life is here compared to a game of chess or chequers, the black and white squares of the chess board being compared to nights and days. Destiny is the player who captures(slays) pieces in the course of the game, removing them from the board and putting them back in the storage box (closet). It is destiny to who finishes the game - “mates” in line 3 is “checkmate”- the term for the end of a game of chess. The overall idea is that destiny kills us all off, one by one.
50
The ball no question 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 !
Life here (as an alternative to verse 49) is compared to a ball game, actually the equivalent of our modern game of Polo. Ayes are votes in favour of a proposal, Noes are votes against. The first line thus means that the ball (man) has no choice (no vote) in the game (of life), it just goes here and there according to the whims of the player who hits it. The reference here is surely to free will and destiny - we are given life (the ball), but how much choice (free will) do we really have in it ? We are seemingly just bounced from here to there. But though it makes little sense to us, God (he that tossed thee, the ball, down into playing field) - he knows what it is all about, he knows, he knows, for he is omniscient - he just isn't telling us…
Another interpretation, is in terms of the rules of the game: the ball doesn't know the rules, it just goes here and there according to which player hits it where; only he (God) who made up the game knows the rules, he knows, he knows…
Similar in ‘King Lear’ : As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods; they kill us for their sport.
51
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 world of it.
The meaning is perfectly clear, and powerful in its expression, but why “the moving finger” as opposed to the moving pen ? Perhaps the intention is to portray something like a finger tracing out letters in the (shifting) sands of time ? Or again, I'm lost !!!
When I referred Omar's original verses, it refers of course to the unstoppable Nature of events which are predestined anyway, but Fitzgerald's version could just easily refer to time itself.
One of the most dramatic references to this unstoppability must be the closing scene of Doctor Faustus.
52
And that inverted Bowl we call the sky,
Where under crawling coop’t we live and die,
Lift not thy hands to it for help --for it
Rolls importantly on as Thou or I.
For the Bowl of the sky ie the inverted Bowl which it trapped (coop’t) the insect-like being ie man. And it is no use appealing to heaven either, any more than it was for it can do nothing about it (rolls impotently), any more than you or I can.
53
With Earth's first clay they did the last man's 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.
This verse can be taken as pessimistic suspicion that everything is predestined: with the Earth's first clay, from which good created (moulded, as a sculpture) the first man, Adam, God also created (Knead) the clay for last man. The second line compares god's creation of man to planting a crop: the harvest at the end of the world predetermined by the seed which God planted at the beginning. The last two lines neatly contrast WRITE at the creation, with READ at the end (last dawn of reckoning).
54
I tell this -- When, starting from the goal,
Over the shoulders of the flaming foal
Of Heav'n Parwin and Mushtara they flung,
In my predestined plot of dust and soul.
Relating back to the last verse, it seems to mean something like this; when, in the beginning (starting from the goal), God shut up the heavens (represented by “the flaming foal = the sun -- compare the horses that pull the chariot of the sun in, for example in mythology. In Phaethon myth of Greek mythology, Mushtara is the planet Jupiter and Parwin is the pleiades star cluster), he also set aside for me (the poet) a “plot of dust and soul”. That is, the poet's life predestined from beginning - hence, perhaps the use of the contradictory phrase “starting from the goal !” --the goal being an end rather than a beginning ! The astronomical elements in the verse are perhaps an allusion to astrological predestination; the idea that everything is foretold in the stars, if you know how to read them.
55
The vine had struck fibre; which about
If clings my being -- let Sufi flout;
Of my base metal may be filed a key,
That shall unlock the door he howls without.
The meaning sums to be that wine can give the poet an insight into things (albeit a drunken one !) which, though it may instill contempt in the learned Sufi and flout (to reject) nevertheless the drunken poet may be right and the learned Sufi wrong. The last two lines are rather neat. The poet compares his being to a base metal from which a key could be made to unlock the door which metaphorically prevents the Sufi, despite all his learning and erudition, from discovering the secrets of life and destiny.
56
And this I know : whether the one true light,
Kindle to love, or watch -- consume me quite,
One glimpse of it within the tavern caught
Better than in the temple lost outright.
The one true light is the divine light of truth and whether it infuses one with love or consumes with wrath, it is better to have glimpsed it in the tavern than not to have glimpsed it all all in the temple (mosque, church, synagogue etc)
Here I felt a mockery of organised religion. Does one really need a mosque,church or synagogue, a temple of any sort to know God ?
57
Oh, thou, who first with Pitfall and with Gin
Beset the Road I was to wander in,
Thou wilt not with Predestination round
Enmesh me, impute my fall to sin ?
Thou = God, Pitfall = hidden danger or unexpected difficulty, Gin = trap
God in giving us a predestined life (round), must have deliberately put in place the hidden dangers and traps of that life and if that is the case, how can he impute any failure on our path to sin ? Can we really sin if God predestined is to do so ?
This verse deals with sin and it's apparent incompatibility with good and omniscient God. Afterall, Predestination aside, how could a good God even create a world in which sin is so rife ? If God is omniscient, he must have known that sin was going to be prevalent in his creation and that he was in effect putting man in an impossible situation, so why did he go ahead and do it ? Why did he create a world so full of temptations, knowing full well that man would succumb and have to be punished as a result ? Finally, if God is all powerful, why does he simply stop man from sinning, a good parent would stop a child from entering into dangerous situation ?
58
Oh, thou, who man of baser Earth didst make
And who with Eden didst devise the snake;
For all the sin whatever with the face of man
Is blacken’d, man's forgiveness give -- and take !
Kuza - Nama
This verse follows on from the previous verse. The meaning here is that when God created man from clay and put him in the garden of Eden, he also created the snake that would be responsible for man's downfall thorough sin. In other words, what the lord gives with one hand (forgiveness), he takes away with the other.
‘Kuza - Nama’ means the book of pots. It continues the theme started back in verse 34 - 36, where clay pots are seen who once lived, man being originally made from clay by God. The poet imagines himself in a potters shop in which the pots come to life and talk to each other about the meaning of their existence.
59
Listen again. One evening at the close
Of Ramzan, ere the better moon arose,
In that old potters shop I stood alone
With the clay population round in rows.
“The better moon”is the crescent moon that signals the end of the fasting associated with Ramzan. If you have grasped this far, the last two lines are self-explanatory !!!
60
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 ?’
“ Exactly what are we, and who made us ?” That is, is God the Potter and is man the pot? However another suggestion is that the question here posed is “did God create man or did man create God ?” Is the Potter God or man and is the pot man or God ?
61
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 me back to common Earth again.’
Why does God give human beings life only to take that gift away from them again when they die ? The last two lines contrast the subtle shaping or creation of man from clay, which is life, with the brutal stamping back to common Earth again, which is death.
62
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 fancy, in an after rage destroy !’
Would God lovingly create man (the vessel made from clay), only to destroy his creation again, as if “in an after rage”(death) ?
63
None answer’d this; but after silence spake
A vessel of a more ungainly make:
'They sneer at me for learning all awry;
What ! Did the hand then of the Potter shake ?’
Here in effect a deformed pot asks how he could be imperfect creation of a perfect creator : did the potters hands shake it what ?
A modern interpretation of this question would be “Why does God allow innocent children to be born disabled, deformed or with terrible illnesses ?”
64
Said one -- ‘Folks of 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 ’twill all be well.’
The problem of hell : The surly Tapster is either God or the devil, pictured as innkeeper (one who pours wine into a glass by turning the trap on a barrel), in line with wine and pots theme. The second line is saying that god's or devil's face is stained with the smoke of hell like a man who showels fuel (condemned souls) into a furnace (the fires of hell). The last two lines question any testing of us which if we fail, can lead to us being cast down into hell, for God is merciful, so how can he send anyone to hell or allow the devil to send them there? Surely everything will be alright in the end ! The He of the last line which can only refer to God, does seem to be the same as the Surly Tapster of the first line.
65
Then said another with long drawn sigh,
'My clay with long oblivion is gone dry:
But, fill me with the old familiar juice,
Methinks I might recover by and bye !’
“The old familiar juice”is wine. Compare imagery in verse 2. Fill the cup before life's liquor in its cup be dry.
66
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 potter's shoulder - knot a - creaking !’
The little crescent is the moon heralding the end of Ramadan, as in verse 59. Fasting over, it is time to celebrate, and the Porter (the man bringing the wine with which to celebrate) is approaching -- the porters shoulder knot was a leather pad worn on the porters shoulder to prevent the strap, from which hung heavy jars of wine, from digging into his shoulder. As the porter walked and the jars swing about, the strap would ‘creak’ as it rubbed against the leather of the shoulder knot “hark to” means “listen to”.
67
Ah, with the Grape my fading Life provide,
And wash my Body whence the Life has died,
And in a Winding Sheet of Vine-leaf wrapt,
So bury me by some sweet garden side.
Let me drink wine while I live, and when I die, wash my body in wine, give me a vine leaf for my shroud, and bury me in a nice garden somewhere.
68
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.
The perfume is the aroma of wine drank by the dear poet. It is not clear whether there is intended irony in a dead skeptic attracting the attention of true believers (devout Muslims who would not drink wine) or whether the true believers are for the poet, his fellow drinkers of wine, who have possibly discovered as much truth through wine as any devout Muslim has in the mosque or through Sufi teachers.
There is a rather curious counterpart for wines “snare perfume” in ancient Athenian wine festival of Anthesteria, for “attracted by the smell of the wine that rose from the open pithoi and spread throughout the city, the souls(of the dead) emerged from the underworld.
69
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.
Idols = earthly things, profane rather than sacred. The third line means that he has lost his honour through drinking wine; the last line that he has lost his reputation through merry making.
70
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.
He intended to mend his way often enough, but never quite made it ! The spring and the Rose are here symbols of the attraction back to his old ways.
71
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.
Even though wine has robbed him of his honour, would he have had it any other way, really ? Vintners are wine merchants. The last two lines refer to the transformation of simple grapes(what the Vintners buy) into intoxicating wine(the goods they sell).
72
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!
The spring and the Rose again used here to signify fading youth. And where does youth go? The Nightingale here appears to have little to do with the Nightingale and Rose of verse 6. Rather it seems to be bird of youth, which once it leaves our branches, flies off to who knows where…
73
Ah Love! could thou and I with fate conspire
To grasp this sorry scheme of things entire,
Would not we shatter it to bits--and then
Remould it nearer to the heart's desire!
A wonderful expression of how most of us feel !!!
74
Ah, moon of my delight who know’st no wane,
The moon of Heav’n is rising once again:
How oft hereafter rising shall she look
Through this same Garden after me--in vain!
Moon of my delight is the poet's beloved, she being permanent, unlike the moon of heaven, which waxes and wanes as the month goes by. The meaning of the last two lines is that there will come a time when the moon of heaven looks down upon the poet's garden, but will no longer find him there because he will be dead.
Incidentally, it is an easily missed fact that the rising moon in this verse at the end of the poem, pairs with the rising sun in verse 1 at the beginning, the whole poem thus effectively following the course of Omar's musings through a symbolic day, from sunrise to moonrise.
75
And when The with shining foot shall pass
Among the Guests Star-scatter’d on the Grass,
And in thy joyous Errand teach the Spot
Where I made one-turn down an empty Glass!
And if you dear reader, happen to pass by the place where I am buried “turn down an empty glass”- pour a glass of wine over my grave in celebration of my life.
TAMAM SHUD
