Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

(Translated by Edward Fitzgerald)

The Rubaiyat or the Testament of the 12th Century Persian Poet , Omar Khayyam , was first translated into english and published in 1859, by Edward Fitzgerald.

1) 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!

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2) There was a Door to which I found no Key:

There was a Veil past which I could not see:

Some little Talk awhile of ME and THEE

There seemed--and then no more of THEE and ME.

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3) 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."

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4) The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,

Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit

Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,

Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it.

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5) 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.

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6) And this I know: whether the one True Light,

Kindle to Love, or Wrath consume me quite,

One Glimpse of It within the Tavern caught

Better than in the Temple lost outright.

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7) For in and out, above, about, below,'

Tis nothing but a Magic Shadow-show,

Play'd in a Box whose Candle is the Sun,

Round which we Phantom Figures come and go.

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8) Oh Thou, who Man of baser Earth didst make,

And who with Eden didst devise the Snake;

For all the Sin wherewith the Face of Man

Is blacken'd, Man's Forgiveness give--and take!

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9) 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--is gone.

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10) Listen again. One Evening at the Close

Of Ramazan, ere the better Moon arose,

In that old Potter's Shop I stood alone

With the clay Population round in Rows.

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