The Rubayyat by Omar Khayyam

 

 

Many times I’ve mentioned my 4^th grade teacher, Dee Malloy, who opened up the world of classic lit and poetry. At the time, I didn’t know that what we were exposed to was some of the classics. It wasn’t until many years later that my mom gave me a small book of poems by Omar Khayyam. It was beautifully illustrated, and as I read through it I started recognizing some of the poems we read in school. I have since collected several versions of the Rubayyat. Here are a few of my favorites translated by Edward Fitzgerald.

 

Awake! For 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.

 

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.

 

A Book of Verses underneath the Bough,

A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread, – and Thou

Beside me singing in the Wilderness –

Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow!

 

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 Word of it.

 

Strange, is it not? That of the myriads who

Before us pass’d the door of Darkness through

Not one returns to tell us of the Road,

Which to discover we must travel too.