| PLOWRIGHT WORLD Poetry Section - Rubayyat |
| -1- 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. -2- Dreaming when Dawn's Lft 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." -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. -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. -16- Thin, in this battered Caranvanserai Whose Doorways are alternate Night and Day, How Sultan after Sultan with his Pomp Abode his Hour or two, and went his way. -18- I sometimes think that never blows so red The Rose as where some buried Caesar bled; That every Hyacinth the Garden wears Dropt in its Lap from some once lovely Head. -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. -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. -46- 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. -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 the Closet lays. |
| R U B A Y Y A T O F O M A R K H A Y Y A M |
| -59- 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. -60- And, strange to tell, among the Earthen Lot, Some could articulate, while others not: And suddenly one more impatient cried- "Who is the Potter, pray, and who the Pot?" -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." -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!" -63- None answer'd this; but after Silence spake A vessel of more ungainly Make: "They sneer at me for leaning all awry; What! did the hand then of the Potter shake?" -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! -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 Re-mould it nearer to the Heart's Desire! -74- Ah, Moon of my Delight who know'st no wane, The Moon of Heaven is rising once again: How oft hereafter rising shall she look Through this same Garden after me - in vain! -75- And when Thyself with shining Foot shall pass Among the Guests star-scattered on the Grass, And in thy joyous Errand reach the Spot Where I made one - turn down an empty Glass! |
| Rubayyat - A stanza of four lines. Omar Khayyam - 11th century Persian poet. Translated by : Edward FitzGerald, c.1859; UK |