|
|
| |
"'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."
Omar Khayyám (11-12th century), Persian astronomer, poet. The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, st. 49, trans. by Edward FitzGerald, first edition (1859). |
"And that inverted Bowl we call The Sky,
Whereunder crawling coop't we live and die,
Lift not thy hands to It for help—for It
Rolls impotently on as Thou or I."
Omar Khayyám (11-12th century), Persian astronomer, poet. The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, st. 52, trans. by Edward Fitzgerald (1859). |
"Alas that Spring should vanish with the rose,
That youth's sweet manuscript should close."
Omar Khayyám (1048?-1122), Persian poet, astronomer. The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. |
"Drink! for you know not whence you came nor why:
Drink! for you know not why you go, nor where."
Omar Khayyám (c. 1048-1122), Persian astronomer, poet. The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, st. 74, trans. by Edward FitzGerald (1879). |
"Oh, the brave Music of a distant Drum!"
Omar Khayyám (11-12th century), Persian astronomer and poet. The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, st. 12, trans. by Edward FitzGerald, first edition (1859). |
"You know, my Friends, with what a brave Carouse
I made a Second Marriage in my house;
Divorced old barren Reason from my Bed,
And took the Daughter of the Vine to Spouse."
Omar Khayyám (11-12th century A.D.), Persian astronomer, poet. The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, st. 55, trans. by Edward Fitzgerald (1879). |
"The Grape that can with Logic absolute The Two-and-Seventy jarring Sects confute."
Omar Khayyám (11-12th century), Persian astronomer, poet. The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, st. 43, trans. by Edward FitzGerald, first edition (1859). |
"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."
Omar Khayyám (11-12th century), Persian astronomer, poet. The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, first edition, st. 11, trans. by Edward FitzGerald (1859). |
"Indeed the Idols I have loved so long
Have done my credit in this World much wrong:
Have drowned my Glory in a shallow Cup,
And sold my Reputation for a Song."
Omar Khayyám (d. 1123), Persian poet. The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám of Naishápúr (l. 369-372). . .
Norton Anthology of Poetry, The. Alexander W. Allison and others, eds. (3d ed., 1983) W. W. Norton & Company. |
"Some for the Glories of This World; and some
Sigh for the Prophet's Paradise to come;
Ah, take the Cash, and let the Credit go,
Nor heed the rumble of a distant Drum!"
Omar Khayyám (d. 1123), Persian poet. The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám of Naishápúr (l. 49-52). . .
Norton Anthology of Poetry, The. Alexander W. Allison and others, eds. (3d ed., 1983) W. W. Norton & Company. |
| |
|
|
|
|
Omar Khayyam (Umar Khayyam)
Free
Poetry E-Book: