Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam Part 17

XCIX

Ah, Love! could you and I with Him 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!

C

Yon rising Moon that looks for us again-- How oft hereafter will she wax and wane; How oft hereafter rising look for us Through this same Garden--and for _one_ in vain!

CI

And when like her, oh, Saki, you shall pa.s.s Among the Guests Star-scatter'd on the Gra.s.s, And in your Joyous errand reach the spot Where I made One--turn down an empty Gla.s.s!

TAMaM

[Ill.u.s.tration: RUBaIYaTOFOMARKHAYYaM]

VARIATIONS IN THE THIRD EDITION OF THE TRANSLATION

In the first draught of the Third Edition the first quatrain stood thus:

Wake! For the Sun before him into Night A signal flung that put the Stars to flight; And, to the field of Heav'n ascending, strikes The Sultan's Turret with a Shaft of Light.

The tenth quatrain read thus in the Third Edition:

Well, let it take them! What have we to do With Kaikobad the Great, or Kaikhosru?

Let Zal and Rustum thunder as they will, Or Hatim Tai "To supper!"--heed not you.

In the first draught of Third Edition the thirty-eighth verse was as follows:

For, in your Ear a moment--of the same Poor Earth from which that Human whisper came, The luckless Mould in which Mankind was cast They did compose, and call'd him by the name.

In the final draught of the Third Edition it was changed to read:

Listen--a moment listen!--Of the same Poor Earth from which that Human Whisper came, The luckless Mould in which Mankind was cast They did compose, and call'd him by the name.

In the first draught of Third Edition quatrain forty ran thus:

As then the Tulip from her wonted sup Of Wine from Heav'n her little Ta.s.s lifts ups Do you, twin offspring of the soil, till Heav'n To Earth invert you like an empty cup.

The first draught of the Third Edition carried quatrain forty-two as follows:

And if the Cup, and if the Lip you press, End in what All begins and ends in--Yes; Imagine then you _are_ what heretofore You _were_--hereafter you shall not be less.

Quatrain forty-eight in the first draught of Third Edition read:

A Moment's Halt--a momentary taste Of BEING from the Well amid the Waste-- Before the starting Caravan has reach'd The Nothing it set out from--Oh, make haste!

In the final draught of Third Edition the same stanza ran:

A Moment's Halt--a momentary taste Of BEING from the Well amid the Waste-- And Lo!--the phantom Caravan has reach'd The Nothing it set out from--Oh, make haste!

In the first draught of the Third Edition, there stood the following quatrain, later deleted:

Better, oh, better, cancel from the Scroll Of Universe one luckless Human Soul, Than drop by drop enlarge the Flood that rolls Hoa.r.s.er with Anguish as the Ages Roll.