The Sufistic Quatrains Of Omar Khayyam - LightNovelsOnl.com
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306.
Your course annoys me, O ye wheeling skies!
Unloose me from your chain of tyrannies!
If none but fools your favours may enjoy, Then favour me,--I am not very wise!
306. C. L. N. A. I. J.
307.
O City Mufti, you go more astray Than I do, though to wine I do give way; I drink the blood of grapes, you that of men: Which of us is the more bloodthirsty, pray?
307. C. L. N. A. I. J. Alluding to the selling of justice by Muftis.
308.
'Tis well to drink, and leave anxiety For what is past, and what is yet to be; Our prisoned spirits, lent us for a day, A while from season's bondage shall go free!
308. C. L. N. A. I. J. _'Ariyati rawan_, this borrowed soul.
309.
When Khayyam quittance at Death's hand receives, And sheds his outworn life, as trees their leaves, Full gladly will he sift this world away, Ere dustmen sift his ashes in their sieves.
309. C. L. N. A. I. J.
310.
This wheel of heaven, which makes us all afraid, I liken to a lamp's revolving shade, The sun the candlestick, the earth the shade, And men the trembling forms thereon portrayed.
310. C. L. N. A. B. I. _Fa.n.u.s i khiyal_, a magic or Chinese lantern.
311.
Who was it that did mix my clay? Not I.
Who spun my web of silk and wool? Not I.
Who wrote upon my forehead all my good, And all my evil deeds? In truth not I.
311. C. L. N. A. I. In line 2 rhyme shows the word to be _rishtai_, not _rushtai_.
312.
O let us not forecast to-morrow's fears, But count to-day as gain, my brave compeers!
To-morrow we shall quit this inn, and march With comrades who have marched seven thousand years.
312. C. L. N. A. I. J. Badauni (ii. 337) says the creation of Adam was 7000 years before his time. Compare Hafiz, _Ruba'i_ 10.
313.
Ne'er for one moment leave your cup unused!
Wine keeps heart, faith, and reason too, amused; Had Iblis swallowed but a single drop, To wors.h.i.+p Adam he had ne'er refused!
313. C. L. (in part) N. A. I. J. See Koran, ii. 31.
314.
Come, dance! while we applaud thee, and adore Thy sweet Narcissus eyes, and grape-juice pour; A score of cups is no such great affair, But 'tis enchanting when we reach three score!
314. N. Narcissus eyes, _i.e._, languid.
315.
I close the door of hope in my own face, Nor sue for favours from good men, or base; I have but ONE to lend a helping hand, He knows, as well as I, my sorry case.
315. C. L. N. A. I. J. A _Haliya_ quatrain, lamenting his own condition.
316.
Ah! by these heavens, that ever circling run, And by my own base l.u.s.ts I am undone, Without the wit to abandon worldly hopes, And wanting sense the world's allures to shun!
316. C. L. N. A. I. J.
317.
On earth's green carpet many sleepers lie, And hid beneath it others I descry, And others, not yet come, or pa.s.sed away, People the desert of Nonent.i.ty!
317. C. L. N. A. I. J. The sleepers on the earth are those sunk in the sleep of superst.i.tion and ignorance.
318.
Sure of Thy grace, for sins why need I fear?
How can the pilgrim faint whilst Thou art near?
On the last day Thy grace will wash me white, And make my black record to disappear.
318. C. L. N. A. I. J. Lumsden, ii, 72. See Koran, xiii. 47.
319.
