The Sufistic Quatrains Of Omar Khayyam Part 6

NOTES.

(Stanza II.) The _False Dawn_; _Subhi kazib_, a transient Light on the Horizon about an hour before the _Subhi sadik_, or True Dawn; a well-known Phenomenon in the East.

(IV.) New Year. Beginning with the Vernal Equinox, it must be remembered; and (howsoever the old Solar Year is practically superseded by the clumsy _Lunar_ Year that dates from the Mohammedan Hegira) still commemorated by a Festival that is said to have been appointed by the very Jamshyd whom Omar so often talks of, and whose yearly Calendar he helped to rectify.

The sudden approach and rapid advance of the Spring, says Mr.

Binning,[13] are very striking. Before the Snow is well off the Ground, the Trees burst into Blossom, and the Flowers start forth from the Soil.

At _Now Rooz_ [_their_ New Year's Day] the Snow was lying in patches on the Hills and in the shaded Valleys, while the Fruit-trees in the Gardens were budding beautifully, and green Plants and Flowers springing up on the Plains on every side--

And on old Hyems' Chin and icy Crown An odorous Chaplet of sweet Summer buds Is, as in mockery, set--

Among the Plants newly appeared I recognised some old Acquaintances I had not seen for many a Year: among these, two varieties of the Thistle--a coa.r.s.e species of Daisy like the Horse-gowan--red and white Clover--the Dock--the blue Corn-flower--and that vulgar Herb the Dandelion rearing its yellow crest on the Banks of the Water-courses.

The Nightingale was not yet heard, for the Rose was not yet blown; but an almost identical Blackbird and Wood-p.e.c.k.e.r helped to make up something of a North-country Spring.

The White Hand of Moses. Exodus iv. 6; where Moses draws forth his Hand--not, according to the Persians, _leprous as Snow,_ --but _white_, as our May-blossom in Spring perhaps. According to them also the Healing Power of Jesus resided in His Breath.

(V.) Iram, planted by King Shaddad, and now sunk somewhere in the Sands of Arabia. Jamshyd's Seven-ring'd Cup was typical of the 7 Heavens, 7 Planets, 7 Seas, etc., and was a _Divining Cup_.

(VI.) _Pehlevi_, the old Heroic _Sanskrit_ of Persia. Hafiz also speaks of the Nightingale's _Pehlevi_, which did not change with the People's.

I am not sure if the fourth line refers to the Red Rose looking sickly, or to the Yellow Rose that ought to be Red; Red, White, and Yellow Roses all common in Persia. I think that Southey in his Common-Place Book, quotes from some Spanish author about the Rose being White till 10 o'clock; _Rosa Perfecta_ at 2; and _perfecta incarnada_ at 5.

(X.) Rustum, the Hercules of Persia, and Zal his Father, whose exploits are among the most celebrated in the Shahnama. Hatim Tai, a well-known type of Oriental generosity.

(XIII.) A Drum--beaten outside a Palace.

(XIV.) That is, the Rose's Golden Centre.

(XVIII.) Persepolis: call'd also _Takht.i-Jamshyd_--THE THRONE OF JAMSHYD, _King Splendid,_ of the mythical _Peshdadian_ Dynasty, and supposed (according to the Shahnama) to have been founded and built by him. Others refer it to the Work of the Genie King, Jan Ibn Jan--who also built the Pyramids--before the time of Adam.

BAHRAM GUR--_Bahram of the Wild a.s.s_--a Sa.s.sanian Sovereign--had also his Seven Castles (like the King of Bohemia!) each of a different Colour; each with a Royal Mistress within; each of whom tells him a Story, as told in one of the most famous Poems of Persia, written by Amir Khusraw: all these Seven also figuring (according to Eastern Mysticism) the Seven Heavens; and perhaps the Book itself that Eighth, into which the mystical Seven transcend, and within which they revolve.

The Ruins of Three of those Towers are yet shown by the Peasantry; as also the swamp in which Bahram sunk like the Master of Ravenswood while pursuing his _Gur_.

The Palace that to Heav'n his pillars threw, And Kings the forehead on his threshold drew-- I saw the solitary Ringdove there, And Coo, coo, coo, she cried; and Coo, coo, coo.

This Quatrain Mr. Binning found, among several of Hafiz and others, inscribed by some stray hand among the ruins of Persepolis. The Ringdove's ancient _Pehlevi Coo, Coo, Coo_, signifies also in Persian, _Where? Where? Where?_ In Attar's Bird-parliament she is reproved by the Leader of the Birds for sitting still, and for ever harping on that one note of lamentation for her lost Yusuf.

Apropos of Omar's Red Roses in Stanza xix., I am reminded of an old English superst.i.tion, that our Anemone Pulsatilla, or purple Pasque Flower (which grows plentifully about the Fleam d.y.k.e, near Cambridge), grows only where Danish blood has been spilt.

(XXI.) A thousand years to each Planet.

(x.x.xI.) Saturn, Lord of the Seventh Heaven.

(x.x.xII.) ME-AND-THEE: some dividual Existence or Personality distinct from the Whole.

(x.x.xVII.) One of the Persian Poets--Attar, I think--has a pretty story about this. A thirsty Traveller dips his hand into a Spring of Water to drink from. By and by comes another who draws up and drinks from an earthen Bowl, and then departs, leaving his Bowl behind him. The first Traveller takes it up for another draught; but is surprised to find that the same Water which had tasted sweet from his own hand tastes bitter from the earthen Bowl. But a Voice--from Heaven, I think--tells him the clay from which the Bowl is made was once _Man_; and, into whatever shape renewed, can never lose the bitter flavour of Mortality.

(x.x.xIX.) The custom of throwing a little Wine on the ground before drinking still continues in Persia, and perhaps generally in the East.

Mons. Nicolas considers it _un signe de liberalite, et en meme temps un avertiss.e.m.e.nt que le buveur doit vider sa coupe jusqu' a la derniere goutte_. Is it not more likely an ancient Superst.i.tion; a Libation to propitiate Earth, or make her an Accomplice in the illicit Revel? Or, perhaps, to divert the Jealous Eye by some sacrifice of superfluity, as with the Ancients of the West? With Omar we see something more is signified; the precious Liquor is not lost, but sinks into the ground to refresh the dust of some poor Wine-wors.h.i.+pper foregone.

Thus Hafiz, copying Omar in so many ways: When thou drinkest Wine pour a draught on the ground. Wherefore fear the Sin which brings to another Gain?

(XLIII.) According to one beautiful Oriental Legend, Azrael accomplishes his mission by holding to the nostril an Apple from the Tree of Life.

This and the two following Stanzas would have been withdrawn, as somewhat _de trop_, from the Text, but for advice which I least like to disregard.

(LI.) Prom Mah to Mahi; from Fish to Moon.

(LVI.) A Jest, of course, at his Studies. A curious mathematical Quatrain of Omar's has been pointed out to me; the more curious because almost exactly parallel'd by some Verses of Bishop Donne's, that are quoted in Izaak Walton's Lives! Here is Omar: You and I are the image of a pair of compa.s.ses; though we have two heads (sc. our _feet_) we have one body; when we have fixed the centre for our circle, we bring our heads (sc. feet) together at the end. Dr. Donne:--

If we be two, we two are so As stiff twin-compa.s.ses are two; Thy Soul, the fixt foot, makes no show To move, but does if the other do.

And though thine in the centre sit, Yet when my other far does roam, Thine leans and hearkens after it, And grows erect as mine comes home.

Such thou must be to me, who must Like the other foot obliquely run; Thy firmness makes my circle just, And me to end where I begun.

(LIX.) The Seventy-two Religions supposed to divide the World, _including_ Islamism, as some think: but others not.

(LX.) Alluding to Sultan Mahmud's Conquest of India and its dark people.

(LXVIII.) _Fa.n.u.si khiyal_, a Magic-lantern still used in India; the cylindrical Interior being painted with various Figures, and so lightly poised and ventilated as to revolve round the lighted Candle within.

(LXX.) A very mysterious Line in the Original:--

_O danad O danad O danad O----_

breaking off something like our Wood-pigeon's Note, which she is said to take up just where she left off.

(LXXV.) Parwin and Mushtari--The Pleiads and Jupiter.

(Lx.x.xVII.) This Relation of Pot and Potter to Man and his Maker figures far and wide in the Literature of the World, from the time of the Hebrew Prophets to the present; when it may finally take the name of Pot theism, by which Mr. Carlyle ridiculed Sterling's Pantheism. _My_ Sheikh, whose knowledge flows in from all quarters, writes to me--

Apropos of old Omar's Pots, did I ever tell you the sentence I found in Bishop Pearson on the Creed? Thus are we wholly at the disposal of His will, and our present and future condition framed and ordered by His free, but wise and just, decrees. _Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?_ (Rom. ix. 21.) And can that earth-artificer have a freer power over his _brother potsherd_ (both being made of the same metal), than G.o.d hath over him, who, by the strange fecundity of His omnipotent power, first made the clay out of nothing, and then him out of that?

And again--from a very different quarter--I had to refer the other day to Aristophanes, and came by chance on a curious Speaking-pot story in the _Vespae_, which I had quite forgotten.

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