The Sufistic Quatrains Of Omar Khayyam Part 74

111.

Oh! what damage may the vessels filled to flowing do, and how incomplete are they who possess riches! The eyes of beautiful Turkish women are a feast to the heart, yet they are simple learners from the slaves who own them.

112.

It is necessary that our existence be effaced from the book of life, that we expire in the arms of death. O charming cupbearer, go, gaily bring me wine since my poor earth to earth must come.

113.

At this moment, when my heart is not yet deprived of life, it seems to me that there are few problems that I have not solved. However, when I call intelligence to my aid, when I examine myself with care, I perceive that my existence has slipped away and that I have still defined nothing.

114.

Those who adore the _seddjadeh_ [prayer-rug] are a.s.ses, since they throw themselves, with full consent, into the charge of devotees and hypocrites. What is most singular about them is that they, under a mantle of piety, preach Islamism and are, in reality, worse than idolaters.

115.

When the tree of my existence shall be cut down, when my members shall be dispersed, let them make pitchers of my dust and fill these pitchers with wine; then shall my dust be revived [through the wine contained in them].

116.

O Thou, G.o.d, before whom sin is without consequence, tell him who possesses intelligence to proclaim this important point: that in the eyes of a philosopher it is an absolute absurdity to make divine fore-knowledge in league with sin.

117.

In the first place, my being was given me without my consent, which makes my own existence a lasting problem to me. Then, we leave this world with regret, and without having accomplished the aim of our coming, of our stay, or our departure.

118.

When my sins come back to mind, the fire which then burned in my heart makes my boldness stream forth; for everywhere is it established that when a slave repents, a generous master pardons him.

119.

These potters who constantly plunge their fingers into the clay, who employ all their mind, all their intelligence, all their faculties to mould it, even to the crus.h.i.+ng of it with their feet and striking with their hands, of what think they? It is the same clay as the human body that they are treating thus.

120.

Those who, through knowledge, are the cream of the world; who, with intelligence scan the heights of the heavens, they also, like the firmament, have their heads turned in their search for divine knowledge, and are taken with vertigo and dimness of sight.

121.

G.o.d has promised us wine in Paradise. In that case why should He prohibit it in this world? One day an Arab in a state of drunkenness cut the hams of Hamzah's camel with his sword. It is only for him that our Prophet makes wine illicit.

122.

Since at this moment there only remains to you the memory of pleasure pa.s.sed away; since for a perfect friend you have only a cup of wine; finally, since that is all you own, rejoice at least in this possession and let the cup not slip from your hands.

123.

Oh! for the time when we shall be no more and the world shall still be here! There will remain no fame or trace of us. The world was not unfinished when we came; naught will be changed when we have gone from it.

124.

Those whose feet have trodden the world, who have run over it for the sake of appropriating the riches of the two hemispheres to themselves, they are not the ones, I believe, who have ever been able to explain the true state, the real situation of things here below.

125.

O regret! The capital [of life] has slipped from our hands. Alas! many hearts have been through death drowned in blood, and no one returns from the other world that I may ask him news of the travelers who have gone.

126.

These numerous great lords, so proud of their t.i.tles, are so gnawed by cares and sorrows that existence to them is a burden. And most ridiculous it is that they deign not to call by the name of men those who, unlike to them, are not slaves to their pa.s.sions.

127.

This lofty Wheel, whose trade it is to tyrannize, has never loosed for man the knot of any difficulty. Wherever it has seen an ulcerated heart, there has it come to add wound unto wound.

128.

Alas! the period of adolescence reaches home. The springtime of our pleasures slips away! That bird of gaiety which is called _youth_, alas! I know not when it came nor when it flew away!

129.

In the midst of this whirlpool of the world, hasten to gather some fruit. Seat thyself upon the throne of gaiety and bring the cup to thy lips. G.o.d is indifferent both to creed and sin; enjoy then here below, what pleases thee.

130.

Do you see those two or three imbeciles who hold the world in their hands, and who, in their candid ignorance, believe themselves the wisest in the universe? Do not disturb yourself for, in their high content, they deem all heretics who are not a.s.ses [like themselves].