Omar Khayyam (1048 – 1131) was a Persian polymath. Born at Naishapur in Khorassan (today’s Iran), he made significant contributions to the fields of mathematics, astronomy, philosophy and poetry. His poetry collection, translated by Edward Fitzgerald under the title Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, contains a selection of quatrains. The book remains one of the most popular works of poetry.
The writing style of the book is quite interesting. There are quatrains, one after the other, and rather than telling a story with characters, Khayyam’s lyric poem presents the deep feelings and emotions of the poet on subjects such as life, death, love, and religion. And that’s what we have on the reading menu today: Some Rubaiyat (Quatrains) of Omar Khayyam. Happy reading!
QUATRAIN I
AWAKE! for Morning in the Bowl of Night
Has flung the Stone that puts the Stars to Flight:
And Lo! the Hunter of the East has caught
The Sultan’s Turret in a Noose of Light.
QUATRAIN XI
Here with a Loaf of Bread beneath the Bough,
A Flask of Wine, a Book of Verse – and Though
Beside me singing in the Wilderness –
And Wilderness is Paradise enow.
QUATRAIN XIII
Look to the Rose that blows about us – “Lo,
Laughing,” she says, “into the World I blow:
At once the silken Tassel of my Purse
Tear, and its Treasure on the Garden throw.”
QUATRAIN XXIV
Alike for those who for TO-DAY prepare,
And those that after a TO-MORROW stare,
A Muezzin from the Tower of Darkness cries
“Fools! your Reward is neither Here nor There!”
QUATRAIN XXXVI
For in the Market-place, one Dusk of Day,
I watch’d the Potter thumping his wet Clay:
And with its all-obliterated Tongue
It murmur’d – “Gently, Brother, gently, pray!”
QUATRAIN LXXI
Alas, that Spring should vanish with the Rose!
That Youth’s sweet-scented Manuscript should close!
The Nightingale that in the Branches sang,
Ah, whence, and whither flown again, who knows!
Kalampedia 