Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám is the title that Edward FitzGerald gave to his 1859 translation from Persian to English of a selection of quatrains (rubāʿiyāt) attributed to Omar Khayyam (1048–1131), dubbed “the Astronomer-Poet of Persia”.
Although commercially unsuccessful at first, FitzGerald’s work was popularised from 1861 onward by Whitley Stokes, and the work came to be greatly admired by the Pre-Raphaelites in England. FitzGerald had a third edition printed in 1872, which increased interest in the work in the United States. By the 1880s, the book was extremely popular throughout the English-speaking world, to the extent that numerous “Omar Khayyam clubs” were formed and there was a “fin de siècle cult of the Rubaiyat”.[1] Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyám is the title that Edward FitzGerald gave to his translation of a selection of poems, originally written in Persian and numbering about a thousand, attributed to Omar Khayyám (1048–1131), a Persian poet, mathematician, and astronomer. FitzGerald’s work has been published in several hundred editions and has inspired similar translation efforts in English and in many other languages.
Seize the day
While not all of Omar Khayyam’s quatrains contained the message of carpe diem, the way Edward Fitzgerald puts them together makes this the overarching theme of the poem. The first quatrain in the poem already starts with the capitalized AWAKE, urging the audience to go out and use their life.
Who said a jug of wine a loaf of bread and thou?
Omar Khayyam Quotes
A loaf of bread, a jug of wine, and thou.
What’s the meaning of the phrase ‘The moving finger writes’?
The phrase ‘The moving finger writes…’ expresses the notion that whatever one does in one’s life is one’s own responsibility and cannot be changed. “The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit, Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.” Omar Khayyam. As we move forward the world’s cultures are melting together, advancing into this century more quickly than one could ever have imagined.
Excerpt
Wake! For the Sun, who scattered into flight
The Stars before him from the Field of Night,
Drives Night along with them from Heav’n and strikes
The Sultán’s Turret with a Shaft of Light.
2
Before the phantom of False morning died,
Methought a Voice within the Tavern cried,
“When all the Temple is prepared within,
Why nods the drowsy Worshiper outside?”
3
And, as the Cock crew, those who stood before
The Tavern shouted–“Open, then, the Door!
You know how little while we have to stay,
And, once departed, may return no more.”
12
A Book of Verses underneath the Bough,
A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread–and Thou
Besides me singing in the Wilderness
Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow!
13
Some for the Glories of This World; and some
Sigh for the Prophet’s Paradise to come;
Ah, take the Cash, and let the Credit go,
Nor heed the rumble of a distant Drum!
14
Look to the blowing Rose 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.”
15
And those who husbanded the Golden Grain,
And those who flung it to the winds like Rain,
Alike to no such aureate Earth are turned
As, buried once, Men want dug up again.
19
I sometimes think that never blows so red
The Rose as where some buried Caesar bled;
That every Hyacinth the Garden wears
Dropped in her Lap from some once lovely Head.
20
And this reviving Herb whose tender Green
Fledges the River-Lip on which we lean–
Ah, lean upon it lightly! for who knows
From what once lovely Lip it springs unseen!
21
Ah, my Belovéd, fill the Cup that clears
Today of past Regrets and future Fears:
Tomorrow!–Why, Tomorrow I may be
Myself with Yesterday’s Sev’n thousand Years.
22
For some we loved, the loveliest and the best
That from his Vintage rolling Time hath pressed,
Have drunk their Cup a Round or two before,
And one by one crept silently to rest.
23
And we, that now make merry in the Room
They left, and Summer dresses in new bloom,
Ourselves must we beneath the Couch of Earth
Descend–ourselves to make a Couch–for whom?
24
Ah, make the most of what we yet may spend,
Before we too into the Dust descend;
Dust into Dust, and under Dust to lie,
Sans Wine, sans Song, sans Singer, and–sans End!
71
The Moving Finger writes, and, having writ,
Moves on; nor all your Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it.
72
And that inverted Bowl they call the Sky,
Whereunder crawling cooped we live and die,
Lift not your hands to It for help–for It
As impotently moves as you or I.
This poem is in the public domain.
more info at:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubaiyat_of_Omar_Khayyam
http://www.okonlife.com/poems/
https://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Guides3/rubaiyat.html
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