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Among life's poetic joys are found the quatrains of Omar Khayyam. Like a comely squench in a first rate harem certain quatrains of Fitzgerald's will delight us at different times for a multitude of reasons; sometimes we enjoy raw sexuality like common barnyard animals, but on rare occasions a demure turn of the ankle will render us pleased. What quatrain of Omar Khayyam do you find pleasing at this particular station and time? Me? Tonight I feel frivolous. Normally I prefer the ponderous, but tonight I got my kicks with the alliteration and the frills.  XXXII Into this Universe, and Why not knowing
Nor Whence, like Water willy - nilly flowing;
And out of it, as Wind along the Waste,
I know not Whither, willy - nilly blowing. And you? http://underthesun.cc/Classics/Khayyam/RubaiyatOfOmarKhayyamOfNaishapur/
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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I was torn between two verses, but decided to follow your lead and go with the more frivolously speculative.
CIII
And much as Wine has play`d the Infidel,
And robb`d me of my Robe of Honour - Well,
I often wonder what the Vintners buy
One half so precious as the ware they sell.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Are you limiting us to the Fitzgerald translation? If not:
Who loots my heart steals traveled trash,
For carved upon a trunk of ash
Is 'Floyd loves Flora' with a flash
Of yestereven's balderdash.
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And all the saints and sages who discussed
Of the two worlds so learnedly are thrust
Like foolish prophets forth
Their words to scorn are scattered
And their mouths are stopped with dust.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Alike for those who for To - day prepare,
And those that after some To - morrow stare,
A Muezzin from the Tower of Darkness cries,
"Fools! your Reward is neither Here nor There!"
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veteran
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The Fitz/Khayyam poems are probably my favorites. I keep a really nice copy next to my monitor at home and a small, pocket edition in the satchel I carry about with me everywhere.
Whether at Naishapur or Babylon,
whether the cup with sweet or bitter run,
the wine of Life keeps oozing drop by drop,
the leaves of Life keep falling, one by one.
The Moving Finger writes, and having writ,
moves on - nor all your piety nor wit,
may lure it back to cancel half a line,
nor all your tears wash out a word of it.
Think! On this battered caravanserei,
whose portals are alternate night and day,
how sultan after sultan, in his pomp,
abode his destined hour, then went his way.
I love 'em and can read 'em for hours and hours when I'm in a particular mood. I've had several persian friends tell me that the English translation is extremely good, but still only captures about 70% of the feeling. These buddies told me that they like to sit around, get drunk, and recite these to each other on occasion.
Fitzgerald achieved his remarkable results by mixing and matching the original quatrains into the translations. So any particular poem in English might be an amalgamation of several in Persian.
Factoids: Khayyam means "tent-maker." "Rubai" is a very popular style of persian poetry, and "Rubaiyat" is a collection of that poetry.
His life was fascinating. Although he is most famous in the west because of the translations by Fitzgerald, people in his native Persia thought him a bit of a borderline heretic, because some of his poems expressed a world view at odds with the Quran. He was a great astronomer and algebraist and he was able to pursue these interests because of a childhood pact he made with two other boys - that whichever of them came into weatlh, he would share it equally with the other two. (I've forgotten their names long ago.) Sure enough one of his friends gained a very high appointment to the Sultan and he asked his compatriots what they desired. One of them wanted a government position for himself, but the other, Omar, only wanted to pursue his studies. So the fortunate friend procured a stipend for Omar to study at an observatory, which he did. During this time he determined a very accurate measure of the length of a year and developed solutions for cubic equations. He also wrote a couple books, the names of which I can't remember.
k
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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newbie
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newbie
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When the occasion is right to read "The Rubaiyat" my mood and mind undergoes either balm or pleasure or both, no matter which translation or interpretation by Fitzgerald I read. Guess my mood... Ah, my Beloved, fill the Cup that clears
To - day of past Regret and Future Fears:
To - morrow! - Why, To - morrow I may be
Myself with Yesterday`s Sev`n thousand Years.O' Saki.
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journeyman
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journeyman
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The Moving Finger writes, and having writ,
moves on - nor all your piety nor wit,
may lure it back to cancel half a line,
nor all your tears wash out a word of it.
Always, always one of the best beloved.
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Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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The Moving Finger writes... Is that where that's from! Thanks, amnow. I'll have to see about getting myself a copy of this.
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Joined: May 2002
Posts: 1,529
veteran
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veteran
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XXIX
And all the saints and sages who discussed
Of the two worlds so learnedly are thrust
Like foolish prophets forth
Their words to scorn are scattered
And their mouths are stopped with dust.Ah, too true, Plutarch, but self-destructively bitter.  Instead be kind, and loving. and forgiving; for the sweet Bird of Time has but a short way to flutter... - And LO! The Bird is on the wing.  LVI
Waste not your Hour, nor in the vain pursuit
Of This and That endeavour and dispute;
Better be merry with the fruitful Grape
Than sadden after none, or bitter, Fruit.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
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CVIII
Ah Love! could you and I with Fate conspire
To grasp this sorry Scheme of Things entire,
Would not we shatter it to bits - and then
Re - mould it nearer to the Heart`s Desire!
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veteran
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veteran
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Up from Earth's center and through the seventh gate,
I rose and on the throne of Saturn sate,
And many a knot unraveled by the road,
but not the master knot of Human Fate.
A Book of Verses underneath the Bough,
a jug of wine, a loaf of bread - and thou
beside me singing in the Wilderness -
Ah! Wilderness were paradise enow!
Fear not that Existence, closing your Account and mine,
should know the like no more - that Eternal Saki
in the Sky has poured millions of
bubbles like us - and WILL pour.
Sounds like heresy to me.
k
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veteran
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veteran
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Blue Moon of Kentucky
- by Bill Monroe (1947)
Blue moon of Kentucky keep on shining
Shine on the one that's gone and prove untrue
Blue moon of Kentucky keep on shining
Shine on the one that's gone and left me blue
It was on a moonlight night
The stars were shining bright
When they wispered from on high Your lover said good-bye
Blue moon of Kentucky keep on shining
Shine on the one that's gone and said good-bye
Zounds, this October has been filled with moons. First the eclipse by the Earth of the Moon mid month and then the appearance this past weekend of the second full moon in October. Although technically a Blue Moon is the fourth moon to appear in a single season, two moons in a single month are the popular but mistaken understanding of a Moon that we pronounce blue.
Then there was the eclipse. Rare in itself, the Alabama night sky gave way to a sudden break in the clouds which allowed a spectacular view.
Lucky me.
But maybe not. While camping in General Burnside State Park in Kentucky this past weekend this forlorn but beautiful verse by Omar Khayyam kept playing over and over in my record player brain...
But see! the rising moon of Heav'n again
Looks for us, Sweetheart, through the Quivering Plane
How oft hereafter rising will she look back
Among the leaves - for one of us in vain.
Later, just before I left the island, I figgered it out.
I hadn't seen my favorite tree - a three-leaf Sweetgum or Sycamore tree that stood very near the campsite.
Mmm? Maybe I had lost it's location in my jumbled memory, or maybe someone had just cut it down.
Oh well.
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journeyman
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journeyman
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...and that particular October calendar would be available...where?
I also think your 'blue moon' definition and mine aren't quite the same.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Although technically a Blue Moon is the fourth moon to appear in a single seasonOr, not the fourth full moon in a season, but the third when there are four. http://www.netaxs.com/~mhmyers/blue/blue.html
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