Omar Khayyám

Quotes

1. "How sweet is mortal Sovranty!"—think some:

   Others — "How blest the Paradise to come!"

   Ah, take the Cash in hand and wave the Rest;

   Oh, the brave Music of a distant Drum!

2. 

   They say the Lion and the Lizard keep

   The Courts where Jamshýd gloried and drank deep:

   And Bahrám, that great Hunter—the Wild Ass

   Stamps o'er his Head, and he lies fast asleep.

3. 

   With me along the strip of Herbage strown

   That just divides the desert from the sown,

   Where name of Slave and Sultan is forgot —

   And Peace to Mahmud on his golden Throne!

4. 

   Ah! my Belovéd, fill the Cup that clears

   To-day of past Regrets and future Fears —

   To-morrow?—Why, To-morrow I may be

   Myself with Yesterday's Sev'n Thousand Years.

5. 

   In divine

   High piping Péhlevi, with "Wine! Wine! Wine!

   "Red Wine!"—the Nightingale cries to the Rose

   That yellow Cheek of her's to'incarnadine.

6. 

   Think, in this batter'd Caravanserai

   Whose Doorways are alternate Night and Day,

   How Sultán after Sultán with his Pomp

   Abode his Hour or two, and went his way.

7. 

   I sometimes think that never blows so red

   The Rose as where some buried Cæsar bled;

   That every Hyacinth the Garden wears

   Dropt in its Lap from some once lovely Head.

8. 

   Alike for those who for prepare,

   And those that after some stare,

   A Muezzin from the Tower of Darkness cries

   "Fools! your Reward is neither Here nor There."

9. 

   Each Morn a thousand Roses brings, you say;

   Yes, but where leaves the Rose of Yesterday?

10. 

    Of threats of Hell and Hopes of Paradise!

    One thing at least is certain — This Life flies.

11. 

    And those who husbanded the Golden Grain,

    And those who flung it to the Winds like Rain,

    Alike to no such aureate Earth are turn'd

    As, buried once, Men want dug up again.

12. 

    Come, fill the Cup, and in the fire of Spring

    Your Winter-garment of Repentance fling:

    The Bird of Time has but a little way

    To flutter — and the Bird is on the Wing.