Omar Khayyám

Quotes

1. After a momentary silence spake

   Some Vessel of a more ungainly Make;

   "They sneer at me for leaning all awry:

   What! did the Hand then of the Potter shake?"

2. 

   "Why," said another, "Some there are who tell

   Of one who threatens he will toss to Hell

   The luckless Pots he marr'd in making--Pish!

   "He's a Good Fellow, and 'twill all be well."

3. 

   Then said a Second — "Ne'er a peevish Boy

   Would break the Bowl from which he drank in joy,

   And He that with his hand the Vessel made

   Will surely not in after Wrath destroy."

4. 

   Indeed the Idols I have loved so long

   Have done my credit in this World much wrong:

   Have drown'd my Glory in a shallow Cup

   And sold my Reputation for a Song.

5. 

   "Well," Murmur'd one, "Let whoso make or buy,

   My Clay with long Oblivion is gone dry:

   But fill me with the old familiar juice,

   Methinks I might recover by and by."

6. 

   Allah, perchance, the secret word might spell;

   If Allah be, He keeps His secret well;

   What He hath hidden, who shall hope to find?

   Shall God His secret to a maggot tell?

   p. 45

7. 

   Indeed, indeed, Repentance oft before

   I swore — but was I sober when I swore?

   And then and then came Spring, and Rose-in-hand

   My thread-bare Penitence apieces tore.

8. 

   Said one among them — "Surely not in vain

   My substance of the common Earth was ta'en

   And to this Figure moulded, to be broke,

   Or trampled back to shapeless Earth again."

9. 

   What! out of senseless Nothing to provoke

   A conscious Something to resent the yoke

   Of unpermitted Pleasure, under pain

   Of Everlasting Penalties, if broke!

10. 

    Shapes of all Sorts and Sizes, great and small,

    That stood along the floor and by the wall;

    And some loquacious Vessels were; and some

    Listen'd perhaps, but never talk'd at all.

11. 

    And when like her, oh, Saki, you shall pass.

12. 

    And ev'n with Paradise devise the Snake.