Omar Khayyám

Quotes

1. When You and I behind the Veil are past,

   Oh, but the long, long while the World shall last,

   Which of our Coming and Departure heeds

   As the Sea's self should heed a pebble-cast.

2. 

   Oh, many a Cup of this forbidden Wine

   Must drown the memory of that insolence!

3. 

   A Hair perhaps divides the False and True;

   Yes; and a single Alif were the clue —

   Could you but find it — to the Treasure-house,

   And peradventure to The Master too.

4. 

   And fear not lest Existence closing your

   Account, and mine, should know the like no more;

   The Eternal Saki from that Bowl has pour'd

   Millions of Bubbles like us, and will pour.

5. 

   The mighty Mahmud, Allah-breathing Lord

   That all the misbelieving and black Horde

   Of Fears and Sorrows that infest the Soul

   Scatters before him with his whirlwind Sword.

6. 

   Why, be this Juice the growth of God, who dare

   Blaspheme the twisted tendril as a Snare?

   A Blessing, we should use it, should we not?

   And if a Curse — why, then, Who set it there?

7. 

   Thou wilt not with Predestined Evil round

   Enmesh, and then impute my Fall to Sin!

8. 

   With Earth's first Clay They did the Last Man knead,

   And there of the Last Harvest sow'd the Seed:

   And the first Morning of Creation wrote

   What the Last Dawn of Reckoning shall read.

9. 

   With them the seed of Wisdom did I sow,

   And with mine own hand wrought to make it grow;

   And this was all the Harvest that I reap'd —

   "I came like Water, and like Wind I go."

10. 

    And this I know: whether the one True Light,

    Kindle to Love, or Wrath consume me quite,

    One Glimpse of It within the Tavern caught

    Better than in the Temple lost outright.

11. 

    And lately, by the Tavern Door agape,

    Came shining through the Dusk an Angel Shape

    Bearing a Vessel on his Shoulder; and

    He bid me taste of it; and 'twas — the Grape!

12. 

    We are no other than a moving row

    Of Magic Shadow-shapes that come and go

    Round with the Sun-illumined Lantern held

    In Midnight by the Master of the Show;