.
RUBAIYAT OF OMAR KHAYYAM / 121 7
And merry-make; and the cold Lip I kiss'd 140 How many Kisses might it take?and give!
36 For in the Market-place, one Dusk of Day, I watch'd the Potter thumping his wet Clay:
And with its all obliterated Tongue It murmur'd?'Gently, Brother, gently, pray!'
37
145 Ah, fill the Cup:?what boots it to repeat How Time is slipping underneath our Feet: Unborn TO- MORROW, and dead YESTERDAY, Why fret about them if TO-DA Y be sweet!
38, One Moment in Annihilation's Waste, 150 One Moment, of the Well of Life to taste? The Stars are setting and the Caravan Starts for the Dawn of Nothing?Oh, make haste!
39
How long, how long, in infinite Pursuit Of This and That endeavour and dispute? 155 Better be merry with the fruitful Grape Than sadden after none, or bitter, Fruit.
40
You know, my Friends, how long since in my House For a new Marriage I did make Carouse: Divorced old barren Reason from my Bed, 160 And took the Daughter of the Vine to Spouse.
41 For 'Is' and 'IS-NOT' though with Rule and Line, And 'UP-AND-DOWN' without, I could define,
I yet in all I only cared to know, Was never deep in anything but?Wine.
42
165 And lately, by the Tavern Door agape, Came stealing through the Dusk an Angel Shape Bearing a Vessel on his Shoulder; and He bid me taste of it; and 'twas?the Grape!
43
The Grape that can with Logic absolute 170 The Two-and-Seventy jarring Sects6 confute: The subtle Alchemist that in a Trice Life's leaden Metal into Gold transmute.
44
The mighty Mahmiid, the victorious Lord, That all the misbelieving and black Horde7
6. The 72 Sects into which Islamism so soon split 7. This alludes to Mahmud's Conquest of India [FitzGerald's note], and its swarthy Idolaters [FitzGerald's note].
.
121 8 / EDWARD FITZGERALD
175
Of Fears and Sorrows that infest the Soul Scatters and slays with his enchanted Sword.
45 But leave the Wise to wrangle, and with me The Quarrel of the Universe let be:
And, in some corner of the Hubbub coucht, 180 Make Game of that which makes as much of Thee.
46 For in and out, above, about, below, Tis nothing but a Magic Shadow-show,8
Play'd in a Box whose Candle is the Sun, Round which we Phantom Figures come and go.
47 185 And if the Wine you drink, the Lip you press, End in the Nothing all Things end in?Yes? Then fancy while Thou art, Thou art but what Thou shalt be?Nothing?Thou shalt not be less.
48 While the Rose blows along the River Brink, 190 With old Khayyam the Ruby Vintage drink: And when the Angel with his darker Draught Draws up to Thee?take that, and do not shrink.
49 'Tis all a Chequer-board of Nights and Days Where Destiny with Men for Pieces plays:
195 Hither and thither moves, and mates, and slays, And one by one back in the Closet lays.
5? The Ball no Question makes of Ayes and Noes, But Right or Left, as strikes the Player0 goes; polo player And He that toss'd Thee down into the Field, 200 He knows about it all?HE knows?HE knows!
51 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.
52
205 And that inverted Bowl we call The Sky, Whereunder crawling coop't we live and die, Lift not thy hands to It for help?for It Rolls impotently on as Thou or I.
53 With Earth's first Clay They did the Last Man's knead, 210 And then of the Last Harvest sow'd the Seed:
8. A type of magic lantern, in which a cylindrical drum, its interior painted with various figures, revolves around a lighted candle.
.
RUBAIYAT OF OMAR KHAYYAM / 121 9
Yea, the first Morning of Creation wrote What the Last Dawn of Reckoning shall read.
