The Sufistic Quatrains Of Omar Khayyam Part 52

292. C. L. N. A. I. J.

293.

Did no fair rose my paradise adorn, I would make shift to deck it with a thorn; And if I lacked my prayer-mats, beads, and Shaikh, 'Those Christian bells and stoles I would not scorn.

293. C. L. N. A. I. (under _Te_). Line 2 is omitted in the translation.

So Pope, For forms and creeds let graceless zealots fight.

294.

If heaven deny me peace and fame, I said, Let it be open war and shame instead; The man who scorns bright wine had best beware, I'll arm me with a stone, and break his head!

294. C. L. N. A. I. J.

295.

See! the dawn breaks, and rends night's canopy: Arise! and drain a morning draught with me!

Away with gloom! full many a dawn will break Looking for us, and we not here to see!

295. C. L. N A. I. J. _Bisyar_, frequently.

296.

O you who tremble not at fires of h.e.l.l, Nor wash in water of remorse's well, When winds of death shall quench your vital torch, Beware lest earth your guilty dust expel.

296. L. Possibly written by some pious reader as an answer to Khayyam's scoffs. See note on Quatrain 223.

297.

This world a hollow pageant you should deem; All wise men know things are not what they seem; Be of good cheer, and drink, and so shake off This vain illusion of a baseless dream.

297. L. N. All earthly existence is _Maya_

298.

With maids stately as cypresses, and fair As roses newly plucked, your wine-cups share, Or e'er Death's blasts shall rend your robe of flesh Like yonder rose leaves, lying scattered there!

298. C. L. N. I. J. The Lucknow commentator says _daman i gul_ means the maid's cheek.

299.

Cast off dull care, O melancholy brother!

Woo the sweet daughter of the grape, no other; The daughter is forbidden, it is true, But she is nicer than her lawful mother!

299. N. Daughter of the grape, _i.e._, wine, a translation of an Arabic phrase.

300.

My love shone forth, and I was overcome, My heart was speaking, but my tongue was dumb; Beside the water-brooks I died of thirst.

Was ever known so strange a martyrdom?

300. N. _Dil rubaye_, that well-known charmer. Lumsden, ii. 142. _Pur sukhan_. See note on No. 227.

301.

Give me my cup in hand, and sing a glee In concert with the bulbul's symphony; Wine would not gurgle as it leaves the flask, If drinking mute were right for thee and me!

301. C. L. N. A. I. J.

302.

The Truth will not be shown to lofty thought, Nor yet with lavished gold may it be bought; But, if you yield your life for fifty years, From words to states you may perchance be brought.

302. L. Line 3, literally, Unless you dig up your soul, and eat blood for fifty years. States of ecstatic union with the Truth, or Deity of the Mystics.

303.

I solved all problems, down from Saturn's wreath Unto this lowly sphere of earth beneath, And leapt out free from bonds of fraud and lies, Yea, every knot was loosed, save that of death!

303. C. L. A. I. J.

304.

Peace! the eternal Has been and To be Pa.s.s man's experience, and man's theory; In joyful seasons naught can vie with wine, To all these riddles wine supplies the key!

304. C. L. A. B. I. J.

305.

Allah, our Lord, is merciful, though just; Sinner! despair not, but His mercy trust!

For though to-day you perish in your sins, To-morrow He'll absolve your crumbling dust.

305. C. L. N. A. I. J. A very Voltairean quatrain.