Wednesday, June 24, 2015

The famous Rubaiyat (Quatrains) of Omar Khayyam (Excerpt)

Music:
Mikis Theodorakis & Vassilis Saleas - Weeping Eyes


Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

The original in Farsi
(1048-1131)

“Ah Love! could thou and I with Fate conspire
To grasp this sorry Scheme of Things entire,
Would not we shatter it to bits -- and then
Re-mould it nearer to the Heart's Desire!”

O listen, love, how all the builders sing!
O sap! O song! O green world blossoming!
White as the hand of Moses blooms the thorn,
Sweet as the breath of Jesus comes the spring.

I break one law, another law to keep;
The laws of death and hate I scorn to keep,
The law of Love that is the law of Life —
That is the only law I dare to keep.

O Love, I come to worship in your shrine
There is no part of you is not divine,
There is no part of you not human too
There is no part of you that is not mine ;

How sad, a heart that
does not know how to love, that
does not know what it is to be drunk with love.
If you are not in love,how can you enjoy
the blinding light of the sun,
the soft light of the moon?”

When you have planted
the rose of Love into your heart
your life has not been in vain.
I value the lover's sighs of happiness
and I despise the hypocrite mumbling his prayers.

Life is so short, yet sleeps thy lovely head;
Why make so soon a death-bed of thy bed?
love, awake! thy beauty wastes away--
Thou shalt sleep on and on when thou art dead.

Each day a leaf falls withered from the tree
Whose leaves make up the life of thee and me,
The leaves are counted and the last is there--
Ready to fall before thy destiny.

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.

Do you, within your little hour of Grace,
The waving Cypress in your Arms enlace,
Before the Mother back into her arms.
Fold, and dissolve you in a last embrace.

Hear from the spirit-world this mystery:
Creation is summed up, O man, in thee;
Angel and demon, man and beast art thou,
Yea, thou art all thou dost appear to be

I sent my Soul through the Invisible,
Some letter of that After-life to spell:
And by and by my Soul return'd to me,
And answer'd: 'I Myself am Heav'n and Hell

To all of us the thought of heaven is dear---
Why not be sure of it and make it here?
No doubt there is a heaven yonder too,
But 'tis so far away --- and you are near.

Every particle of dust on a patch of earth
Was a sun-cheek or brow of the morning star;
Shake the dust off your sleeve carefully--
That too was a delicate, fair face.

The Worldly Hope men set their Hearts upon
Turns Ashes—or it prospers; and anon,
Like Snow upon the Desert's dusty Face
Lighting a little Hour or two—is gone.

Let not base avarice enslave thy mind,
Nor vain ambition in its trammels bind;
Be sharp as fire, as running water swift,
Not, like earth’s dust, the sport of every wind!

Let him rejoice who has a loaf of bread,
A little nest wherein to lay his head,
Is slave to none, and no man slaves for him—
In truth his lot is wondrous well bested

Dervish, take off that bright nice-coloured garb,
of which you are so proud, and which you didn't possess
at the time of your birth. Dress yourself instead in the
cloth of the poor. Passers-by may not greet you,
but you will hear the angels sing in your heart.

When you are so full of sorrow
that you can't walk, can't cry anymore,
think about the green foliage that sparkles after
the rain. When the daylight exhausts you, when
you hope a final night will cover the world,
think about the awakening of a young child.

Hearts with the light of love illumined well,
Whether in mosque or synagogue they dwell,
Have their names written in the book of love,
Unvexed by hopes of heaven or fears of Hell.

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.


Diversity of worship has divided the human race
into seventy-two nations.From among all their dogmas,
I have selected one,Divine love.

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