Look not above, there
is no answer there
Pray not, for no one
listens to your prayer
Near is as near to God
as any Far
And Here is just the
same deceit as There.
Did God set grapes
a-growing, do you think
And at the same time
make it sin to drink?
Give thanks to Him who
foreordained it thus
Surely He loves to
hear the glasses clink!
The
quatrains attributed to the medieval scholar from Nishapur in Persia, Omar Khayyam, are some of the most
widely translated and revered in world literature. Whether he wrote them all or just a few and
what he meant as well as whether he was a mystic or a hedonist are all matters
of debate.
But
as you read them it is hard not to hear the music within.
Here with a
Loaf of Bread beneath the Bough
A Flask of
Wine, a Book of Verse--and Thou
Beside me
singing in the Wilderness--
And
Wilderness is Paradise enow.
Think, in
this batter'd Caravanserai
Whose
Doorways are alternate Night and Day,
How
Sultan after Sultan with his Pomp
Abode
his Hour or two, and went his way.
And this
delightful Herb whose tender Green
Fledges the
River's Lip on which we lean--
Ah, lean
upon it lightly! for who knows
From what
once lovely Lip it springs unseen!
Oh, come
with old Khayyam, and leave the Wise
To talk;
one thing is certain, that Life flies;
One thing
is certain, and the Rest is Lies;
The Flower
that once has blown for ever dies.
There was a
Door to which I found no Key:
There was a
Veil past which I could not see:
Some little
Talk awhile of ME and THEE
There
seemed--and then no more of THEE and ME.
Then to
this earthen Bowl did I adjourn
My
Lip the secret Well of Life to learn:
And
Lip to Lip it murmur'd--While you live,
Drink!--for
once dead you never shall return.
Alike for
those who for TO-DAY prepare,
And those
that after a TO-MORROW stare,
A Muezzin
from the Tower of Darkness cries
Fools! your
Reward is neither Here nor There.
Oum Kulthum |
Ahmed Rami
an Egyptian poet translated Khayyam’s epic
into Arabic and Oum Kulthum sang it.
Here it is.
Enjoy (with a glass of wine!)
Track Listing:
01.
Robaiyet el
Khayyam
02.
Hadith el Rouh
2 comments:
*chink chink*
Prosit! Or, in Egyptian-Arabic ...
fe sehetak!
Dig Dawg.
H.H.
A beauty, cheers!
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