Thoughts on the Middle East, History and Religion
Posted on 02/23/2012 by Juan Cole
When I am sober,
I don’t feel lighthearted;
but when I’m drunk
my reason is defective.
There is a state
between being tipsy
and clearheaded.
I’m a slave to that state
because that is life.
Translated by Juan Cole
from Whinfield 41
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Posted in Omar Khayyam, Uncategorized | 5 Comments | Print
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please excuse me for a comment … the translations seem just a bit too literal.
by way of explanation, rumi is often translated very precisely, yet all mystic meaning is lost, and for me, the best translations are by coleman barks, who doesn’t know the original language, but knows mysticism.
this poem is about bliss, about samadhi, about transcendental awareness, and how that begins to coexist with normal waking state as the growth of consciousness continues .. “reality” infused with divinity is the true reality.
wondering if you have a practice…
I can not agree gregorylent. Omar Khayyam entire life trying to give the answer to the question of why the world was born, what is the point of life, what is after death. And I think that in this poem is put these questions.
German version:
Nüchtern ist die Freude mir verbannt
und trunken fehlt’s mir an Verstand
zwischen nuchtern und trunken sei mein Weg
wo ich das wahre Leben fand
nicely done!
Were that one could walk such sweet balance on that tightrope.