Informed Comment

If you give wine 
             to a 
                   mountain,
you will 
            set it 
                                     dancing;
those 
who 
find fault 
          with wine
                 have something
                        wrong with
                                          them.
I’ll never repent 
        of my wine,
               for it
educates 
                        the soul.

Translated by Juan Cole
from Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat, [pdf] Whinfield 186

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Posted in Omar Khayyam, Uncategorized | 3 Comments | Print

§ 3 Responses to “Omar Khayyam (186) “wine educates the soul””

• Michael says:

  

  09/13/2012 at 12:30 am

  What does this man mean when he says “wine”? Could it really be the wine that we are familiar with?
  • Juan says:

    

    09/13/2012 at 12:46 am

    Many Sufi or mystic poets of the medieval Middle East used ‘wine’ to mean knowledge or experience of God.

    the ‘Omar Khayyam’ poems probably just mean, wine.
    • Dorian says:

      

      09/13/2012 at 1:14 am

      interesting that they used wine as the term. what made them use that instead of anything else? It really gives you a good insight into the world and atmosphere of the time.