Informed Comment

Be happy, since once you’re upset 
it goes on forever–
as stars move into conjunction 
in the sky, it will go on.
The brick they will one day 
mold from your clay
will be lodged in the portico
of someone else’s palace.

Translated by Juan Cole
from Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat, [pdf] Whinfield 162

Posted in Omar Khayyam, Uncategorized | 3 Comments

They tell you that heaven with houris is delightful;
I tell you that the juice of the grape is delightful.
Take the cash in hand and decline the loan: 
Drumming’s more pleasant when heard from afar.

Translated by Juan Cole
from Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat, [pdf] Whinfield 108  

Posted in Omar Khayyam, Uncategorized | Comments Off

The revolving sky,
which has never revealed any mysteries,
has brutally crushed a thousand innocents.
Have some wine, since no one is given a long life
and once people have left this world
they aren’t coming back.

Translated by Juan Cole
from Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat, [pdf] Whinfield 259 

Posted in Omar Khayyam, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Since you can’t comprehend the mysteries,
why wallow uselessly in grief?  Since you ‘re 
not going to get your way, be happy in
this fleeting moment for which you exist.

Translated by Juan Cole
from Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat, [pdf] Whinfield 458

Posted in Omar Khayyam, Uncategorized | 4 Comments

You’re fast on your feet, server,
and dawn is breaking.
Let’s have another song,
and bring more wine!
For summer’s new warmth has melted memories
of last December,
and of the hundred thousand
famous kings and leaders 
who have been laid 
beneath the hard, cold earth
these past few months.

Translated by Juan Cole
from Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat, [pdf] Whinfield 484

cf. Fitzgerald i, viii

Posted in Omar Khayyam, Uncategorized | Comments Off

As for the parts of a wineglass 
              that have been joined together–
no hand would set out 
               to break them apart.
But as for the shapely
hands and feet of a temptress–
    whose grace joins them together?
      and whose hatred in the end
                            sunders them?

Translated by Juan Cole
from Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat, [pdf] Whinfield 42

Posted in Omar Khayyam, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

It is a shame for anyone
to be well-known for righteousness.
It is a great disgrace to feel
distress at the injustice of 
the turning of the wheels of fate.
To get drunk on the nose of a
fine vintage born of luscious grapes
is better than to be renowned
to be a self-denying prude.

Translated by Juan Cole
from Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat, [pdf] Whinfield 383

Posted in Omar Khayyam, Uncategorized | 2 Comments