Quatrain 16 in the first edition of Edward FitzGerald’s translation of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám underlines that life is fleeting for everyone, even the rich and powerful, and even for monarchs. FitzGerald was an “entrepreneurial Radical” in Victorian terms, who disliked the aristocracy and favored the republican form of government for newly established nation-states in Europe such as Italy. Singling out kings as a demonstration case of how time holds still for no one may have been a way of subtly expressing this republicanism.
XVI.
- Think, in this batter’d Caravanserai
Whose Doorways are alternate Night and Day,
How Sultán after Sultán with his Pomp
Abode his Hour or two, and went his way.
The original was identified by A.J. Arberry as no. 98 in the Calcutta manuscript that Edward Cowell sent back to FitzGerald in 1857. It can now be found here.
این کهنه رباط را که عالم نام است
وآرامگه ابلقِ صبح و شام است
بزمیست که واماندۀ صد جمشید است
قصریست که تکیهگاه صد بهرام است
My literal translation in iambic heptameter would go this way:
This ancient caravanserai whose nickname is “the world”
provides a dappled refuge for each morning and each eve.
It is a banquet that left a hundred Jamshids behind.
It is a palace where a hundred Bahrams took their rest.
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The word for caravanserai here in the original is ribāṭ, which is discussed by J. Chabbi in The Encyclopedia of Islam. In the early centuries of Islam it referred to a military garrison where troops were stationed. However, because it was secure, trading caravans began stopping off at such places, staying the night on their way to their destination. So the word came to have the connotation of inn or caravanserai. In the 1100s and 1200s some ribāṭs began being used as Sufi centers, which established them as a separate space than the mosque, and under the control of spiritual adepts rather than legalistic clergy. The Turkish word khaneqah was also used for such mystical places of retreat.
Here, FitzGerald made a note that the word means caravanserai, and that is certainly correct. For the poets, a caravan is a symbol of impermanence, since it stays on the move.
In this quatrain, unlike some previous ones, FitzGerald did not name Jamshid and Bahram V as kings, using the vague “How Sultan after Sultan with his Pomp . . .” But they are referred to in the Persian quatrain on which he based 1:16.
I talked about the ancient mythical king of Iran, Jamshid, in an earlier commentary.
Bahram V or Bahram Gor was a king of the Sasanian dynasty who ruled 420-438 CE. He was a contemporary of the Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosios II. While he was a historical figure, he entered the epics and romances of later poets such as Ferdowsi and Nezami.
His historical adventures were amazing enough. He had been exiled to the vassal Arab court at Hira, and when his father Yazdegerd was killed by increasingly powerful Zoroastrian priests, they initially tried to put Khosrow on the throne. Bahram got Arab help to go to the capital and make a bid for the succession himself. He argued that the crown should be placed in an arena between two wild lions, and whoever could retrieve it by killing the lions would be king. It was agreed, and he dispatched the beasts and won the crown. He pushed back against priestly power. Otakar Klima wrote,
- “He also remitted taxes and public debts at festive occasions, promoted musicians to higher rank and brought thousands of Indian minstrels (lūrīs) into Iran to amuse his subjects, and he himself indulged in pleasure-loving activities, particularly hunting (his memorable shooting of a wonderful onager, gōr, is said to have given origin to his nickname Gōr “Onager [hunter]”). These measures made Bahrām one of the most popular kings in Iranian history. Right after his accession, he proved himself in battle against the White Huns (the Hephthalites) who had invaded eastern Iran. Leaving his brother Narseh as regent, Bahrām took the road from Nisa via Marv to Kušmēhan, where he fell upon the enemy, won a resounding victory, and obtained precious booty from which he made rich offerings to the fire temple of Ādur Gushnasp.”
O. Klíma, “Bahrām V,” Encyclopaedia Iranica, III/5, pp. 514-522, available online at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/bahram-05 (accessed on 30 December 2012).
The Metropolitan Museum gives us a glimpse of Bahram’s later career as a hero of fable, telling us about a royal illustration of one of his adventures:
- “Shah Shangul asked Bahram to rid the world of a monstrous rhino‑wolf, which tore the hearts from lions and the skin from leopards. Bahram strung up his bow and sped toward the rhino‑wolf, pouring a mighty hail of arrows onto the beast. In this painting, the image of the rhino‑wolf breaks through the rulings of the painting into the margins, lending the composition dynamism and suggesting the extension of the setting beyond the confines of the page.”
Detail. “Bahram Gur Slays the Rhino-Wolf”, Folio 586r from the Shahnama (Book of Kings) of Shah Tahmasp, by Abu’l Qasim Firdausi. Iranian Painting attributed to ‘Abd al-‘Aziz. Workshop director Aqa Mirak. Iranian. ca. 1530–35. Opaque watercolor, ink, silver, and gold on paper Metropolitan Museum.
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For more commentaries on FitzGerald’s translations of the Rubáiyát, see
FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám: Commentary by Juan Cole with Original Persian
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