Omar Khayyam

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 […]

I know the outside  of being and nothingness, and I know the inside  of the high and the low. Even so, I should be ashamed  of all my knowledge if I knew of any higher status than drunkenness. Translated by Juan Cole from Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat, [pdf] Whinfield 336

       Wine, you are                       my insane                                  sweetheart;             I hit the bottle and         have no fear of disgrace. Drink […]

I staggered, drunk, outside a bar last night and saw a tipsy older man emerge,  a bottle slung across his shoulder; and I said to him, “At your age, aren’t you  ashamed before the Lord Almighty?” He  laughed, “God is merciful: Here, have some wine!” Translated by Juan Cole from Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat, [pdf] Whinfield 284

Last night I wandered into a  dark pottery workshop and saw  about two thousand pots lined up in silence. But then suddenly  a vase cried out, inquiring, ‘Where in the world are the potter and the customers and salespeople?” Translated by Juan Cole from Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat, [pdf] Whinfield 283

My sweetheart —            may she live as long  as my heartbreak —         today began her kindnesses               anew.    She locked eyes with me                for an instant,          then was gone–  […]

If you give wine               to a                     mountain, you will              set it                                       dancing; those  who  find fault  […]

Prudes don’t know Your grace the way we do, and strangers cannot know You as Your close friends do. You said, “If you commit a sin I will consign you to hell!” Yeah, sure- tell it to someone who doesn’t know the real You! Translated by Juan Cole from Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat, [pdf] Whinfield 204