No More Learning

I am passing away in
the hand of the wind. '"]

[Footnote 2: Though all these, like our Smiths, Archers, Millers, Fletchers, etc. ,
may simply retain the Surname of an hereditary calling. ]

[Footnote 3: "Philosophe Musulman qui a vecu en Odeur de Saintete dans sa
Religion, vers la Fin du premier et le Commencement du second Siecle,"
no part of which, except the "Philosophe," can apply to our Khayyam. ]

[Footnote 4: The Rashness of the Words, according to D'Herbelot, consisted in
being so opposed to those in the Koran: "No Man knows where he shall
die. "--This story of Omar reminds me of another so naturally--and when
one remembers how wide of his humble mark the noble sailor aimed--so
pathetically told by Captain Cook--not by Doctor Hawkworth--in his
Second Voyage (i. 374). When leaving Ulietea, "Oreo's last request was
for me to return. When he saw he could not obtain that promise, he
asked the name of my Marai (burying-place). As strange a question as
this was, I hesitated not a moment to tell him 'Stepney'; the parish in
which I live when in London. I was made to repeat it several times over
till they could pronounce it; and then 'Stepney Marai no Toote' was
echoed through an hundred mouths at once. I afterwards found the same
question had been put to Mr. Forster by a man on shore; but he gave a
different, and indeed more proper answer, by saying, 'No man who used
the sea could say where he should be buried. '"]

[Footnote 5: "Since this paper was written" (adds the Reviewer in a note), "we
have met with a Copy of a very rare Edition, printed at Calcutta in
1836. This contains 438 Tetrastichs, with an Appendix containing 54
others not found in some MSS.
"]

[Footnote 6: Professor Cowell. ]

[Footnote 7: Perhaps would have edited the Poems himself some years ago. He may
now as little approve of my Version on one side, as of Mons. Nicolas'
Theory on the other. ]

[Footnote 8: A note to Quatrain 234 admits that, however clear the mystical
meaning of such Images must be to Europeans, they are not quoted without
"rougissant" even by laymen in Persia--"Quant aux termes de tendresse
qui commencent ce quatrain, comme tant d'autres dans ce recueil, nos
lecteurs, habitues maintenant a 1'etrangete des expressions si souvent
employees par Kheyam pour rendre ses pensees sur l'amour divin, et a la
singularite des images trop orientales, d'une sensualite quelquefois
revoltante, n'auront pas de peine a se persuader qu'il s'agit de la
Divinite, bien que cette conviction soit vivement discutee par les
moullahs musulmans, et meme par beaucoup de laiques, qui rougissent
veritablement d'une pareille licence de leur compatriote a 1'egard des
choses spirituelles. "]





First Edition


I.

Awake! for Morning in the Bowl of Night
Has flung the Stone that puts the Stars to Flight:
And Lo! the Hunter of the East has caught
The Sultan's Turret in a Noose of Light.


II.

Dreaming when Dawn's Left Hand was in the Sky
I heard a Voice within the Tavern cry,
"Awake, my Little ones, and fill the Cup
Before Life's Liquor in its Cup be dry. "


III.

And, as the Cock crew, those who stood before
The Tavern shouted--"Open then the Door.
You know how little while we have to stay,
And, once departed, may return no more. "


IV.

Now the New Year reviving old Desires,
The thoughtful Soul to Solitude retires,
Where the WHITE HAND OF MOSES on the Bough
Puts out, and Jesus from the Ground suspires.