No More Learning

And when like her, oh Saki, you shall pass
Among the Guests Star-scatter'd on the Grass,
And in your joyous errand reach the spot
Where I made One--turn down an empty Glass!


TAMAM.





Notes:


[The references are, except in the first note only, to the stanzas of
the Fifth edition. ]


(Stanza I. ) Flinging a Stone into the Cup was the signal for "To
Horse! " in the Desert.

(II. ) The "False Dawn"; Subhi Kazib, a transient Light on the Horizon
about an hour before the Subhi sadik or True Dawn; a well-known
Phenomenon in the East.

(IV. ) New Year. Beginning with the Vernal Equinox, it must be
remembered; and (howsoever the old Solar Year is practically
superseded by the clumsy Lunar Year that dates from the Mohammedan
Hijra) still commemorated by a Festival that is said to have been
appointed by the very Jamshyd whom Omar so often talks of, and whose
yearly Calendar he helped to rectify.

"The sudden approach and rapid advance of the Spring," says Mr.
Binning, "are very striking. Before the Snow is well off the Ground,
the Trees burst into Blossom, and the Flowers start from the Soil. At
Naw Rooz (their New Year's Day) the Snow was lying in patches on the
Hills and in the shaded Vallies, while the Fruit-trees in the Garden
were budding beautifully, and green Plants and Flowers springing upon
the Plains on every side--

'And on old Hyems' Chin and icy Crown
An odorous Chaplet of sweet Summer buds
Is, as in mockery, set--'--

Among the Plants newly appear'd I recognized some Acquaintances I had
not seen for many a Year: among these, two varieties of the Thistle; a
coarse species of the Daisy, like the Horse-gowan; red and white
clover; the Dock; the blue Cornflower; and that vulgar Herb the
Dandelion rearing its yellow crest on the Banks of the Water-courses.
"
The Nightingale was not yet heard, for the Rose was not yet blown: but
an almost identical Blackbird and Woodpecker helped to make up
something of a North-country Spring.

"The White Hand of Moses. " Exodus iv. 6; where Moses draws forth his
Hand--not, according to the Persians, "leprous as Snow," but white, as
our May-blossom in Spring perhaps. According to them also the Healing
Power of Jesus resided in his Breath.

(V. ) Iram, planted by King Shaddad, and now sunk somewhere in the
Sands of Arabia. Jamshyd's Seven-ring'd Cup was typical of the 7
Heavens, 7 Planets, 7 Seas, &c. , and was a Divining Cup.

(VI. ) Pehlevi, the old Heroic Sanskrit of Persia. Hafiz also speaks
of the Nightingale's Pehlevi, which did not change with the People's.

I am not sure if the fourth line refers to the Red Rose looking
sickly, or to the Yellow Rose that ought to be Red; Red, White, and
Yellow Roses all common in Persia. I think that Southey in his Common-
Place Book, quotes from some Spanish author about the Rose being White
till 10 o'clock; "Rosa Perfecta" at 2; and "perfecta incarnada" at 5.

(X. ) Rustum, the "Hercules" of Persia, and Zal his Father, whose
exploits are among the most celebrated in the Shahnama.