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but with Omar it is an article of his creed. When
Herrick speaks of the tints of the flowers being caused
by Cupid spilling the nectar of the gods, he uses a poetic
fancy, and does not mean his words to be taken literally.
With Omar it is otherwise.

Every place where the rose and tulip bed have been,
From the red of the blood of a prince it has been.
Every violet which grows upon the ground

A mole in the cheek of beauty has been.'

(43)

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'This whirling Sphere, to destroy thee and me,
Takes aim against the soul of thee and me.

Sit on the grass, O Idol! for erelong

The grass will spring from the dust of thee and me.' (129)

'Into the workplace of the potter went I last night:

I saw two thousand pots, talking and mute.
In no time one pot sent up a scream,—

"Who is the pot-maker, pot-buyer, pot-seller?" "

'This water-jug, like me, a groaning lover has been.
In search of the face of a fair it has been.

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This handle which upon its neck you see

(103)

Is an arm, which upon the neck of a friend has been.' (9)

Yesterday a potter I saw within the bazaar,

On the moist clay much thumping dealing.

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At last that clay with mute tongue to him was saying: "I have been as thou: with me gently be thou dealing."

Upon the stones I cast last night the glazed bowl.
Head-merry was I that I should do this boorishness.
To nie with mute tongue that bowl was saying:
"I was as thou: thou too as I shalt be.'

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(89)

(146)

Men speak of heaven and hell, and of future bliss and retribution. Omar's ever-ready reply is that no one living has ever been to either heaven or hell. No justice governs the life of man even in this world. Nature seems to take a savage delight in destroying the works of her own hands. The problem of hedonism is a problem still.

"This intellect that wanders after the path of happiness,
Every day one hundred times to thee is saying:

"Reckon thou well this moment of thy time, for thou
art not

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That herb which they mow, and again it grows."

(49)

"In the way of love to be effaced it ever behoves. In the talon of Fate to perish it ever behoves.

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O Cupbearer, fair to meet, sit not thou idle! Bring us water, for dust to become it ever behoves.'

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'In cell and school, monastery and church

Are fearers of hell and seekers after heaven.

D

But that man who has information of the secrets of God

Of this seed within his heart sows none.'

(24)

A

"How long shall I lay bricks upon the ocean's face?
No desire have I for the idol of the temple worshippers.
Of Khayyam who says, "A denizen of hell he shall be"?
Who has gone into hell, and who has come from heaven?'

(11)
'The composition of the cup which he has mingled into wine
Gives not to the drunkard a right to the breaking thereof.
These how many delicate hands and feet, coming from
His hand,

From what love did He form, and from what hate did He break?'

(19)

One naturally asks, 'What can any one who holds such dismal and gloomy views of the world make of life? What is he to do?' Omar's answer to this question is short and unmistakable. It is contained in two words which occur in stanza after stanza. These two words are Drink wine.'

'As no man can go surety for a to-morrow,

To-day make thou happy this distracted heart.

Drink wine by the light of the moon, O Moon, for the

moon

Often enough shall seek us and shall not find.

(5)

'Into a sleep I fell. To me quoth learnedness:
"From sleep to none did the rose of happiness unfold.
Why do a thing which is the mate of death?
Drink wine, for many a lifetime will it be thine to sleep."

(27)

'Since lite is ever passing, what is Baghdad, and what Balkh?
So the cup be full, what is sweet and what bitter?

Drink wine, for after you and I are gone, this moon oft
enough

From the last to the first of the month shall come, from the

first to the last.'

(47)

I

"They say: "The Heavenly Garden with Houris is pleasant." I say: "The water of the grape is pleasant." This cash seize thou, and thy hand from that credit hold. For the noise of the drum, O brother, from afar is pleasant.'

(34)

'Drink wine, for from thee many an ailment will it carry

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away.

Anxious thought of the two and seventy sects will it carry

away.

Make not avoidance of the Alchemist, for from him

One draught shalt thou drink.-A thousand ills will it carry

away.'

(77)

Lip upon lip of the cup I laid from stress of desire,
That from it I might seek the means of living long.
Lip upon lip of mine it laid, and was saying as a secret,
"Drink wine, for to this world thou comest not again."

(100)

'Drink wine, for underneath the clay long enough shalt thou

sleep,

Without familiar, without workfellow, equal or mate.

Have a care! To none say thou this hidden secret: "No tulip frost-dead will again unfold."

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(35)

'Give wine, for to my wounded heart it is a balm.
To the melancholy of love it is an equal.

Before my heart the dust of one draught is better

the world.'

Than the (heavenly) Vault, which is naught but the skull of

(37)

This point of the place which wine holds in Omar's philosophy is one on which a quite erroneous impression might be obtained from such a translation as that of Mr Whinfield. Whinfield's rule is: 'to give what seem the best specimens of each class of quatrains, and to exclude the rest. In accordance with this rule, I exclude, in particular, a large number of quatrains in praise of wine, and exhortations to live for the day, which recur in the MSS. with most wearisome frequency.' This is much as if one were to issue an edition of Burns, omitting the love-songs on the ground that there are too many of them, which, no doubt, there are; but an edition without them would not be Burns, and the quatrains without the wine and carpe diem stanzas are not Omar.

It is sometimes supposed that, when Omar speaks of wine, he is using the word in a mystic sense, as is the habit of the Sufis or Muslim mystics. But this is one of those cases in which the wish is father to the thought. J. B. Nicolas, coached by his Persian Munshi, would interpret every stanza in a mystical sense, but he scarcely seems to be a believer in his own method. Omar, no doubt, uses many of the mannerisms of the Sufis, but no

can read very far without seeing that there is no mysticism here, any more than in Burns. On the other hand, the inner meaning of one of the mystical poets, such as Omar's younger contemporary, Saná'i, lies on the surface from the very first line. Not that Omar is to be put down as a mere Sydney Carton, to whom wine was the one satisfying thing in life. His nearest equivalent in English is the Herrick of the 'Hesperides,' but without his coarseness. A work composed just one hundred years after Omar's death speaks of him as the most talented of the philosophers, atheists, and materialists. The oldest mention of him, however, -that by his friend and disciple, Samarkandi-is very far from regarding him as outside the pale, and refers only to the 'convivial gatherings' of his friends.

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As to the difficulty of a Muslim drinking wine, Prof. E. G. Browne in his delightful Year amongst the Persians' (1893, p. 375), says:

...

'Wine-drinking plays a great part in the daily life of the guebre, but, though I suppose not one total abstainer could be found amongst them, I never but once saw a Zoroastrian the worse for drink. With the Musalmans the contrary holds good; when they drink it is too often with the deliberate intention of getting drunk. . . To a Zoroastrian it is lawful to drink wine and spirits, but not to exceed to a Mohammadan the use and abuse of alcohol are equally unlawful. The Zoroastrian drinks because he likes the taste of wine and the glow of good fellowship which it engenders: the Mohammadan, on the contrary, commonly detests the taste of wine and spirits, and will after each draught, make a grimace expressive of disgust, rinse out his mouth, and eat a lump of sugar; what he enjoys is not drinking, but being drunk. . . .'

The first book of his Diwan has been edited and translated by J. Stephenson in 'Bibliotheca Indica,' Calcutta, 1911.

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If we are to judge Omar by most of his verses, he was of the Zoroastrians rather than of the Muslims in this matter. One of the commonest pleasures of a Persian's life is that of picnicking. Many of Omar's quatrains describe a picnic by the side of a stream, or on the I meeting-place of the desert and the sown, sometimes with a book of verse or a youthful companion, who acts as cup-bearer, but always with a jar of wine.

'On the face of the rose is a veil from the cloud still: In my nature and heart an inclining to wine still.

Go not to sleep. What place for sleep is there yet? My life! Give wine, for there is sunlight still.' (95) 'Drink wine, for thy body in the dust atoms shall become. Thy dust after that a cup and pitcher shall become.

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Of hell and of heaven neglectful do thou be.

The intelligent, why at such tales misled does he become?' (79)

Rise, and the remedy for this straitened heart do thou bring.

That wine musk-scented, rose-coloured do thou bring.

Ingredients for an antidote for grief wouldest thou have? Ruby wine and the silk of the lute do thou bring.'

(18)

'Of that wine which the only life eternal is, do thou drink. Sum capital of the pleasure of youth it is: do thou drink. Burning like fire it is, but upon grief

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Acting like water of life it is. Do thou drink.'

(90)

One cup of wine an hundred hearts and faiths is worth.
One draught of wine the kingdom of China is worth.

Save ruby wine there is not on the face of the earth
Bitterness, which a thousand sweet souls is worth.'

'When in all eternity, past and to come,

Is there a substitute for the merry hour of wine?
Passed from my ken are both theory and practice.

(85

To every hard question a solution is found in wine.' (107)

'One draught of old wine than a kingdom new is better.
Get thee from the way of all that is not wine.

better

That were

One cup of it is better than the kingdom of Ferídún, an

hundred times.

The tile that is the wine-jar's lid than the crown of Kay

Khusraw is better.'

(139)

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