Beauty

Quatrain 01

“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.”

tr. Edward FitzGerald, 1859

Quatrain 05

“Iram indeed is gone with all its Rose,

And Jamshyd's Sev'n-ring'd Cup where no one knows;

But still the Vine her ancient Ruby yields,

And still a Garden by the Water blows.”

tr. Edward FitzGerald, 1859

Quatrain 06

“And David's Lips are lock't; but in divine

High piping Pelevi, with "Wine! Wine! Wine!

Red Wine!"—the Nightingale cries to the Rose

That yellow Cheek of hers to'incarnadine.”

tr. Edward FitzGerald, 1859

Quatrain 08

“And look—a thousand Blossoms with the Day

Woke—and a thousand scatter'd into Clay:

And this first Summer Month that brings the Rose

Shall take Jamshyd and Kaikobad away.”

tr. Edward FitzGerald, 1859

Quatrain 11

“Here with a Loaf of Bread beneath the Bough,

A Flask of Wine, a Book of Verse—and Thou

Beside me singing in the Wilderness—

And Wilderness is Paradise enow.”

tr. Edward FitzGerald, 1859

Quatrain 13

“Look to the Rose that blows about us—"Lo,

Laughing," she says, "into the World I blow:

At once the silken Tassel of my Purse

Tear, and its Treasure on the Garden throw."”

tr. Edward FitzGerald, 1859

Quatrain 18

“I sometimes think that never blows so red

The Rose as where some buried Caesar bled;

That every Hyacinth the Garden wears

Dropt in its Lap from some once lovely Head.”

tr. Edward FitzGerald, 1859

Quatrain 19

“And this delightful Herb whose tender Green

Fledges the River's Lip on which we lean—

Ah, lean upon it lightly! for who knows

From what once lovely Lip it springs unseen!”

tr. Edward FitzGerald, 1859

Quatrain 35

“I think the Vessel, that with fugitive

Articulation answer'd, once did live,

And merry-make; and the cold Lip I kiss'd

How many Kisses might it take—and give.”

tr. Edward FitzGerald, 1859

Quatrain 42

“And lately, by the Tavern Door agape,

Came stealing through the Dusk an Angel Shape,

Bearing a vessel on his Shoulder; and

He bid me taste of it; and 'twas—the Grape!”

tr. Edward FitzGerald, 1859

Quatrain 48

“While the Rose blows along the River Brink,

With old Khayyam the Ruby Vintage drink:

And when the Angel with his darker Draught

Draws up to thee—take that, and do not shrink.”

tr. Edward FitzGerald, 1859

Quatrain 56

“And this I know: whether the one True Light,

Kindle to Love, or Wrath consume me quite,

One Glimpse of It within the Tavern caught

Better than in the Temple lost outright.”

tr. Edward FitzGerald, 1859

Quatrain 68

“I have a Friend, a Woman-friend indeed,

More frail and fickle than I am told the Rose,—

Wine, Ruby Wine! my bosom-friend in need,

Brings smiling News of Spring before it blows.”

tr. Edward FitzGerald, 1859

Quatrain 69

“Alas, that Spring should vanish with the Rose!

That Youth's sweet-scented Manuscript should close!

The Nightingale that in the Branches sang,

Ah, whence, and whither flown again, who knows!”

tr. Edward FitzGerald, 1859

Quatrain 70

“Ah, Moon of my Delight who know'st no wane,

The Moon of Heav'n is rising once again:

How oft hereafter rising shall she look

Through this same Garden after me—in vain!”

tr. Edward FitzGerald, 1859