Time

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 02

“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."”

tr. Edward FitzGerald, 1859

Quatrain 03

“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."”

tr. Edward FitzGerald, 1859

Quatrain 07

“Come, fill the Cup, and in the Fire of Spring

The Winter Garment of Repentance fling:

The Bird of Time has but a little way

To fly—and Lo! the Bird is on the Wing.”

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 12

“"How sweet is mortal Sovranty!"—think some:

Others—"How blest the Paradise to come!"

Ah, take the Cash in hand and waive the Rest;

Oh, the brave Music of a distant Drum!”

tr. Edward FitzGerald, 1859

Quatrain 14

“The Worldly Hope men set their Hearts upon

Turns Ashes—or it prospers; and anon,

Like Snow upon the Desert's dusty Face

Lighting a little Hour or two—is gone.”

tr. Edward FitzGerald, 1859

Quatrain 15

“And those who husbanded the Golden Grain,

And those who flung it to the Winds like Rain,

Alike to no such aureate Earth are turn'd

As, buried once, Men want dug up again.”

tr. Edward FitzGerald, 1859

Quatrain 16

“Think, in this batter'd Caravanserai

Whose Doorways are alternate Night and Day,

How Sultan after Sultan with his Pomp

Abode his Hour or two, and went his way.”

tr. Edward FitzGerald, 1859

Quatrain 17

“They say the Lion and the Lizard keep

The Courts where Jamshyd gloried and drank deep:

And Bahram, that great Hunter—the Wild Ass

Stamps o'er his Head, and he lies fast asleep.”

tr. Edward FitzGerald, 1859

Quatrain 20

“Ah! my Beloved, fill the Cup that clears

TO-DAY of past Regrets and future Fears—

To-morrow?—Why, To-morrow I may be

Myself with Yesterday's Sev'n Thousand Years.”

tr. Edward FitzGerald, 1859

Quatrain 21

“Lo! some we loved, the loveliest and the best

That Time and Fate of all their Vintage prest,

Have drunk their Cup a Round or two before,

And one by one crept silently to Rest.”

tr. Edward FitzGerald, 1859

Quatrain 22

“And we, that now make merry in the Room

They left, and Summer dresses in new Bloom,

Ourselves must we beneath the Couch of Earth

Descend, ourselves to make a Couch—for whom?”

tr. Edward FitzGerald, 1859

Quatrain 23

“Ah, make the most of what we yet may spend,

Before we too into the Dust Descend;

Dust into Dust, and under Dust, to lie,

Sans Wine, sans Song, sans Singer and—sans End!”

tr. Edward FitzGerald, 1859

Quatrain 24

“Alike for those who for TO-DAY prepare,

And those that after a TO-MORROW stare,

A Muezzin from the Tower of Darkness cries

"Fools! your Reward is neither Here nor There."”

tr. Edward FitzGerald, 1859

Quatrain 26

“Oh, come with old Khayyam, and leave the Wise

To talk; one thing is certain, that Life flies;

One thing is certain, and the Rest is Lies;

The Flower that once has blown for ever dies.”

tr. Edward FitzGerald, 1859

Quatrain 34

“Then to this earthen Bowl did I adjourn

My Lip the secret Well of Life to learn:

And Lip to Lip it murmur'd—"While you live,

Drink!—for once dead you never shall return."”

tr. Edward FitzGerald, 1859

Quatrain 37

“Ah, fill the Cup:—what boots it to repeat

How Time is slipping underneath our Feet:

Unborn TO-MORROW and dead YESTERDAY,

Why fret about them if TO-DAY be sweet!”

tr. Edward FitzGerald, 1859

Quatrain 38

“One Moment in Annihilation's Waste,

One moment, of the Well of Life to taste—

The Stars are setting, and the Caravan

Starts for the dawn of Nothing—Oh, make haste!”

tr. Edward FitzGerald, 1859

Quatrain 46

“For in and out, above, about, below,

'Tis nothing but a Magic Shadow-show,

Play'd in a Box whose Candle is the Sun,

Round which we Phantom Figures come and go.”

tr. Edward FitzGerald, 1859

Quatrain 51

“The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,

Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit

Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,

Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.”

tr. Edward FitzGerald, 1859

Quatrain 53

“With Earth's first Clay They did the Last Man's knead,

And then of the Last Harvest sow'd the Seed:

Yea, the first Morning of Creation wrote

What the Last Dawn of Reckoning shall read.”

tr. Edward FitzGerald, 1859

Quatrain 54

“I tell Thee this—When, starting from the Goal,

Over the shoulders of the flaming Foal

Of Heav'n Parwin and Mushtari they flung,

In my predestin'd Plot of Dust and Soul”

tr. Edward FitzGerald, 1859

Quatrain 65

“Then said another with a long-drawn Sigh,

"My Clay with long oblivion is gone dry:

But, fill me with the old familiar Juice,

Methinks I might recover by-and-bye!"”

tr. Edward FitzGerald, 1859

Quatrain 66

“So, while the Vessels one by one were speaking,

One spied the little Crescent all were seeking:

And then they jogg'd each other, "Brother! Brother!

Hark to the Porter's Shoulder-knot a-creaking!"”

tr. Edward FitzGerald, 1859

Quatrain 67

“Then to the Lip of this poor earthen Urn

I lean'd, the Secret of my Life to learn:

And Lip to Lip it murmur'd—"While you live

Drink!—for, once dead, you never shall return."”

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