Carpe Diem #1316 Moon of My Delight
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!
Carpe Diem #1315 Scheme of Things
Ah Love ! could thou and I with Fate conspire
To grasp this sorry Scheme of Things entire,
Would not we shatter it to bits – and then
Re-mould it nearer to the Heart’s Desire !
© Omar Khayyam (Tr. FitzGerald)
Carpe Diem #1314 The Nightingale
quatrain no. 72
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?
© Omar Khayyam (Tr. FitzGerald)
Carpe Diem #1313 The One True Light
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.
© Omar Khayyam (Tr. FitzGerald)
Ah, with the Grape my fading Life provide,
And wash my Body whence the life has died,
And in a Winding Sheet of Vine Leaf wrapt,
So bury me by some sweet Gardenside.
© Omar Khayyam (Tr. FitzGerald)
Carpe Diem #1311 Moving Finger
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.
The Ball no Question makes of Ayes and Noes,
But Right or Left as strikes the Player goes;
And He that toss’d Thee down into the Field,
He knows about it all – HE knows – HE knows!
© Omar Khayyam (Tr. FitzGerald)
Carpe Diem #1309 Earth’s First Clay
With Earth’s first Clay They did the Last Man’s knead,
And then of the Last Harvest sowed the Seed:
Yea, the first Morning of Creation wrote
What the Last Dawn of Reckoning shall read.
© Omar Khayyam (Tr. FitzGerald)
Carpe Diem #1308 A Game of Chess
‘Tis all a Chequer-board of Nights and Days
Where Destiny with Men for Pieces plays:
Hither and thither moves, and mates, and slays,
And one by one back in the Closet lays.
© Omar Khayyam (Tr. FitzGerald)
Carpe Diem #1307 The Vessel
Then to this earthen Bowl did I adjourn
My Lip the secret Well of Life to learn:
And Lip to Lip it murmured – “While you live
Drink ! – for once dead you never shall return.
© Omar Khayyam (Tr. FitzGerald)
Ada's Poetry Alcove (2) 