WIST

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.

Omar Khayyám (1048-1123) Persian poet, mathematician, philosopher, and astronomer
Rubáiyát [tr. FitzGerald, 1st ed. (1859)]

A Book of Verses underneath the Bough,
A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread — and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness –
Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow!

Omar Khayyám (1048-1123) Persian poet, mathematician, philosopher, and astronomer
Rubáiyát, Quat. 12 [tr. FitzGerald, 4th ed. (1879)]
Alternate trans:

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.
[FitzGerald, Quat. 11, 1st ed. (1859)]

Should our day's portion be one mancel loaf,
A haunch of mutton and a gourd of wine
Set for us two alone on the wide plain,
No Sultan's bounty could evoke such joy.

A gourd of red wine and a sheaf of poems —
A bare subsistence, half a loaf, not more —
Supplied us two alone in the free desert:
What Sultan could we envy on his throne?
[Graves & Ali-Shah, Quat. 11-12 (1967)]

Yes, Loved One, when the Laughing Spring is blowing,
With Thee beside me and the Cup o’erflowing,
I pass the day upon this Waving Meadow,
And dream the while, no thought on Heaven bestowing.
[Garner, Quat. 1.20 (1888)]

But helpless Pieces of the Game He plays
Upon this Checker-board of Nights and Days;
Hither and thither moves, and checks, and slays,
And one by one back in the Closet lays.

Omar Khayyám (1048-1123) Persian poet, mathematician, philosopher, and astronomer
Rubáiyát, Quat. 51 [tr. FitzGerald, 1st ed. (1859)]

Drink! for you know not whence you came nor why:
Drink! for you know not why you go, nor where.

Omar Khayyám (1048-1123) Persian poet, mathematician, philosopher, and astronomer
Rubáiyát, st. 74 [tr. FitzGerald, 4th ed. (1879)]