Omar Khayyam -- Rubáiyát [رباعیات], Bod. # 146 [tr. Talbot (1908)]

Dave — Thu, 23 Jan 2025 23:26:16 +0000

Last night I smote the winecup on a stone;
For such mad folly how may I atone?
The shatter’d cup, in mystic language, said,
“I was like thee, my fate shall be thine own.”

Omar Khayyám (1048-1123) Persian poet, mathematician, philosopher, astronomer [عمر خیام]
Rubáiyát [رباعیات], Bod. # 146 [tr. Talbot (1908)]
(Source)

Alternate translations:

Last night I dashed my clay cup on the stone,
And at the reckless freak my heart was glad,
When with a voice for the moment out spake the cup,
"I was once as thou and thou shalt be as I!"
[tr. Cowell (1858), # 29]

Last eve I broke against a stone an earthen cup, drunk in the doing of the foolish deed. Methought the cup protested unto me "I was like thee, thou wilt be like to me."
[tr. McCarthy (1879), # 395]

Last night I dashed my cup against a stone.
In a mad drunken freak, as I must own,
And lo! the cup cries out in agony,
"You too, like me, shall soon be overthrown."
[tr. Whinfield (1883), # 446]

I smote the glass wine cup upon a stone last night,
my head was turned that I did so base a thing;
the cup said to me in mystic language,
"I was like thee, and thou also wilt be like me."
[tr. Heron-Allen (1898), # 146]

Last night the cup I dashed against a stone.
Base was the act, my head with wine was flown.
The cup cried out to me in mystic tone,
"I was like thee, my case will be thine own."
[tr. Thompson (1906), # 554]

Against the stone, last night, I flung the wine-bowl of
faience. I was drunk when I did that brutal action.
The bowl said to me in the language of bowls: "I was
what thou art, thou also shall be what I am."
[tr. Christensen (1927), # 36]

Yesterday I knocked my earthenware wine-jug against a stone.
I must have been inebriated to have committed such an offence.
It seemed as if the jug thus spoke to me:
"I have been as thou and thou wilt be as I".
[tr. Rosen (1928), # 299]

In frolic once on stone I dashed a pot,
Alas! such wanton freaks come from a sot;
The pot then told me as if in a trance:
"Like thee I was, like me now find thy lot."
[tr. Tirtha (1941), # 5.31]

When foolishly I dashed my bowl against a stone,
It answered sadly in a voice how like my own:
"I once was proudly filled with wine as full as thou:
So, broken in the dust, thou'lt lie as I do now."
[tr. Bowen (1976), # 34]

Last night I dashed (my) pottery bowl against the stones; I was intoxicated, when I committed this folly. It was as if the bowl spoke to me, "I was even such a one as thou, and thou too shalt (someday) be even as I."
[tr. Bowen (1976), # 34, literal]

Omar Khayyam -- Rubáiyát [رباعیات], Bod. # 89 [tr. Roe (1906), # 85]

Dave — Thu, 16 Jan 2025 14:58:51 +0000

When in the market-place I stopped one day
To watch a potter pounding his fresh clay,
The clay addressed him in a mystic tongue
“Once I was man, so treat me gently, pray!”

Omar Khayyám (1048-1123) Persian poet, mathematician, philosopher, astronomer [عمر خیام]
Rubáiyát [رباعیات], Bod. # 89 [tr. Roe (1906), # 85]
(Source)

Alternate translations:

For in the Market-place, one Dusk of Day,
I watch'd the Potter thumping his wet Clay:
And with its all obliterated Tongue
It murmur'd -- "Gently, Brother, gently, pray!"
[tr. FitzGerald, 1st ed. (1859), # 36]

For I remember stopping by the way
To watch a Potter thumping his wet Clay:
And with its all-obliterated Tongue
It murmur'd -- "Gently, Brother, gently, pray!"
[tr. FitzGerald, 2nd ed. (1868), # 40; 4th ed. (1879), # 37; 5th ed. (1889), # 37]

For I remember stopping by the way
To watch a Potter thumping his wet Clay,
And with its all-obliterated Tongue
It murmur'd -- "Gently, Brother, gently, pray?"
[tr. FitzGerald, 3rd ed. (1872), # 37]

Yesterday I beheld at the bazaar a potter smiting with all his force the clay he was kneading. The earth seemed to cry out to him, "I also was such as thou -- treat me therefore less harshly."
[tr. McCarthy (1879), # 245]

I saw a busy potter by the way
Kneading with might and main a lump of clay;
And, lo! the clay cried, "Use me gently, pray,
I was a man myself but yesterday!"
[tr. Whinfield (1883), # 252]

I saw a Potter at his Work to-day,
With rudest Hand he shaped his yielding Clay,
"Oh gently Brother, do not treat me thus,
I too, was once a Man," I heard it say.
[tr. Garner (1887), 7.9]

I saw a potter at his work to-day,
Shaping with rudest hand his whirling clay, --
"Ah, gently, brother, do not treat me thus,
I too was once a man," I heard it say.
[tr. Garner (1898), # 57]

A potter I saw in the market yesterday
With many a buffet belabour a lump of clay.
The which, with the tongue of the case, "Thy like I've been;
Have some regard for me, prithee!" to him did say.
[tr. Payne (1898), # 434]

I saw a potter in the bazaar yesterday,
he was violently pounding the fresh clay,
and that clay said to him, in mystic language,
"I was once like thee -- so treat me well."
[tr. Heron-Allen (1898), # 89]

In the bazaar, I saw but yesterday
A potter hitting hard at his wet clay;
And it, as best it could, cried out; "Let be;
"I was as thou art once, be good to me."
[tr. Cadell (1899), # 93]

In the Bazaar I saw but yesterday
A potter pounding hard a lump of clay;
The clay cried out to him in mystic tones,
"I once was like thee, treat me gently, pray!"
[tr. Thompson (1906), # 295]

In the Bazaar I saw, but yesterday,
A potter rudely pounding the fresh clay;
The clay in mystic language made complaint --
"I too was once like thee: thy hand then stay!"
[tr. Talbot (1908), # 89]

Yesterday I saw a potter in the bazar. He beat the
fresh clay with many strokes,
and that clay said to him in its own language: "Once
I was [a being] like thee; so treat me gently."
[tr. Christensen (1927), # 68]

Yesterday I saw a potter in the market-place
Trampling down fresh clay with many a kick.
And this clay seemed to say to him:
"I was as you; deal gently with me."
[tr. Rosen (1928), # 161]

I saw a potter working in the mart,
He kicked a clod of earth which made it smart;
I heard the clay beseach him: "Master! please!
Like thee I once have been, be kind at heart."
[tr. Tirtha (1941), # 5.28]

WIST Quotations

Omar Khayyam -- Rubáiyát [رباعیات], Bod. # 146 [tr. Talbot (1908)]

Omar Khayyam -- Rubáiyát [رباعیات], Bod. # 89 [tr. Roe (1906), # 85]