The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám

The ``False Dawn''; Subhi Kázib, a transient light on the Horizon about an hour before the Subhi sádik, or True Dawn; a well-known Phenomenon in the East.

New Beginning with the Vernal Equinox, it must be remembered; and (howsoever the old Solar Year is practically superseded by the clumsy Lunar Year that dates from the Mohammedan Hijra) still commemorated by a Festival that is said to have been appointed by the very Jamshyd whom Omar so often talks of, and whose yearly Calendar he helped to rectify. ``The sudden approach and rapid advance of the Spring,'' says Mr. Binning, ``are very striking. Before the Snow is well off the Ground, the Trees burst into Blossom, and the Flowers start forth from the Soil. At Now Rooz [their New Year's Day] the Snow was lying in patches on the Hills and in the shaded Vallies, while the Fruit-trees in the Gardens were budding beautifully, and green Plants and Flowers springing up on the Plains on every side--

`And on old Hyem's Chin and icy Crown
`An odorous Chaplet of sweet Summer buds
`Is, as in mockery, set.'--

Exodus iv. 6; where Moses draws forth his Hand--not, according to the Persians, ``leprous as Snow,''-- but white, as our May-blossom in Spring perhaps. According to them also the Healing Power of Jesus resided in his breath.

[A garden] planted by King Shaddád, and now sunk somewhere in the Sands of Arabia.

[See also FitzGerald's later note on Persepolis.]

A Drum--beaten outside a Palace.

Persepolis: call'd also Takht-i-Jamshyd--The Throne of Jamshyd, ``King Splendid,'' of the mythical Peshdá.dian Dynasty, and supposed (according to the Shánáma) to have been founded and built by him. Others refer it to the Work of the Genie King, Ján Ibn Ján--who also built the Pyramids--before the time of Adam.

Apropos of Omar's Red Roses...I am reminded of an old English Superstition, that our Anemone Pulsatilla, or purple ``Pasque Flower'' (which grows plentifully about the Fleam Dyke, near Cam bridge), grows only where Danish Blood has been spilt.

Lord of the Seventh Heaven.

some dividual Existence of Personality distinct from the Whole.

One of the Persian Poets--Attár, I think--has a pretty story about this. A thirsty Traveller dips his hand into a Spring of Water to drink from. By-and-by comes another who draws up and drinks from an earthen Bowl, and then departs, leaving his Bowl behind him. The first Traveller takes it up for another draught; but is surprised to find that the same Water which had tasted sweet from his own hand tastes bitter from the earthen Bowl. But a Voice--from Heaven, I think--tells him the clay from which the Bowl is made was once Man; and, into whatever shape renewed, can never lose the bitter flavour of Mortality.

The Seventy-two Religions supposed to divide the World, including Islam as some think: but others not.

From Fish to Moon.

Alluding to Sultan Mahmúd's Conquest of India and its dark people.

Fánúsi khiyál, a Magic lantern still used in India; the cylindrical Interior being painted with various Figures, and so lightly poised and ventilated as to revolve round the lighted Candle within.

A very mysterious Line in the Original O dánad O dánad O dánad O---- breaking off something like our Wood-pigeon's Note, which she is said to take up just where she left off.

[FitzGerald's note]

At the Close of the Fasting Month, Ramazán (which makes the Musulman unhealthy and unamiable), the first Glimpse of the New Moon (who rules their division of the Year), is looked for with the utmost Anxiety, and hailed with Acclamation. Then it is that the Porter's Knot may be heard--toward the Cellar. Omar has elsewhere a pretty Quatrain about the same Moon--

``Be of Good Cheer--the sullen Month will die,

``And a young Moon requite us by and by:

``Look how the Old one meagre, bent, and wan

``With Age and Fast, is fainting from the Sky!''

This Relation of Pot and Potter to Man and his Maker figures far and wide in the Literature of the World, from the time fo the Hebrew Prophets to the present; when it may finally take the name ``Pot theism,'' by which Mr. Carlyle ridiculed Sterling's 11Pantheism.'' My Sheikh, whose knowledge flows in from all quarters, writes to me--

Apropos of old Omar's Pots, did I ever tell you the sentence I found in `Bishop Pearson on the Creed'?

Thus are we wholly at the disposal of His will, and our present and future condition framed and ordered by His free, but wise and just, decrees. Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? (Rom.ix.21) And can that earth-artificer have a freer power over his brother potsherd (both being made of the same metal), than God hath over him, who, by the strange fecundity of His omnipotent power, first made the clay out of nothing, and then him out of that?

I had to refer the other day to Aristophanes, and came by chance on a curious Speaking0pot story in the Vespæ (The Wasps, lines 1435-40), which I had quite forgotten.

The Pot calls a bystander to be a witness to his bad treatment. The woman says, ``If, by Proserpine, instead of all this `testifying' (comp. Cuddie and his mother in `Old Morality'!) you would buy yourself a rivet, it would show more sense in you!'' The Scholiast explains echinus as any bowl from the potter.

There was one old Fellow in our Company--he was so like a Figure in the `Pilgrim's Progress' that Richard always called him the `Allegory' with a long white beard--a rare Appendage in those days-- and a Face the colour of which seemed to have been baked in, like the Faces one used to see on Earthenware Jugs. In our Country-dialect Earthenware is called `Clome'; so the Boys of the Village used to shout out after him--`Go back to the Potter, old Clome-face, and get baked over again.' For the `Allegory,' though shrewd enough in most things, had the reputation of being `saift-baked,' i.e., of weak intellect.