Jump to content

Page:Quatrains of Omar Khayyam (tr. Whinfield, 1883).djvu/92

From Wikisource
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
36
THE QUATRAINS OF

51.

I dreamt a sage said, "Wherefore life consume
In sleep? Can sleep make pleasure's roses bloom?
    For gather not with death's twin-brother sleep,
Thou wilt have sleep enough within thy tomb!"


52.

If the heart knew life's secrets here below,
At death 'twould know God's secrets too, I trow;
    But, if you know naught here, while still yourself,
To-morrow, stripped of self, what can you know?


53.

On that dread day, when wrath shall rend the sky,
And darkness dim the bright stars' galaxy,
    I'll seize the Loved One by His skirt, and cry,
"Why hast Thou doomed these guiltless ones to die?"


51.   C. L. N. A. B. I. J.   So Homer, Kasignétos thanatoio.


52.   C. L. N. A. I.   In line 2 scan Ĭláhí.   Bl. Prosody, p. 7.


53.   C. L. N. A. I. J.   See Koran, lxxxii. 1.   Note the alif i wasls in lines 1 and 2.   In line 4 scan kata lat, transposing the last vowel.   Bl. Prosody, p. ii.