Omar Khayyám

“I hide my distress, just likethe blessed birds hide themselveswhen they are preparing to die. Wine! Wine, roses, music and yourindifference to my sadness, my loved-one!”

“Shall I still sigh for what I have not got, Or try with cheerfulness to bear my lot? Fill up my cup! I know not if the breath I now am drawing is my last, or not!”

“I have not asked for life.But I try to accept whateverlife brings without surprise.And I shall depart again without havingquestioned anyone about my strangestay here on earth.”

“When Allah created me, he knew that Iwould drink a lot of wine. So if I didn't, theomniscience of Allah would stand on its head.”

“I see a horseman disappearing intothe evening mist. Will he travel through woodsor across wild plains? Where is he heading? I don't know.Tomorrow, will I be stretched out above orbelow the earth? I don't know.”

“What shall I do, today? Visit the pub?Sit down in a garden with a book? A birdflies past. Where is it headed? It's out ofsight already. The drunkenness of a bird in theburning azure. The melancholy of a manin the cool shadow of a mosque.”

“we come into this world in the waters and leave it in the winds”

“To all of us the thought of heaven is dear ---Why not be sure of it and make it here?No doubt there is a heaven yonder too, But 'tis so far away --- and you are near.”

“The moving hand once having writ moves on. Nor all thy piety nor wit can lure it back to cancel half a line.”

“Why do you sell your wine, merchant?What can they give you in exchange for your wine? Money? … And what can money give you? Power? … Aren't you the owner of the world when you are holding a drink? Is anyone richer than you, who have gold in your cup, Rubies, Pearls, Dreams, and Love? Don't you feel the blood burning in your veins when the cup kisses your lips.”

“I disapprove of the vain and the religious.Who can affirm whether you will go to Heavenor Hell? Besides, what do those words mean? Do youknow any traveler who has been there?”

“The scent of wine risingfrom my grave will be so strongthat it will intoxicate passers-by.There will be such an atmosphere of serenitythat couples in love will find it impossibleto tear themselves away.”

“Were it not Folly, Spider-like to spinThe Thread of present Life away to win-What? for ourselves, who know not if we shallBreathe out the very Breath we now breathe in!”

“Why, if the Soul can fling the Dust aside,And naked on the Air of Heaven ride,Is it not a Shame--is it not a Shame for himSo long in this Clay suburb to abide!”

“Close your Koran.Think in freedom and look with open mindat Heaven and Earth. Forgive everyone his sins. Don't cause anyone grief.”

“Scholars really have nothing to teach you.But from the soft touch of the eyelashes ofa woman you will know all there is to know about happiness.Buy wine, take it toa secluded place and let it comfort you.”

“May your love for your belovedbe as great as the love of the bottle for the glass.Look, how one gives and one receives, lip againstlip, the precious blood of the grapes!”

“Poor soul, you will never know anythingof real importance. You will not uncovereven one of life's secrets. Although all religionspromise paradise, take care to create your ownparadise here and now on earth.”

“Would you be happy! hearken, then, the way:Heed not to-morrow, heed not yesterday;The magic words of life are here and now -O fools, that after some to-morrow stray!”

“Dawn filled the sky with roses. In thecrystal-clear air the last song of the nightingaledies. The smell of the wine weakens. This is the momentwhen fools dream of fame! How softis your hair, my beloved!”

“We shall perishalong the path of Love.Fate will trample us. Yeah, temptingyoung woman, get up and give me your lipsbefore I return to dust.”

“Yesterday This Day's Madness did prepare; To-morrow's Silence, Triumph, or Despair: Drink! for you know not whence you came, nor why: Drink! for you know not why you go, nor where.”

“Where is an intimate friend who’ll hear the secret from me straight out– of what human beings have been from the moment they began? They are born of toil and molded from the clay of sorrow.They wander the world for a time, then set off.”

“When you have plantedthe rose of Love into your heartyour life has not been in vain.”

“Old Khayyám, say you, is a debauchee;If only you were half so good as he!He sins no sins but gentle drunkenness,Great-hearted mirth, and kind adultery.But yours the cold heart, and the murderous tongue,The wintry soul that hates to hear a song,The close-shut fist, the mean and measuring eye,And all the little poisoned ways of wrong.”

“The Worldly Hope men set their Hearts upon Turns Ashes--or it prospers; and anon, Like Snow upon the Desert's dusty Face Lighting a little Hour or two--is gone.”

“The arch of heaven looks like anupside-down cup, under which the wisewander in vain. May your love for your belovedbe as great as the love of the bottle for the glass.Look, how one gives and one receives, lip againstlip, the precious blood of the grapes.”

“I value the lover'ssighs of happiness and I despise the hypocritemumbling his prayers.”

“When you are so full of sorrowthat you can't walk, can't cry anymore,think about the green foliage that sparkles afterthe rain. When the daylight exhausts you, whenyou hope a final night will cover the world,think about the awakening of a young child.”

“You say some Greek philosophers could dazzle their audienceswith their riddles? That does not interest me at all. Bringmore wine instead and play your lute; your changes in tonesremind me of the wind that rushes past and disappears,just like us.”

“What is my true substance?What will remain of me after my death?Our life is as short as a raging fire:flames the passer-by soon forgets,ashes the wind blows away.A man's life.”

“A piece of bread,some fresh water,the shadow of a tree and your eyes, my beloved.No sultan is happier than me,no beggar more sad.”

“Realise this: one day your soulwill depart from your body and you willbe drawn behind the curtain that floats between usand the unknown. While you wait for that moment, be happy,because you don't know where you came from andyou don't know where you will be going.”

“It is a shame for anyoneto be well-known for righteousness.It is a great disgrace to feeldistress at the injustice of the turning of the wheels of fate.”

“Youth, like a magic bird, has flown awayHe sang a little morning-hour in MaySang to the rose, his love, that too is gone--Whither is more than you or I can say.”

“People talk about the Creator -But surely he didn't create man onlyto destroy him later! Because we are bad? Andwho's to blame for that? Or because we are beautiful?I can't make any sense of it.”

“When your soul and minehave left our bodies and we areburried alongside each other,a Potter may one day mouldthe dust of both of usinto the same clay.”

“Empty orators and silent scholarsdied without having understood Being and non-Being.Ignorants, my brothers, let us continue tastingthe juice of the grape attentively and letthe authorities satisfy themselveswith dry raisins.”

“Drink wine and look at the moonand think of all the civilisationsthe moon has seen passing by.”

“There are too many tears in my eyes!The fires of Hell are no more than sparks of fireas compared to the flames that consume me inside.Paradise? For me it meansa moment of peace.”

“How sad, a heart thatdoes not know how to love, thatdoes not know what it is to be drunk with love.If you are not in love, how can you enjoythe blinding light of the sun,the soft light of the moon?”

“Why was I born, when will I die?Who can change the day of his birth,who has a say in the day of his death?Come, my beloved, I want to ask the spiritof the wine to make me forget that weshall never understand.”

“Beyond the earth,beyond the farthest skiesI try to find Heaven and Hell.Then I hear a solemn voice that says:"Heaven and hell are inside.”

“But leave the Wise to wrangle, and with meThe Quarrel of the Universe let be: And, in some corner of the Hubbub couch'd,Make Game of that which makes as much of Thee.”

“And that inverted Bowl we call The Sky,Whereunder crawling coop't we live and die, Lift not thy hands to it for help -- for ItRolls impotently on as Thou or I.”

“Know yourself as a snowdrift on the sand Heaped for two days, or three, then thawed and gone. (c.1050-c.1123)”

“It’s too bad if a heart lacks fire,and is deprived of the light of a heart ablaze.The day on which you arewithout passionate loveis the most wasted day of your life.”

“This worldthat was our homefor a brief spellnever brought us anythingbut pain and grief;its a shame that not one of our problemswas ever solved.We departwith a thousand regretsin our hearts.”

“The Grape that can with Logic absolute The Two-and-Seventy jarring Sects confute: The subtle Alchemist that in a Trice Life's leaden Metal into Gold transmute.”

“Waste not your Hour, nor in the vain pursuit Of This and That endeavor and dispute; Better be merry with the fruitful Grape Than sadden after none, or bitter, fruit.”