119 quotes
Awake! for Morning in the Bowl of Night
Has flung the Stone that puts the Stars to Flight:
And Lo! the Hunter of the East has caught
The Sultan's Turret in a Noose of Light.
FitzGerald, Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (1859)
Then said a Second — "Ne'er a peevish Boy
Would break the Bowl from which he drank in joy,
And He that with his hand the Vessel made
Will surely not in after Wrath destroy."
FitzGerald, Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (1859)
But if in vain, down on the stubborn floor
Of Earth, and up to Heav'n's unopening Door
You gaze To-day, while You are You — how then
To-morrow, You when shall be You no more?
FitzGerald, Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (1859)
The Ball no Question makes of Ayes and Noes,
But Right or Left as strikes the Player goes;
And He that toss'd Thee down into the Field,
He knows about it all — He knows — HE knows!
FitzGerald, Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (1859)
Why, all the Saints and Sages who discuss'd
Of the Two Worlds so learnedly — are thrust
Like foolish Prophets forth; their Words to Scorn
Are scatter'd, and their Mouths are stopt with Dust.
FitzGerald, Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (1859)
Ah! my Belovéd, fill the Cup that clears
To-day of past Regrets and future Fears —
To-morrow?—Why, To-morrow I may be
Myself with Yesterday's Sev'n Thousand Years.
FitzGerald, Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (1859)
Ah, Love! could thou and I with Fate conspire
To grasp this sorry Scheme of Things entire,
Would not we shatter it to bits — and then
Re-mould it nearer to the Heart's Desire!
FitzGerald, Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (1859)
When You and I behind the Veil are past,
Oh, but the long, long while the World shall last,
Which of our Coming and Departure heeds
As the Sea's self should heed a pebble-cast.
FitzGerald, Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (1859)
We are no other than a moving row
Of Magic Shadow-shapes that come and go
Round with the Sun-illumined Lantern held
In Midnight by the Master of the Show
FitzGerald, Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (1859)
Oh Thou who didst with Pitfall and with Gin
Beset the Road I was to wander in,
Thou wilt not with Predestination round
Enmesh me, and impute my Fall to Sin?
FitzGerald, Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (1859)
Then of the Thee in Me works behind
The Veil, I lifted up my hands to find
A Lamp amid the Darkness; and I heard,
As from Without — "The Me Within Thee Blind!"
FitzGerald, Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (1859)
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 It
Rolls impotently on as Thou or I.
FitzGerald, Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (1859)
Dreaming when Dawn's Left Hand was in the Sky
I heard a Voice within the Tavern cry,
"Awake, my Little ones, and fill the Cup
Before Life's Liquor in its Cup be dry."
FitzGerald, Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (1859)
With Earth's first Clay They did the Last Man knead,
And there of the Last Harvest sow'd the Seed:
And the first Morning of Creation wrote
What the Last Dawn of Reckoning shall read.
FitzGerald, Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (1859)
And lately, by the Tavern Door agape,
Came shining through the Dusk an Angel Shape
Bearing a Vessel on his Shoulder; and
He bid me taste of it; and 'twas — the Grape!
FitzGerald, Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (1859)
The Vine had struck a fibre: which about
If clings my being — let the Dervish flout;
Of my Base metal may be filed a Key,
That shall unlock the Door he howls without.
FitzGerald, Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (1859)
And if the Wine you drink, the Lip you press
End in what All begins and ends in — Yes;
Think then you are To-day what Yesterday
You were — To-morrow You shall not be less.
FitzGerald, Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (1859)
And when Thyself with shining Foot shall pass
Among the Guests Star-scatter'd on The Grass,
And in Thy joyous Errand reach the Spot
Where I made one — turn down an empty Glass!
FitzGerald, Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (1859)
There was the Door to which I found no Key;
There was the Veil through which I might not see:
Some little talk awhile of Me and Thee
There was — and then no more of Thee and Me.
FitzGerald, Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (1859)