THE

RUBÁIYÁT
Omar Khayyám
DIAZ, ANGELICA ESER
3CA2

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OMAR KHAYYÁM
(1050?-1132?)

• A Persian poet, scientist and mathematician

• Born in a small village outside the Persian City of
Nishapur
• Khayyam – “tent-maker” , refers to the profession of his
ancestors
• Famous mathematician invited by the King to participate
in the reform of the Persian calendar
• Despite his accomplishments in philosophy, history, law,
astrology, mathematics, he wrote very little: Majority of
his scholarly writings are on mathematics and only few
short works on other subjects are known to exist.

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GUIDE FOR INTERPRETING
• Omar Khayyám’s poems are written in a literary form known as rubai. This form takes its
name from the Arabic word for “four”, because each poem consists of four lines which rhyme
with one another.
• Because each poem is so short, the poet must use vivid imagery to convey his or her message
to the reader which in Persian literature is accomplished through the use of metaphors.

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T H E R U B Á I YÁT
T R A N S L AT E D B Y E D W A R D
I.
WAKE! For the Sun, who scatter'd into flight
The Stars before him from the Field of Night,
Drives Night along with them from Heav'n, and strikes
The Sultan's Turret with a Shaft of Light.
VII.
Come, fill the Cup, and in the fire of Spring
Your Winter garment of Repentance fling:
The Bird of Time has but a little way
To flutter--and the Bird is on the Wing.
VIII.
Whether at Naishapur or Babylon,
Whether the Cup with sweet or bitter run,
The Wine of Life keeps oozing drop by drop,
The Leaves of Life keep falling one by one.
Turret – small tower projecting from a
large building
Naishapur – city in Northeast Iran
Babylon – ancient city famous for wealth,
luxury and wickedness
Enow – enough
F R I T Z G E R A L D Anon – immediately; at once
XII.
A Book of Verses underneath the Bough,
A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread--and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness--
Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow!
XIII.
Some for the Glories of This World; and some
Sigh for the Prophet's Paradise to come;
Ah, take the Cash, and let the Credit go,
Nor heed the rumble of a distant Drum!
XVI.
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.
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T H E R U B Á I YÁT
T R A N S L AT E D B Y E D W A R D F R I T Z G E R A L D
Caravanserai – an inn with a large
central court
Abode – waited

XVII. XLVII.

Think, in this batter'd Caravanserai When You and I behind the Veil are past,
Whose Portals are alternate Night and Day, Oh, but the long, long while the World shall last,
How Sultan after Sultan with his Pomp Which of our Coming and Departure heeds
Abode his destined Hour, and went his way. As the Sea's self should heed a pebble-cast.

XXVII.
XLVIII.
Myself when young did eagerly frequent
Doctor and Saint, and heard great argument
A Moment's Halt--a momentary taste
About it and about: but evermore
Of BEING from the Well amid the Waste--
Came out by the same door where in I went.
And Lo!--the phantom Caravan has reach'd
The NOTHING it set out from--Oh, make haste!
XXVIII.
LXIV.
With them the seed of Wisdom did I sow,
And with mine own hand wrought to make it grow;
Strange, is it not? that of the myriads who
And this was all the Harvest that I reap'd--
Before us pass'd the door of Darkness through,
"I came like Water, and like Wind I go.“
Not one returns to tell us of the Road,
Which to discover we must travel too.

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T H E R U B Á I YÁT
T R A N S L AT E D B Y E D W A R D F R I T Z G E R A L D

LXXI.

The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,

Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it.

XCIX.

Ah Love! could you and I with Him conspire

To grasp this sorry Scheme of Things entire,
Would not we shatter it to bits--and then
Re-mold it nearer to the Heart's Desire!

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MAJOR THEMES

• In the Rubáiyát, the sequence of a day acts as a metaphor for the passage of time. The poem extols
the hedonistic pleasures of food, sex, and wine, and the importance of living for today, because the
future is uncertain and life is fleeting. It contemplates the riddle of life and expresses mankind's
doubts, regrets, and fears. Written during a time of religious upheaval—its first edition was published
the same year as Darwin's Origin of Species—the poem's questioning of religion and traditional
morality was both shocking and fascinating to its readers.
• In the selected passages, Khayyam takes a turn for the existential as he proclaims that life is simply a
game of chess that Destiny plays, using humans as the expendable pieces, and as a show of shadow
shapes, the light making the shadows being the sun. Throughout the poem, Khayyam’s moods seem
to float along, starting off as airy, cheery, and light, moving to a darker, more existential and scary
place, and then back to cheerful and excited about life. His overall point seems to be, “Life is short,
so live it to the fullest. Have fun. Lord knows you won’t when you’re dead and gone.”

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MAJOR THEMES
Carpe Diem (Seize the Day)

.......The poet, who refers to himself as "old Khayyám," is unable to commit himself to belief in an
afterlife. Consequently, he believes in living for today:

Ah, make the most of what we yet may spend,

Before we too into the Dust Descend;
Dust into Dust, and under Dust, to lie,
Sans Wine, sans Song, sans Singer and—sans End!

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MAJOR THEMES
Wake! (Seize the day! If you snooze, you looze!) The sun has driven away the small, inadequate lights of the dark times,
and filled the sky with brilliance. Life has no darkness! The heaviness, the sadness, the limitation is gone and the earth is
golden and just there before you.
I.

WAKE! For the Sun, who scatter'd into flight

The Stars before him from the Field of Night,
Drives Night along with them from Heav'n, and strikes
The Sultan's Turret with a Shaft of Light.

Time to live. Now. ("Fill the Cup") The sap is high, life is full of passion, immediacy (in the fire of Spring) Forget the past
and its sadness, its clinginess, don't let it hold you back, shed it. (Your Winter-garment of repentance fling). Carpe diem!
Seize the day! The light is here now. Spring is short. Time is flying
VII.

Come, fill the Cup, and in the fire of Spring

Your Winter garment of Repentance fling:
The Bird of Time has but a little way
To flutter--and the Bird is on the Wing.
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MAJOR THEMES
Wine as the Water of Life

.......In a universe that refuses to reveal the ultimate destiny of man, the only intelligent way for one to
relieve the anxiety about his fate, old Khayyám says, is to drink the Lethe of wine. In its intoxicating
nectar, one may forget the past and the future, living only for the pleasure of the moment. Wine, of
course, can symbolize aesthetic and intellectual pleasures, as well as physical ones.

VIII.
Whether at Naishapur or Babylon,
Whether the Cup with sweet or bitter run,
The Wine of Life keeps oozing drop by drop,
The Leaves of Life keep falling one by one.

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MAJOR THEMES
Fate

.......Pervading the poem is a sense of helplessness against forces beyond the control of man. The
universe, time, and of course fate will have their way no matter what man does to counteract their
power. Stanza 51 presents fate as a Moving Finger that writes man's destiny:

LXXI.
The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.

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MAJOR THEMES
Ineluctable Death

.......Khayyám strikes a somber, melancholy note when he continually reminds the reader that death
will ultimately claim everyone. And after it does, he says, what then?

XVI.
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.

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 • https://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Guides3/rubaiyat.html
• http://finkenglish.weebly.com/english-ii-blog-7th-period-2016/the-
SOURCES rubaiyat-of-omar-khayyam-literary-analysis-by-milo-del-ciotto
• https://www.enotes.com/topics/rubaiyat-omar-khayyam/critical-essays

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