From The Rubaiyyat of Omar and Moi

From The Rubaiyyat of Omar and Moi

A Woman: Why are you reading that?

. OMAR

Into this Universe, and Why not knowing,
Nor Whence, like Water willy-nilly flowing:
And out of it, as Wind along the Waste,
I know not Whither, willy-nilly blowing. 

From The Rubaiyat Of Omar Khayyam - Poem by Omar Khayyam

Translated into English in 1859 by Edward FitzGerald

HZL

 I heard a Woman   pleading,pleading 

Why must you  this book be reading, reading? 

I said: Be it  but Wind along the Waste,

I want to learn and  it suits my taste.

And  listening to Lectures too?

OMAR

Though  in my youth

I did eagerly frequent

places of Great Argument.

(To tell the truth)

Evermore out I came

in the door I went.

HZL

But now  I'm well, or very well,  over  over eighty,

these tomes have gotten  much more weighty. 

and I'd  trade any and  all such discussions deep

for a blessed night of  uninterrupted sleep.

HzL

12/26/15

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam by Edward FitzGerald ...

www.telegraph.co.uk › ... › Books › Book Reviews

The Daily Telegraph

Apr 18, 2009 - His best-known work, The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (1859), began by ... It has been translated into 70 languages and set to music by 100 composers. ...in the original Persian, is an astonishing innovation in English poetry.