Part 56 (1/2)
I served a long apprentices.h.i.+p to fate, But yet of fortune gained no mastery.
346. C. L. N. A. I. J. _Ek dam zadan_, For one moment.
347.
One hand with Koran, one with wine-cup dight, I half incline to wrong, and half to right; The azure-marbled sky looks down on me A sorry Moslem, yet not heathen quite.
347. C. L. N. A. I. J. Khayyam here describes himself as _akrates_ rather than _akolastos_, _Video meliora proboque_, etc.
348.
Khayyam's respects to Mustafa convey, And with due reverence ask him to say, Why it has pleased him to forbid pure wine, When he allows his people acid whey?
348 and 349. L. These two quatrains are also found in Whalley's Morababad edition. _Mustafa_, _i.e._, Muhammad. So Avicenna. See Renan, Averroes, 171.
349.
Tell Khayyam, for a master of the schools, He strangely misinterprets my plain rules: Where have I said that wine is wrong for all?
'Tis lawful for the wise, but not for fools.
350.
My critics call me a philosopher, But Allah knows full well they greatly err; I know not even what I am, much less Why on this earth I am a sojourner!
350. C. L. A. I. J. Filsafat meant the Greek philosophy as cultivated by Persian rationalists, in opposition to theology. Renan, Averroes, p. 91.
351.
The more I die to self, I live the more, The more abase myself, the higher soar; And, strange! the more I drink of Being's wine, More sane I grow and sober than before.
351. L. Clearly Mystical.
352.
Quoth rose, I am the Yusuf flower, I swear, For in my mouth rich golden gems I bear: I said, Show me another proof. Quoth she, Behold this blood-stained vesture that I wear!
352. B. L. Yusuf is the type of manly beauty. The yellow stamens are compared to his teeth. So Jami, in _Yusuf wa Zulaikha_.
353.
I studied with the masters long ago, And long ago did master all they know; Here now the end and issue of it all, From earth I came, and like the wind I go!
353. L. B. Mr. Fitzgerald compares the dying exclamation of Nizam ul-Mulk, I am going in the hands of the wind! _Mantik ut Tair_, 1.
4620.