Year: 2013

“Well,”. murmur’d one, “Let whoso make or buy, “My Clay with long Oblivion is gone dry: “But fill me with the old familiar Juice “Methinks…

‘Tis but a Tent where takes his one day’s rest A Sultán to the realm of Death addrest; The Sultán rises, and the dark Ferrásh…

You know, my Friends, with what a brave Carouse I made a Second Marriage in my house; Divorced old barren Reason from my Bed, And…

Yon rising Moon that looks for us again– How oft hereafter will she wax and wane; How oft hereafter rising look for us Through this…

Yet Ah, that Spring should vanish with the Rose! That Youth’s sweet-scented manuscript should close! The Nightingale that in the branches sang, Ah whence, and…

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…

Would you that spangle of Existence spend About THE SECRET–quick about it, Friend! A Hair perhaps divides the False and True– And upon what, prithee,…

Would but the Desert of the Fountain yield One glimpse–if dimly, yet indeed, reveal’d, To which the fainting Traveller might spring, As springs the trampled…

Would but some wingéd Angel ere too late Arrest the yet unfolded Roll of Fate, And make the stern Recorder otherwise Enregister, or quite obliterate!

With them the seed of Wisdom did I sow, And with mine own hand wrought to make it grow; And this was all the Harvest…

With me along the strip of Herbage strown That just divides the desert from the sown, Where name of Slave and Sultan is forgot– And…

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…

Why, if the Soul can fling the Dust aside, And naked on the Air of Heaven ride, Were’t not a Shame–were’t not a Shame for…

Why, be this Juice the growth of God, who dare Blaspheme the twisted tendril as a Snare? A Blessing, we should use it, should we…

Why, all the Saints and Sages who discuss’d Of the Two Worlds so wisely–they are thrust Like foolish Prophets forth; their Words to Scorn Are…

Whose secret Presence, through Creation’s veins Running Quicksilver-like eludes your pains; Taking all shapes from Máh to Máhi; and They change and perish all but…

Whether at Naishápúr or Babylon, Whether the Cup with sweet or bitter run, The Wine of Life keeps oozing drop by drop, The Leaves of…

Whereat some one of the loquacious Lot– I think a Súfi pipkin–waxing hot– “All this of Pot and Potter–Tell me, then, “Who is the Potter,…

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…

What, without asking, hither hurried Whence And, without asking, Whither hurried hence! Oh, many a Cup of this forbidden Wine Must drown the memory of…

What! out of senseless Nothing to provoke A conscious Something to resent the yoke Of unpermitted Pleasure, under pain Of Everlasting Penalties, if broke!

What! from his helpless Creature be repaid Pure Gold for what he lent him dross-allay’d— Sue for a Debt he never did contract, And cannot…

Well, let it take them! What have we to do With Kaikobád the Great, or Kaikhosrú? Let Zál and Rustum bluster as they will, Or…

Waste not your Hour, nor in the vain pursuit Of This and That endeavour and dispute; Better be jocund with the fruitful Grape Than sadden…

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…

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…

They say the Lion and the Lizard keep The Courts where Jamshyd gloried and drank deep: And Bahrám, that great Hunter–the Wild Ass Stamps o’er…

Up from Earth’s Centre through the Seventh Gate I rose, and on the Throne of Saturn sate, And many a Knot unravel’d by the Road;…

Think, in this batter’d Caravanserai Whose Portals are alternate Night and Day, How Sultán after Sultán with his Pomp Abode his destined Hour, and went…

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…

Then to the Lip of this poor earthen Urn I lean’d, the Secret of my Life to learn: And Lip to Lip it murmur’d–“While you…

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…

Then of the THEE IN ME who works behind The Veil, I lifted up my hands to find A lamp amid the Darkness; and I…

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…

The Revelations of Devout and Learn’d Who rose before us, and as Prophets burn’d, Are all but Stories, which, awoke from Sleep They told their…

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…

The Ball no question makes of Ayes and Noes, But Here or There as strikes the Player goes; And He that toss’d you down into…

The mighty Mahmúd, Allah-breathing Lord, That all the misbelieving and black Horde Of Fears and Sorrows that infest the Soul Scatters before him with his…

The Grape that can with Logic absolute The Two-and-Seventy jarring Sects confute: The sovereign Alchemist that-in a trice Life’s leaden metal into Gold transmute:

That ev’n my buried Ashes such a snare Of. Vintage shall fling up into the Air As not a True-believer passing by But shall be…

Strange, is it not that of the myriads who Before us pass’d the door of Darkness through, Not one returns to tell us of the…

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,…

Perplext no more with Human or Divine, To-morrow’s tangle to the winds resign, And lose your fingers in the tresses of The Cypress-slender Minister of…

So while the Vessels one by one were speaking, The little Moon look’d in that all were seeking: And then they jogg’d each other, “Brother!…

So when that Angel of the darker Drink At last shall find you by the river-brink, And, offering his Cup, invite your Soul Forth to…

Said one among them–“Surely not in vain “My substance of the common Earth was ta’en “And to this Figure moulded, to be broke, “Or trampled…

Shapes of all Sorts and Sizes, great and small, That stood along the floor and by the wall; And some loquacious Vessels were; and some…

Oh threats of Hell and Hopes of Paradise! One thing at least is certain–This Life flies; One thing is certain and the rest is Lies;…

Oh Thou, who Man of baser Earth didst make, And ev’n with Paradise devise the Snake: For all the Sin wherewith the Face of Man…

Oh Thou, who didst with pitfall and with gin Beset the Road I was to wander in, Thou wilt not with Predestined Evil round Enmesh,…

Look to the blowing Rose about us–“Lo, “Laughing,” she says, “into the world I blow, “At once the silken tassel of my Purse “Tear, and…

Now the New Year reviving old Desires, The thoughtful Soul to Solitude retires, Where the WHITE HAND OF MOSES on the Bough Puts out, and…

Myself when young did eagerly frequent Doctor and Saint, and heard great argument About it and about: but evermore Came out by the same door…

Iram indeed is gone with all his Rose, And Jamshyd’s Sev’n-ring’d Cup where no one knows; But still a Ruby kindles in the Vine, And…

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…

Indeed, indeed, Repentance oft before I swore–but was I sober when I swore? And then and then came Spring, and Rose-in-hand My thread-bare Penitence apieces…

Indeed the Idols I have loved so long Have done my credit in this World much wrong: Have drown’d my Glory in a shallow Cup,…

I think the Vessel, that with fugitive Articulation answer’d, once did live, And drink; and Ah! the passive Lip I kiss’d, How many Kisses might…

I tell you this–When, started from the Goal, Over the flaming shoulders of the Foal Of Heav’n Parwin and Mushtari they flung, In my predestined…

I sent my Soul through the Invisible, Some letter of that After-life to spell: And by and by my Soul return’d to me, And answer’d…