Site hosted by Angelfire.com: Build your free website today!
Omar Al-khayyam

Few Oriental poets have achieved the International popularity of Omar Khayyam (1048-1131). He was born during the Saljuq Turkish rule over Persia in a city called Nishapur. Nishapur was the capital of Khurasan, the north-eastern province of Persia, and, in Khayyam's time, of Eastern Islam. The name "Khayyam" means "tent-maker". It belongs to Omar's father,Ibrahim , so that Omar seems to have sprung from the urban middle class of Nishapur society.
The earliest references of khayyam do not give any indication that he was a poet, but establish him as a philosopher, and works by him still extant prove him to have been a great mathematician.
 
 Here is some of his famous Ruba'iyat as translated by Peter Avery & john Heath-stubbs. A complete list of his Ruba'iyat will be provided in the future plus an Arabic translation so come back and check later on.
 




















 
Samirah.net!!



 
Dreaming when Dawn's Left Hand was in the sky
I heared a Voice within the Tavern cry
'Awake my little ones, and fill the Cup
Before Life's Liquor in its cup be dry". 




 
Before you and i did, night and day existed,
The revolving heavens were busy;
Where you set your foot on the face of the ground
Was the pupil of the eye of a sweetheart. 



 
 
There was a water-drop, it joined the sea,
A speck of dust, it was fused with earth;
what of your entering and leaving this world?
A fly appeared, and disappeared 


 
 
He began my creation with constraint,
By giving me life he added only confusion;
We depart reluctantly still not knowing
The aim of birth, existence, departure. 


 
 
Convivial friends have all gone,
Death has trampled them down one after another;
We were in one wine-bout at life's party,
They got drunk a round or so ahead of us. 
 
 
Though the world is tricked out for you
Do not make for what the wise shun:
Many like you come and many go,
Snatch your share before you are snatched away. 

 
How long shall i lay bricks on the face of the seas?
i am sick of idolaters and the temple.
Khayyam, who said that there will be a hell?
Who's been to hell, who's been to heaven 
 
 
I once bought a pot from a potter
Which told everything when it said
'I was an emperor and had a golden goblet,
Now I'm any drunkard's wine-pot.' 
 
 
My back is bent by time,
All my affairs go awry;
Life was ready to depart. i said, 'Don't go.'
it replied, 'What else can I do, if the house is falling down?' 
 
 
Every now and then someone comes along saying, 'It is I.'
He arrives with favors, silver and gold, saying,'It is I.'
When his little affair is sorted out for a day,
death suddenly jumps out of ambush saying, 'It is I.' 
 
 
If chance supplied a loaf of white bread,
two casks of wine and a leg of mutton,
In the corner of a garden with a tulip-cheeked girl
There'd be enjoyment no Sultan could outdo.




Samirah.net!!