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over it。'  I wondered at the words he spake; but I knew that his were

no idle words。  Years after; when I chanced to revisit Naishapur; I

went to his final resting…place; and lo! it was just outside a garden;

and trees laden with fruit stretched their boughs over the garden

wall; and dropped their flowers upon his tomb; so that the stone was

hidden under them。〃'〃



  〃Philosophe Musulman qui a vecu en Odeur de Saintete dans sa

  Religion; vers la Fin du premier et le Commencement du second

  Siecle;〃 no part of which; except the 〃Philosophe;〃 can apply to our

  Khayyam。

  

  The Rashness of the Words; according to D'Herbelot; consisted in

  being so opposed to those in the Koran: 〃No Man knows where he shall

  die。〃This story of Omar reminds me of another so naturallyand

  when one remembers how wide of his humble mark the noble sailor

  aimedso pathetically told by Captain Cooknot by Doctor

  Hawkworthin his Second Voyage (i。 374)。  When leaving Ulietea;

  〃Oreo's last request was for me to return。  When he saw he could not

  obtain that promise; he asked the name of my Marai (burying…place)。

  As strange a question as this was; I hesitated not a moment to tell

  him 'Stepney'; the parish in which I live when in London。  I was

  made to repeat it several times over till they could pronounce it;

  and then 'Stepney Marai no Toote' was echoed through an hundred

  mouths at once。  I afterwards found the same question had been put

  to Mr。 Forster by a man on shore; but he gave a different; and

  indeed more proper answer; by saying; 'No man who used the sea could

  say where he should be buried。'〃



Thus farwithout fear of Trespassfrom the Calcutta Review。  The

writer of it; on reading in India this story of Omar's Grave; was

reminded; he says; of Cicero's Account of finding Archimedes' Tomb at

Syracuse; buried in grass and weeds。  I think Thorwaldsen desired to

have roses grow over him; a wish religiously fulfilled for him to the

present day; I believe。  However; to return to Omar。



Though the Sultan 〃shower'd Favors upon him;〃 Omar's Epicurean

Audacity of Thought and Speech caused him to be regarded askance in

his own Time and Country。  He is said to have been especially hated

and dreaded by the Sufis; whose Practise he ridiculed; and whose Faith

amounts to little more than his own; when stript of the Mysticism and

formal recognition of Islamism under which Omar would not hide。  Their

Poets; including Hafiz; who are (with the exception of Firdausi) the

most considerable in Persia; borrowed largely; indeed; of Omar's

material; but turning it to a mystical Use more convenient to

Themselves and the People they addressed; a People quite as quick of

Doubt as of Belief; as keen of Bodily sense as of Intellectual; and

delighting in a cloudy composition of both; in which they could float

luxuriously between Heaven and Earth; and this World and the Next; on

the wings of a poetical expression; that might serve indifferently for

either。  Omar was too honest of Heart as well of Head for this。

Having failed (however mistakenly) of finding any Providence but

Destiny; and any World but This; he set about making the most of it;

preferring rather to soothe the Soul through the Senses into

Acquiescence with Things as he saw them; than to perplex it with vain

disquietude after what they might be。  It has been seen; however; that

his Worldly Ambition was not exorbitant; and he very likely takes a

humorous or perverse pleasure in exalting the gratification of Sense

above that of the Intellect; in which he must have taken great

delight; although it failed to answer the Questions in which he; in

common with all men; was most vitally interested。



For whatever Reason; however; Omar as before said; has never been

popular in his own Country; and therefore has been but scantily

transmitted abroad。  The MSS。 of his Poems; mutilated beyond the

average Casualties of Oriental Transcription; are so rare in the East

as scarce to have reacht Westward at all; in spite of all the

acquisitions of Arms and Science。  There is no copy at the India

House; none at the Bibliotheque Nationale of Paris。  We know but of

one in England: No。 140 of the Ouseley MSS。 at the Bodleian; written

at Shiraz; A。D。 1460。  This contains but 158 Rubaiyat。  One in the

Asiatic Society's Library at Calcutta (of which we have a Copy);

contains (and yet incomplete) 516; though swelled to that by all kinds

of Repetition and Corruption。  So Von Hammer speaks of his Copy as

containing about 200; while Dr。 Sprenger catalogues the Lucknow MS。 at

double that number。  The Scribes; too; of the Oxford and Calcutta

MSS。 seem to do their Work under a sort of Protest; each beginning

with a Tetrastich (whether genuine or not); taken out of its

alphabetical order; the Oxford with one of Apology; the Calcutta with

one of Expostulation; supposed (says a Notice prefixed to the MS。)

to have arisen from a Dream; in which Omar's mother asked about his

future fate。  It may be rendered thus:



 〃O Thou who burn'st in Heart for those who burn

  In Hell; whose fires thyself shall feed in turn;

    How long be crying; 'Mercy on them; God!'

  Why; who art Thou to teach; and He to learn?〃



The Bodleian Quatrain pleads Pantheism by way of Justification。



 〃If I myself upon a looser Creed

  Have loosely strung the Jewel of Good deed;

  Let this one thing for my Atonement plead:

  That One for Two I never did misread。〃



  〃Since this paper was written〃 (adds the Reviewer in a note); 〃we

  have met with a Copy of a very rare Edition; printed at Calcutta in

  1836。  This contains 438 Tetrastichs; with an Appendix containing 54

  others not found in some MSS。〃



The Reviewer; to whom I owe the Particulars of Omar's Life;

concludes his Review by comparing him with Lucretius; both as to

natural Temper and Genius; and as acted upon by the Circumstances in

which he lived。  Both indeed were men of subtle; strong; and

cultivated Intellect; fine Imagination; and Hearts passionate for

Truth and Justice; who justly revolted from their Country's false

Religion; and false; or foolish; Devotion to it; but who fell short of

replacing what they subverted by such better Hope as others; with no

better Revelation to guide them; had yet made a Law to themselves。

Lucretius indeed; with such material as Epicurus furnished; satisfied

himself with the theory of a vast machine fortuitously constructed;

and acting by a Law that implied no Legislator; and so composing

himself into a Stoical rather than Epicurean severity of Attitude; sat

down to contemplate the mechanical drama of the Universe which he was

part Actor in; himself and all about him (as in his own sublime

description of the Roman Theater) discolored with the lurid reflex of

the Curtain suspended between the Spectator and the Sun。  Omar; more

desperate; or more careless of any so complicated System as resulted

in nothing but hopeless Necessity; flung his own Genius and Learning

with a bitter or humorous jest into the general Ruin which their

insufficient glimpses only served to reveal; and; pretending sensual

pleasure; as the serious purpose of Life; only diverted himself with

speculative problems of Deity; Destiny; Matter and Spirit; Good and

Evil; and other such questions; easier to start than to run down; and

the pursuit of which becomes a very weary sport at last!



  Professor Cowell。



With regard to the present Translation。  The original Rubaiyat (as;

missing an Arabic Guttural; these Tetrastichs are more musically

called) are independent Stanzas; consisting each of four Lines of

equal; though varied; Prosody; sometimes all rhyming; but oftener (as

here imitated) the third line a blank。  Somewhat as in the Greek

Alcaic; where the penultimate line seems to lift and suspend the Wave

that falls over in the last。  As usual with such kind of Oriental

Verse; the Rubaiyat follow 

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