Ode to 'Kaiyyam ( During Ramadan )
As I sat on the edge of life's sum
Thinking how far I had come
I remembered the name of Omar Kaiyyam
He spoke of the "Hunter of the East, chasing the Sun.
With Dawns darkest night at his left hand
His fermented wine from Springs fertile land
Time fleeing on wings of a wounded bird
He wrote, "Do not look to the sky with uplifted hands"
Repentance', a Winters garment couched upon a grave
and as petals of the rose that are blown away,
Words are as dust upon the tongue
Yesterdays are gone, So, live for today
He said "I came in water and like wind I go"
Then the wind began to blow
It was the beginning of Ramadan
Soon enough it would get cold
and then comes the snow.
Thinking how far I had come
I remembered the name of Omar Kaiyyam
He spoke of the "Hunter of the East, chasing the Sun.
With Dawns darkest night at his left hand
His fermented wine from Springs fertile land
Time fleeing on wings of a wounded bird
He wrote, "Do not look to the sky with uplifted hands"
Repentance', a Winters garment couched upon a grave
and as petals of the rose that are blown away,
Words are as dust upon the tongue
Yesterdays are gone, So, live for today
He said "I came in water and like wind I go"
Then the wind began to blow
It was the beginning of Ramadan
Soon enough it would get cold
and then comes the snow.
♠ ♠ ♠
Omar Khayyam (kìäm´), fl. 11th cent., Persian poet and mathematician. He wrote mathematical studies and participated in a calendar reform, but he is best known for his Rubaiyat (epigrammatic quatrains), which express a hedonistic philosophy. A paraphrased English translation (1859) by Edward FitzGerald popularized his work in the West.