Wine-bibbing makes people
less full of themselves,
and wine loosens even
cast-iron shackles.
If satan had only
tippled every night,
he would not have been cast down
from heaven for his pride.
Translated by Juan Cole
from Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat, [pdf] Whinfield 313/ Arberry 1949
I'll drink to that!
ReplyDeleteJuan Cole is posting a series of his own translations of "The Rubaiyat", which I'm enjoying immensely. Not that the drinker's philosophy is mine, but he often hits the nail on the head, and he often makes me smile.
ReplyDeleteMy mother passed her love of the Rubaiyat down to me. A pity, isn't it, that we can't use it for readings in church instead of, say, some of the drearier Psalms or tedious Proverbs - ?
ReplyDeleteRuss, lucky you that your mother pass on her love. I came to know the Rubaiyat later in life.
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness, if I had a nickel for every time my parents quoted the Rubayiat to each other, I would be rich indeed.
ReplyDeleteRo Ford
(Boo Cat)
Na Zdarovye! {glug*glug*glug}
ReplyDeletePersian for glug-glug-glug, JCF?
DeleteI'm happy that others appreciate the wine-bibbing poet.
ReplyDelete