Omar Khayyam, the Astronomer-Poet of Persia
"At Naishapur thus lived and died Omar Khayyam, 'busied,' adds theVizier, 'in winning knowledge of every kind, and especially inAstronomy, wherein he attained to a very high pre-eminence. Under theSultanate of Malik Shah, he came to Merv, and obtained great praisefor his proficiency in science, and the Sultan showered favors uponhim.'
"'Khayyam, who stitched the tents of science,Has fallen in grief's furnace and been suddenly burned;The shears of Fate have cut the tent ropes of his life,And the broker of Hope has sold him for nothing!'
"O Thou who burn'st in Heart for those who burnIn 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?"
"If I myself upon a looser CreedHave loosely strung the Jewel of Good deed,Let this one thing for my Atonement plead:That One for Two I never did misread."
Words in this poem
- sultanate n.
- The rule or dominion of a sultan; sultanship. [Cf. F. sultanat.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- misread v. t.
- To read amiss; to misunderstand in reading.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Omar Khayyam, the Astronomer-Poet of Persia is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, Project Gutenberg ebook #246, the Edward FitzGerald translation; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Omar Khayyam, Omar Khayyam, the Astronomer-Poet of Persia, in The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (1859), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #246, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rubaiyat/omar-khayyam-the-astronomer-poet-of-persia.html, id L15813.
About this section
Omar Khayyam, the Astronomer-Poet of Persia is prose, printed in 4 paragraphs. It is part of the edition and is kept for reading, but nothing here is measured: the line breaks are the printer's, so no metre, rhyme scheme or scansion is stated.
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