The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám

Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow. We orient our hopes toward an endless series of tomorrows and root our dreams in an irretrievable return to yesterday, and somewhere between our rising and sleeping we sail through Today, scarcely paying heed or due respect to Today's rightful dominion. And yet, the presence of Today is all that we have. It is all that is, the only thing approximating true reality. Only in those rare instances when we allow ourselves the indulgence of friends and festivity do we fall into accord with the moment, Today's handmaiden. Throughout the span of human history our occasional awakenings to this moment in time are often accompanied by Dionysus's gift of Wine. In the Bacchanalian spirt of giving ourselves over to the moment we are enjoined; "Come, fill the Cup, and in the Fire of Spring, The Winter Garment of Repentance fling", and thus we are granted a brief reprieve from our Sisyphean labors, momentarily allowing life! to intrude upon our living.

Edward Fitzgerald's translation of The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám reads as an ode to the son of Zeus and Semele, imploring us to seize the moment and indulge. Wine, Women and Song are the order of the day as Khayyám commands: "Awake, my Little ones, and fill the Cup, Before Life's Liquor in its Cup be dry." Omar Khayyám understands the transience of life and sets his sights on awakening his readers to the importance of not now, but "right now".

Awake! for Morning in the Bowl of Night
Has flung the Stone that puts the Stars to Flight:
And Lo! the Hunter of the East has caught
The Sultán's Turret in a Noose of Light.

Like cold water to the face Khayyám's opening quadrille jolts us: "Awake!" Here the poet makes manifest to us the recognition that we are sleeping our way through our waking life, and the pervasive sentiment of the poem is that life passes quickly, so grab a goblet, quaff a dram, and enjoy the moment!

But beware! Reading The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám might just inspire a weekend debauch from which you may not recover.