6 quatrains, translated by Abraham Yohannan
In: ‘Oldest known manuscript of Omar’s work’. The Lotus Magazine, vol. 6 (1915), 5 (Feb.), p. 235-236.
The world was not made thus solely for you!
Do not the Sages also tenant it?
There are many like you who come and go,
You are simply a piece in the game.
Why should you and I fret with idle grief,
Because we cannot add one day to life?
The truth is, it seems to me,
That out mum (wax),we cannot make mim (letter M).
Behold the tulips bathe in the rains of Nauruz!
Then it is meet to make thy ablution in wine.
The grass which makes such a beautiful show today,
Tomorrow from thy dust will grow.
A drop of water mingles with the sea,
An atom of dust joins the earth.
Thy coming into the world, what is it?
A bubble that appears and disappears.
Arise old Sage of ages from the ground!
See that youth scattering the dust!
Give him counsel. Say “Do thou gently,
‘Tis Qai Kubad’s and Parwiz’ brain finely ground.”
This vault through which we come and go,
Neither its beginning or end will show.
No one has explained the secret as yet,
Whence is our coming or whence our going.