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RUBAIYAT (SELECTIONS)
First Series
1
The world you saw was real, Rumi, not apparition, etc.
It is boundless and eternal, its painter is not the First Cause, etc.
And the best of the rubaiyat your burning flesh left us
is not the one that goes, "All forms are shadows," etc...
5
I can't kiss or make love to your image,
but there in my city you're flesh and blood,
and your red mouth, the honey I'm denied, your big eyes, really are,
and your surrender like rebel waters, your whiteness I can't even touch.
7
This garden, this moist earth, this jasmine scent, this moonlit night
will sparkle still when I've passed from the light,
because it was before I came, and afterwards wasn't part of me -
a mere copy of this original appeared in me...
8
One day Mother Nature will say, "Quitting time - -
no more laughter or tears, my child..."
And endless once again it will begin :
life that doesn't see, speak, or think...
9
Each day separation draws closer
good-bye, my beautiful world,
and hello,
universe...
12
Cabbage, car, plague germ, star :
we're all kith and kin
Not "Cogito ergo sum," my sun-eyed love,
but, in this distinguished family, we think because we are...
Second Series
1
"Fill your cup with wine before your cup fills with dust," said Khayyam.
A man with a bony nose and no shoes stared at him in his rose garden:
"In this world with more blessings than stars," the man said, "I'm starving,
I don't have enough money to buy bread, let alone wine..."
3
Life is passing, seize time's bounty before you sleep unwaking sleep :
fill the crystal goblet with ruby wine, young man, it's dawn, awake...
In his bare, ice-cold room the young man woke to the shriek
of the factory whistle, which didn't forgive being late...
4
I don't miss days gone by
- except one summer night -
and even the last sparkles of my eyes
will flash you news of days to come...
Third Series
1
Either people love you
or they're your enemy.
Either you're forgotten as if you never exist,
or you're not out of mind even a minute...
Clear as glass, an unspoiled winter day -
to bite into the firm white flesh of a healthy apple!
My love, it's like the joy of breathing
in a snowy pine forest, this loving you...
tr. by Randy Blasing and Mutlu Konuk