8 October 2015

Omar Khayyam - my favourite few verses

Arise! For Morning through the dome of Night
Has flung the shafts that put the Stars to flight
And, lo! The Hunter of the East has caught
The Sultan's turret in a noose of light


Since you nor made nor moulded humankind
Let not yourself be uselessly inclined
To shape them on your heart, as if it were
An anvil, beneath the hammer of your mind


It is a sorry lack of finer sense
To place in others boundless confidence
To count too much on them would undermine
The strength you need to be your own defence


Into this Universe, and why not knowing
Nor whence, like water willy-nilly flowing
And out of it, like wind along the waste
We know not whither, willy-nilly blowing


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