RUBÁIYÁT OF OMAR KHAYYÁM

VARIATIONS IN
THE THIRD EDITION
OF THE TRANSLATION


In the first draught of the Third Edition the first quatrain stood thus:

Wake! For the Sun before him into Night
 A signal flung that put the Stars to flight;
 And, to the field of Heav'n ascending, strikes
 The Sultán's Turret with a Shaft of Light.

The tenth quatrain read thus in the Third Edition:

Well, let it take them! What have we to do
 With Kaikobád the Great, or Kaikhosrú?
 Let Zál and Rustum thunder as they will,
 Or Hátim Tai "To supper!"—heed not you.

In the first draught of Third Edition the thirty-eighth verse was as follows:

For, in your Ear a moment—of the same
 Poor Earth from which that Human whisper came,
 The luckless Mould in which Mankind was cast
 They did compose, and call'd him by the name.

In the final draught of the Third Edition it was changed to read:

Listen—a moment listen!—Of the same
 Poor Earth from which that Human Whisper came,
 The luckless Mould in which Mankind was cast
 They did compose, and call'd him by the name.

In the first draught of Third Edition quatrain forty ran thus:

As then the Tulip from her wonted sup
 Of Wine from Heav'n her little Tass lifts ups
 Do you, twin offspring of the soil, till Heav'n
 To Earth invert you like an empty cup.

The first draught of the Third Edition carried quatrain forty-two as follows:

And if the Cup, and if the Lip you press,
 End in what All begins and ends in—Yes;
 Imagine then you are what heretofore
 You were—hereafter you shall not be less.

Quatrain forty-eight in the first draught of Third Edition read:

A Moment's Halt—a momentary taste
 Of BEING from the Well amid the Waste—
 Before the starting Caravan has reach'd
 The Nothing it set out from—Oh, make haste!

In the final draught of Third Edition the same stanza ran:

A Moment's Halt—a momentary taste
 Of BEING from the Well amid the Waste—
 And Lo!—the phantom Caravan has reach'd
 The Nothing it set out from—Oh, make haste!

In the first draught of the Third Edition, there stood the following quatrain, later deleted:

Better, oh, better, cancel from the Scroll
 Of Universe one luckless Human Soul,
 Than drop by drop enlarge the Flood that rolls
 Hoarser with Anguish as the Ages Roll.