Ah, Love! Could Thou and I with Fate Conspire

Omar Khayyam

 Ah, Love! could thou and I with Fate conspire
 To grasp this sorry Scheme of Things entire!
 Would not we shatter it to bits - and then
 Re-mould it nearer to the Heart's Desire!

Commentary

(trans. Edward Fitzgerald)

I came across this Rubai almost a year back where it was scribbled to the door of a friend’s hostel room, by some previous occupant. And I recall these lines to this day mainly because I kept on searching for the author and/or the complete verse. I found them only yesterday when I again gave a google search after so many days.

Somehow I felt it had to have more to it. Well, it doesn’t and it is still complete. Brings to mind the words of my literature professor: “A poem should not mean but be”. This one is.

— Nitesh

Martin adds

I almost envy Nitesh the thrill of discovering the Rubaiyat for the first time, and his wonderful observation that no, there isn’t any more to the quatrain, but that it is nonetheless complete (in itself a sentiment that would not be out of place in Khayyam’s opus).

— Martin

The Wondering Minstrels, poem #1354 · 20 September 2003

Guest poem submitted by Nitesh Dixit

Fair use

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From the Wondering Minstrels mailing list, 1999–2008.

Nitesh Dixit · 21 September 2003

I apologize for the seeming plagiarism, indeed the words are from Ars Poetica. I happened not to recall the poem, but remebered my professor speaking of these lines through all the lectures on “introduction to arts and aesthetics” that he took and they lingered. Not to mention the long monologue that i wrote over these same lines and got an A for! :)

Nitesh

Steve Chernicoff · 21 September 2003

Nitesh Dixit, commenting on the rubai “Ah, Love! Could Thou and I with Fate Conspire,” by Omar Khayyam, writes:

Brings to mind the words of my literature professor: “A poem should not : mean but be”. This one is.

With due respect to Nitesh’s literature professor, these are not his (or her) words, but those of Archibald MacLeish in “Ars Poetica” (Minstrels #188):

A poem should be palpable and mute

As a globed fruit,
Dumb
As old medallions to the thumb,
Silent as the sleeve-worn stone
Of casement ledges where the moss has grown– :
A poem should be wordless
As the flight of birds.
A poem should be motionless in time
As the moon climbs,
Leaving, as the moon releases
Twig by twig the night-entangled trees,
Leaving, as the moon behind the winter leaves, : Memory by memory the mind–
A poem should be motionless in time
As the moon climbs.
A poem should be equal to:
Not true.
For all the history of grief
An empty doorway and a maple leaf.
For love
The leaning grasses and two lights above the sea– :
A poem should not mean
But be.
========================================================================       Steve Chernicoff We shall not cease from exploration,   1114 Hillview Road And the end of all our exploring   Berkeley, California 94708 Will be to arrive where we started     And know the place for the first time.       ========================================================================