Think, in this Batter'd Caravanserai
Think, in this batter'd Caravanserai
Whose Portals are alternate Night and Day,
How Sultan after Sultan with his Pomp
Abode his destined Hour, and went his way
Commentary
Nothing particular to say about today’s poem - I just liked the image of the world as a caravanserai, with Night and Day (or Life and Death if you prefer) as its doors.
The theme is a common one - it has played itself out in several variations across most of the world’s great works, including the Bible, Shakespeare, and indeed in the Rubaiyat itself; however it has not suffered for that, and has indeed produced a number of haunting analogies and images.
[Speaking of which, if anyone can provide me a fuller reference to the one about life being like a bird passing brielfy through a lighted room before returning to the outer darkness whence it came, I’d be grateful.]
Notes
Freely translated by Edward Fitzgerald; stanza 17 from the 5th edition
Caravanserai: A kind of inn in Eastern countries where caravans put up, being a large quadrangular building with a spacious court in the middle.
– OED
Links
poem #545 has a biography of
Fitzgerald and a number of other Rubaiyat links.
‘Caravanserai’ is another of those wonderfully evocative words that conjures up entire realms and stories. For something in the same vein, check out the Silk Road theme we ran a while back: Poem #504, Poem #506, Poem #509,
Poem #513, Poem #515, Poem #518 and Poem #526 - yes, it was a long theme but a beautiful one.
And if anyone can find or scan in pictures of a caravanserai, do send in a link.
Afterthought
Having spent a happy half-hour or so rereading all four editions of the Rubaiyat, I can recommend it - the second and fourth editions have a few hidden gems that are lost if you concentrate on the outer two.
— Martin
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From the Wondering Minstrels mailing list, 1999–2008.
Suresh Ramasubramanian · 1 January 2001
This is also the same concept as an urdu poem …
“sab thaat pada rah jayega, jab laad chalega banjara …”
(basically, when you leave this world, all your worldly possessions are left behind). Fantastic poem :)
Or what was that raj kapoor movie (directed by basu bhattacharya)? “sajan re jhoot math bolo, khuda ke paas jaana hai, na haathi hai, na ghoda hai, wahaan paidal hi jaana hai …”
[followup:]
teesri kasam. brilliant song - and if you can get an english trans of that, it’s going to be great
sounds very familiar - but in hindi or urdu
Colm Maccrossan · 2 January 2001
The bird through the hall image is Anglo-Saxon. I have a feeling that King Alfred wrote it down, but might be wrong - it could be Boethius. A variation of it also appears in H. Rider Haggard’s ‘King Solomon’s Mines’ where Umbopa the Zulu uses it to describe his world-view (‘Our March Into the Desert’ chapter - p. 50 of the 1986 Hamlyn edition). Also, it might interest you to read this section alongside lines 19-30 of Eliot’s ‘The Waste Land’.
Take care,
Colm
Rita Cherian · 2 January 2001
I remember a reference to the Venerable Bede as the author of the passage in which life is described as a lighted room into which a swallow flies. Hope this is helpful!
Carolyn Bunch · 3 January 2001
A “fuller reference” no, but what I remember from my school house history regarding that image is this. A Saxon or Danish king in pre-Christian Britain told his assembled lords that life was like a bird flying for a brief moment into the great hall and then flying out again. The king felt that Christianity might help explain some of the mysteries of the void, and should thus be explored as a path to knowledge.
I wish I could remember the name of the king - and I am hoping that this might help. It is a very compelling image, and might have been applied to a number of circumstances. Carolyn Bunch