RUBAIYAT OF OMAR KHAYYAM

I came across this quote yesterday attributed to Omar Khayyam, “Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life.”

Around 70 years ago, I saw a movie, “Pandora and the Flying Dutchman.” The movie is an all-time great and is based on the legend of a Dutch sailor who has been cursed by the Devil to sail the seas for eternity until he meets a woman willing to die for him. After years of sailing, he meets Pandora who falls for him. Ava Gardner as Pandora and James Mason as the Flying Dutchman are outstanding in their roles in this unforgettable movie.

The reason I bring this up is that the movie begins with a flash of probably the most popular quote from ‘Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam”:

“The Moving Finger writes: and, having writ, 

Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit,

Shall lure it back to cancel half a line,

Nor all thy tears, wash out a word of it.”

The lines fascinated me and I procured the book and read it again and again. It is by far the best set of poems I have come across and has been lodged in my mind ever since. 

I am sure most of us are aware of the Rubaiyat, have read it and quote from it. To refresh briefly, Omar Khayyam was born in Khorassan, Persia, and lived in late 11th and early 12th century. Khayyam means ‘tentmaker’ which might have been his family’s vocation. He himself was an astronomer-mathematician philosopher financed by the Sultan to pursue his scientific and literary interests. His poetic profile only emerged many years after his death. In fact, some historians doubt the authenticity of many of the poems attributed to him.

The poems gained global recognition in late 19th century after a Britisher, Edward Fitzgerald, received some manuscripts from a friend and put the poems together titling them  “Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.” Rubaiyat is Persian for ‘quatrain’ or four-line stanzas which is the format of Khayyam’s poems. Fitzgerald’s first edition was published in 1859 and did not gain much traction for a few years but became hugely popular thereafter. Fitzgerald followed up with four more editions and over the years, numerous other translators brought out their own versions in various languages but Fitzgerald’s first edition remains the most popular one to this day. In fact, many scholars consider it to be Fitzgerald’s original poetry loosely based on Khayyam’s quatrains. Indeed, Fitzgerald himself admits that he has taken a lot of liberty in his translation.

The mystery about Khayyam abounds. Scholars in the Fitzgerald mould consider Khayyam to be a hedonist and an atheist interested in earthly pleasures such as drinking wine, and assess the Rubaiyat to be simply a love poem. The opposing school of thought disagrees and regards Khayyam to be a deeply religious, Sufi mystic. They interpret a spiritual meaning in his lines and consider that he was, in fact, expressing devotion to his god in the guise of wine. This claim is strengthened by the fact that, in his time, he was respected as a sage.

To say the least, Fitzgerald’s work is superb poetry and enormously alluring. It makes for easy reading and has a musical cadence to it.

I am no scholar and simply enjoy the Rubaiyat without worrying too much about the two opposite schools of thought although I do feel that many of his lines cannot be explained unless they had a deeper meaning rather than purely literal. 

Let me now quote the quatrains that I love.

The Rubaiyat begins with a spectacular depiction of dawn, the awakening of Man: 

“Awake! For morning in the bowl of night,

Has flung the stone that puts the stars to flight:

And lo, the hunter of the East,

Has caught the Sultan’s turret in a noose of light.”

“Dreaming when Dawn’s left hand was in the sky,

I heard a voice within the Tavern cry:

‘Awake, my little ones, and fill the cup,

Before Life’s Liquor in the Cup be dry’.”

If we take this literally, is a barman in the pub exhorting petty-minded humans to wake up and indulge in drinking liquor early in the morning? Or is the Tavern an inner sanctum and the ‘voice’ a deep desire to seek spiritual consciousness and divine joy in life?

This is followed by:

“And as the cock crew, those who stood before

The Tavern shouted-‘Open then the door,

You know how little while we have to stay,

And, once departed, may return no more.’ ”

A theme often reiterated in the Rubaiyat is the transient nature of human life and the futility of ego:

“Think, in this caravanserai,

Whose doorways are alternate Night and Day,

How Sultan after Sultan with his Pomp

Abode his Hour or two, and went his way.”

“The worldly hope men set their hearts upon,

Turns ashes-or it prospers, and anon,

Like snow upon desert’s dusty face,

Lighting a little hour or two, is gone.”

“Oh, come with old Khayyam, and leave the Wise

To talk; one thing is certain, that Life flies,

One thing is certain and the rest is Lies,

The Flower that once has blown, for ever dies.”

Many verses are devoted to the inevitability and irreversibility of Fate; invoking the sun and the moon, stars and planets won’t help. Let’s repeat the one used in “Pandora….”:

“The Moving Finger writes and, having writ,

Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit,

Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,

Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.”

“And that inverted Bowl we call The Sky,

Whereunder crawling coop’t we live and die,

Lift not thy hands to it for help – for it

Rolls impotently on as Thou or I.”

So make the Present happy and be content. Past has already happened and Future is yet to come:

“Ah! Fill the Cup – what boots it to repeat

How Time is slipping underneath our Feet;

Unborn TOMORROW, and dead YESTERDAY,

Why fret about them if TODAY be sweet.”

“Ah, my Beloved, fill the Cup that clears

TODAY of past Regrets and future Fears –

TOMORROW? Why TOMORROW I may be 

Myself with YESTERDAY’s Sev’n THOUSAND YEARS.”

“Ah, make the most of what we yet may spend,

Before we too into the Dust descend;

Dust into Dust, and under Dust to lie,

Sans Wine, sans Song, sans Singer, and – sans End?”

So how do we find inner peace, comfort and happiness? -

“Here with a Loaf of Bread beneath the Bough,

A Flask of Wine, a Book of Verse – and Thou

Beside me in the Wilderness –

And Wilderness is Paradise enow.”

Paramhansa Yogananda, our own spiritual leader of the 20th century, has interpreted 'Bread' as the life-force, 'Wine' as God intoxication, 'Bough' as the spinal tree or centre of the nervous system concentrating on which brings great joy and inner peace, 'A Book of Verse' as inspirations emanating from the heart, 'Thou' as the Cosmic Beloved and 'Wilderness' as inner stillness leading to a state of Paradise.

Towards the end, Khayyam is wistful:

“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!”

TAMAM SHUD (It is done)

RAVI SHARMA....WHO?

Many years ago, there was a naval party in Vishakhapatnam to which a number of civilian dignitaries were invited. A colleague of mine went up to one of them and introduced himself thus, “Good evening, sir. I am …. son-in-law of….”  I recall smirking then at what I thought was a funny way to introduce oneself by throwing in a connection of someone well-known. Over the years, however, I realize that my colleague was right. When I introduce myself to strangers by just my name, their probable reaction is, “Ravi Sharma who? For all I care, you could be Chunni Lal or Ghasita Ram!”

As William Shakespeare famously wrote, “What’s in a name?” By itself, nothing. What matters is that either you are famous yourself or can boast of a connection to someone important so that your name could have some weight. Most of us fall in the latter category. I certainly do. 

My Nanaji was a respected High Court Judge known for his honesty and lucid and well-reasoned judgments. In my younger days, it helped if I told people that I was his grandson. My mother, starting as a long-serving headmistress of a popular girls’ high school in Jaipur and rising to become Director of Sanskrit Education, Rajasthan, had earned recognition all over the state and won many awards. I would proudly proclaim I was her son. Indeed, even today, long after she is gone, I can quote her name in Jaipur and go up a notch or two in people's eyes.

In the Navy, introductions were not necessary as one had to wear a name tally on one’s chest. In fact, one was known more by one’s appointment than by name. For instance, a Captain of a ship would be known by its name; so I was Katchall for some time followed by Trishul.

Nevertheless, I did have connections in the Service. Both my Mamas had joined the Indian Navy in its nascent stage. The number of officers was small and everyone knew everyone else. Long after I retired, I wrote a few ‘middles’ which were published and I received a letter from Admiral Russi Ghandhi saying that he had enjoyed reading them but asking who I was. I replied that I was Cmde Vinnie Sharma’s nephew and he wrote back that coming from that family, I must be an okay guy!

The same connection may not work well with all. Vinnie Mama and an officer  senior to him were together on the training staff at the Joint Services Wing, Clementown, Dehradun. The senior officer thought Vinnie Mama was too flamboyant and did not like him. The individual rose to the rank of Vice Admiral and became Chief of Personnel. Vinnie Mama specifically told me that he should never be told about our relationship. I wonder if the fact became known to him anyway and was one of the reasons for my initial non-selection for Staff College!

Now, though many years after retirement, I thought that in the Navy my name would be recognised. Recently, I asked a friend of mine who knows a serving Vice Admiral well, to request the latter for help in making some arrangements for my visit to Chennai. I quote from the message my friend wrote to the Vice Admiral, “A small request from Cmde RN Sharma, father of well known Economist Ruchir Sharma….” Obviously my name was not enough and the reference must have carried weight because the arrangements exceeded my expectations!

I suffer from no ego and if I am recognised more by my connections than by my name, so be it. There is one time though when I felt things had gone too far. As a bachelor, I had a pet dog named Lucky, a cute, creamish Pomeranian. As a pup, Lucky had fallen from a bed and fractured its right foreleg which gave it a peculiar, prancing gait. It was charming to watch Lucky as it approached you wagging its tail and looking at you with soulful eyes beseeching to be hugged and petted. It was so popular with my friends' kids that they called me not by my name but as “Lucky Uncle” which I thought was a bit much!

Amazingly, while writing this, a poem appeared on my computer screen, “I’m Nobody! Who are you?” by Emily Dickinson. It is eminently suitable to be quoted in this context:

“I’m Nobody! Who are you?

Are you-Nobody-too?

Then there’s a pair of us!

Don’t tell! They’d advertise-you know!

How dreary-to be-Somebody!

How public-like a Frog-

To tell one’s name-the livelong June-

To an admiring Bog!”

P.S. Latest connection: A few weeks back, I have acquired an in-law relationship with the all-time great West Indian cricketer, Vivian Richards and Neena Gupta, the famous actress.