[1354] Ah, Love! Could Thou and I with Fate Conspire

Guest poem sent in by Nitesh Dixit <nitesh9up@>

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!

 	-- Omar Khayyam

	  (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

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From: Steve Chernicoff <chernico@>

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     |
|     chernico@     | And know the place for the first time. |
|                             |                                        |
=======================================================================

From: Nitesh Dixit <nitesh9up@>

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