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RESPONSES TO OMAR KHAYYAM'S RUBAIYATS-2
Omar Khayyam-5
They say the Lion and the Lizard keep
The Courts where Jamshyd gloried and drank deep:
And Bahram, that great Hunter--the Wild Ass
Stamps o'er his Head, and he lies fast asleep.
Response by Muhammad Naveed Ahmed
Why worry about what was and what is said,
We live and we die and the earth is the bed,
Where our mortal remains are buried, forgotten,
What matters is where the spirit has fled.
Omar Khayyam-6
Come, fill the Cup, and in the fire of Spring
The winter garment of repentance fling:
The bird of time has but a little way
To fly--and Lo! the bird is on the wing.
Response by Muhammad Naveed Ahmed
The blood cup of life gets filled drop by drop,
And then it is absorbed slowly, drop by drop,
All the four seasons blend to give it its taste,
The time bird may fly, my journey doesn't stop.
Omar Khayyam-7
And if the wine you drink, the lip you press,
End in the nothing all things end in - Yes -
Then fancy while thou art, thou art but what
Thou shalt be -- Nothing -- thou shalt not be less.
Response by Muhammad Naveed Ahmed
My drink is wholesome, the lip - it is soft,
In the quest of my beloved my self may be lost,
Why fancy who I am? Why fear what I will be,
It is my Beloved that matters whatever be the cost.
Omar Khayyam-8
Ah! my Beloved, fill the cup that clears
To-day of past regrets and future fears
Tomorrow? -- Why, tomorrow I may be
Myself with yesterday's Sev'n thousand years.
Response by Muhammad Naveed Ahmed
O my Beloved what cause I have for tears,
When You are mine - no regrets, no fears,
In You I find the answer to who I am,
With You every moment is like thousands of years.
Omar Khayyam-9
Myself when young did eagerly frequent
Doctor and saint, and heard great argument
About it and about: but evermore
Came out by the same door as in I went.
Response by Muhammad Naveed Ahmed
I too wasted time with the scholar and the saint,
Seeking much I found nothing and at last I did faint,
Then the door of Divine Love was unlocked for me,
The path to my Beloved led and onward I went.
Omar Khayyam-10
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 its cup be dry."
Response by Muhammad Naveed Ahmed
Dreaming I was not when dawn drew nigh,
And even though to the tavern there went a sigh,
I was drinking the Cup blessed by my Beloved,
And I knew my Divine Cup - it would never be dry.
Omar Khayyam-11
Indeed, the idols I have loved so long
Have done my credit in men's eye much wrong:
Have drown'd my honour in a shallow cup,
And sold my reputation for a song.
Response by Muhammad Naveed Ahmed
I too saw idols, lovely, beautiful to belong,
Somehow I was shown the right from the wrong,
My Beloved saved me and I drank the Divine Drink,
Forever dedicated to my Beloved is my song.
