As I have mentioned before, Khayyam's references to wine and the grape has caused considerable controversy among those reading The Rubaiyat. Is he referring to wine or as others insist, is the wine a symbol for grace? Is it a religious symbol? This quatrain does not help either side, for it can be read as simply referring to wine or grace.
First Edition: Quatrain LV
The Vine had struck a Fibre; which about
If clings my Being--let the Sufi flout;
Of my Base Metal may be filed a Key,
That shall unlock the Door he howls without.
Second Edition: LXXXII
The Vine had struck a fibre: which about
If clings my being--let the Dervish flout;
Of my Base metal may be filed a Key,
That shall unlock the Door he howls without.
Fifth Edition: LXXVI
The Vine had struck a fibre: which about
If clings my being--let the Dervish flout;
Of my Base metal may be filed a Key,
That shall unlock the Door he howls without.
For the most part, FitzGerald made only minor changes. "Fibre" begins with an uppercase "F" in the first edition which is changed to lower case in subsequent editions. The same change occurs to "Being" and with "Metal."
The second change is a word change; "Sufi" in the first edition becomes "Dervish" in the second and the fifth versions. Sufism is the inner, mystical aspect of Islam. It's followers turn away from the material world and focus solely on the Divine, just as the mystics of Judaism, Christianity, and Buddhism, for example. A dervish would be a follower of Sufism who use whirling dances and chanting as a way of gaining a mystic state in their worship of the Divine. The "howling without" seems to be a sarcastic reference to the chanting which is one of the practices of the dervishes.
Just a random thought here--that vine that clings to his body--strikes me as being almost snake-like, perhaps a reference to the Snake in the Garden of Eden. This could refer to alcohol, for during the 19th century, the temperance movement began, and especially attacked "demon rum" as being the root of the evils afflicting the lower classes and the cause of their poverty.
In alchemy, base metals are those which are common, inexpensive, and easily corroded. Iron, nickel, lead, zinc, and copper would be examples of base metals. "Noble metals" are the opposite, and they include gold and silver. One of the tasks of alchemists was finding a way of turning base metals into noble metals. The most common example would be turning lead into gold.
In the last two lines of the quatrain, therefore, wine, or grace perhaps, has transmuted the common elements of his body into something which could be turned into a key that would open the door to the mystic experiences that the sufi or dervish desires. This could refer back to a previous quatrain, XXXII, which also speaks of a key.
There was a Door to which I found no Key:
There was a Veil past which I could not see:
Some little Talk awhile of Me and Thee
There seem'd--and then no more of Thee and Me.
In this quatrain, and previous quatrains, he has been inquiring of various teachers, saints, and mystics for the key to the door but obviously has failed. Now, it seems he himself, transmuted by wine, is the key. This, of course, is clearly in the vein of mystical thinking that stretches from England all the way to Japan. The Divine is within oneself. To go looking for the Divine in some other place is a waste of time.
It seems, therefore, that he has succeeded in his quest where others using different methods have failed. If it is wine, then the poet seems to suggest that all study and religious practices are useless. Wine is much easier and much more successful in producing an ecstatic state. If the wine is really Divine grace, then those who strive for the ecstatic state are wasting their time for the secret is within them--all they have to do is look.
.
No comments:
Post a Comment