Wednesday, July 6, 2016

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam: Second Edition, Quatrain LXVIII

This is another of the quatrains that Edward FitzGerald added to the Second Edition of his version of the Rubaiyat.  It's a familiar theme, one brought out previously and linked to the quatrain preceding this one.



SECOND EDITION:  QUATRAIN LXVIII

The Revelations of Devout and Learn'd
Who rose before us, and as Prophets burn'd,
    Are all but Stories, which, awoke from Sleep
They told their fellows, and to Sleep return'd.




FIFTH EDITION: QUATRAIN LXV

The Revelations of Devout and Learn'd
Who rose before us, and as Prophets burn'd,
    Are all but Stories, which, awoke from Sleep,
They told their comrades, and to Sleep return'd.



Aside from the comma added at the end of line three and the change from "fellows" to "comrades,"  the Fifth Edition is identical to the Second.  The comma may simply be a correction wherein the printer missed it in the Second Edition.   Perhaps there is an emotional connection to others suggested by "comrades" and possibly lacking in "fellows" is the reason for the change.   I do not see that it makes any great change in the overall point of the quatrain.

Those "Revelations" refer back to the previous quatrain, to the claims of what lies ahead for us after death.  As the Poet has mentioned in previous quatrains, nobody really knows what follows, if anything, death. That those "Stories" are told after the Devout and Learn'd Prophets have awakened from sleep suggest that they may simply be dreams.  But, the wide-spread acceptance of these Stories tells us that many people prefer dreams to uncertainty.

6 comments:

  1. or even that most people prefer dreams to reality... although they do it without being conscious of it, in most cases... Khayyam's brief poems are illustrative of the possible depth present in small literary doses. haiku are the same way: sometimes the lucidity of a single thought can spin out a host of ancillary considerations that may reveal unforeseen awakenings... fun stuff...

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    1. Mudpuddle,

      To reality? Yes, I will go along with you there.

      I agree with you here also: many of my posts that got the highest number of comments and replies were those with haiku or other short poems or a very brief quotation (a sentence or two or three). Perhaps it is the narrow focus o a single idea that would get lost in a longer entry.

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  2. And what of dreams and surmises by someone not Devout or Learned? Are we dependent upon the prophecies of the Devout and Learned? But I see, unless I misread things, that the prophecies are but (merely)stories, which may or may not guarantee either reliability or usefulness. And I circle back to my first two sentences. 'Tis all worth pondering, and you've nearly baited the hook sufficiently for me to pursue my own reading of the Rubaiyat. Well, nearly.

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  3. R.T.,

    The dreams and surmises of politicians, various pundits, and others are stories that are as "reliable" as those of the devout and learned, or so I think.

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  4. Great analysis of this verse.

    It also makes me think of the transitory nature of life. What seems like important ideas all give way to sleep.

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    1. Brian Joseph,

      Yes, that theme is very prevalent in the Rubaiyat. We emerge, are awake (more or less), and then go back to sleep (forever).

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