Today's Beautiful Gem: Five Rubaiyats of Omar Khayyam
translated by Edward Fitzgerald

"A Book of Verses underneath the Bough,
A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread-- and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness--
Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow!

"There was the Door to which I found no Key;
There was the Veil through which I might not see:
Some little talk awhile of ME and THEE
There was-- and then no more of THEE and ME.

"Oh threats of Hell and Hopes of Paradise!
One thing at least is certain-- 'This' Life flies;
One thing is certain and the rest is Lies;
The Flower that once has blown forever dies.

"The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it.

"After a momentary silence spake
Some Vessel of a more ungainly Make;
"They sneer at me for leaning all awry:
"What! did the hand then of the Potter shake?""

Om Santih! Peace! - J. K. Mohana Rao

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