History of Persian Literature

-Old Persian- 522 BCE

(Achaemenid inscription)
-Islamic Conquest of Persia- 633 BCE
-Sasanid State
-Sasanian Empire- Sasanian Dynasty
 scribes and/or bureaucrats
-Persians wrote in both Persian (Farsi)
& Arabic
Persian Writing

OLD PERSIAN
 Persian Poetry
-form of ―rubai” (quatrains)

SAADI HAFEZ OMAR

SHIRAZI KHAYYAM
RUBAIYAT OF OMAR
KHAYYAM
Background
 Author: Omar Khayyam (1048-1122)
-a Persian
Mathematician, philosopher, astronomer
and poet
 Translator: Edward FitzGerald
(1809-1883)
- an English poet and writer
-made five editions of Omar
Khayyam’s Rubaiyat
-first published in 1859
SUMMARY
 Subject: Life and Death
 Theme: Carpe Diem (Seize the Day)
3rd rubai
And, as the Cock crew, those who stood
before
The Tavern shouted – "Open then the
Door!
You know how little while we have to
stay, And once departed, may
return no more."
25th rubai
Ah, make the most of what we yet
may spend, Before we too into
the Dust descend;
Dust into Dust, and under Dust to
lie,
Sans Wine, sans Song, sans
Singer, and — sans End!
STRUCTURE
 Alliteration
1st rubai
1- AWAKE! for Morning in the Bowl of
Night
2 - Has flung the Stone that puts
the Stars to Flight:
3 - And Lo! the Hunter of the East has
caught
4 - The Sultan's Turret in a Noose of
Light
 4th rubai

1 - Now the New Year reviving old

Desires.
2 - The thoughtful Soul to Solitude
retires,
3 - Where the White Hand Of Moses
on the Bough
4 - Puts out, and Jesus from the
Ground suspires.
Internal Rhyme
68th rubai

1 - For in and out, above, about, below,

2 - 'Tis nothing but a Magic Shadow-
show,
3 - Play'd in a Box whose Candle is
the Sun,
4 - Round which we Phantom Figures
come and go.
 64th rubai

1 - Strange, is it not? that of the Myriads

who
2- Before us pass'd the Door of
Darkness through
3 - Not one returns to tell us of
the Road,
4 - Which to discover we must
travel too.
Extreme Contrast
 8th rubai
1 - Whether at Naishapur or Babylon,
2 - Whether the Cup
with sweet or bitter run,
3 - The Wine of Life keeps oozing drop
by drop,
4 - The Leaves of Life keep falling one
by one.
 18th rubai
1 - Think, in this batter'd Caravanserai
2 - Whose Doorways are
alternate Night and Day,
3 - How Sultan after Sultan with his
Pomp
4 - Abode his Hour or two and went his
way.
ANALYSIS
 Symbolism
-HEAVEN- fulfilled
desire
-HELL- soul on fire
67th rubai
Heav'n but the Vision of fulfill'd Desire,
And Hell the Shadow of a Soul on fire,
Cast on the Darkness into which
Ourselves,
So late emerg'd from, shall so soon
expire.
WINE symbolizes the
water of life

43rd rubai
And if the wine you drink, the Lip you
press
End in what All begins and ends in — Yes;
Think then you are today what yesterday
you were —
Tomorrow you shall not be less.
36th rubai

Then to the Lip of this poor earthen urn

I lean’d the Secret of my Life to learn
And Lip to Lip it murmur’d – “While you
live, “Drink! –
For once dead you never shall return
 MOVING FINGER
-symbolizes fate/destiny

70th rubai
The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a
Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word
of it.
END. Mamnoon!
(Thank you)