The Other Khayyam

Been to twist n tales... our own neighborhood bookstore and enjoyed an hour there..
came across a classic ...life n work of Omar Khayyam...his work"rubaiyat" (four liners)..first I thought is this the music director of the classic 'Umrao Jaan' ... but no .. this happened to be a century older... a poet who pushed the boundaries of mysticism, existentialism, nihilism...

These few lines got stuck as I flipped through..

"Since neither truth nor certitude is at hand
Why waste your life in doubt for a fairyland
O Let us grab the goblet of wine
for, drunk or sober, in ignorance we stand"

The guy was not just a poet but happened to be a versatile human being ..a scientist,mathematician, astronomer...deeply inclined towards the doctrines of Sufism but never confined himselves into a single doctrine... ..the book have higher linguistic analytical stuff on his style or writng..
things like "Ontological indeterminism"... that mean Khayyam used to use the words even outside the periphery of the commonly understood meaning and context.. "daayra" ... one of my favorite Urdu word..

would have been a good a buy..wanted to give in to the impulse...thought unless I read his poetry myself and let it sink, no point in reading the second hand interpretations... So saved it for the days with luxury of time and deeper pockets!!

O Soulmate !

O soulmate, of denied existence
let me find my soul first
the glass shoe I'll then take around
from city palace to that remote hut

As I look for you all around
Its more a search of lost self
somewhere within and without
a mute perfection waiting to prevail

Handful of salt thrown either way
safe shores, see'em all receding away
the pain and the pleasure of love labor
realm unseen unknown, into we both sway