Quatrain 1

دوری که در آن آمدن و رفتن ماست

آن را نه بدايت نه نهايت پيداست

کس می نزند* دمی در اين معنی راست

کاين آمدن از کجا و رفتن به کجاست

source, دمی با خيام /Dami baa khayyam, Ali Dashti, 5th ed., quatrain 1, p. 244 [hereafter, "Dashti"]

dowri ke dar aan aamadan o raftan-e maast

aan raa na bedaayat na nehaayat peydaast

kas mi nazanad dami dar in ma'ni raast

kin aamadan az kojaa o raftan be kojaast

We come and we go, this cycle keeps spinning,

no start no finish is found within it.

 Not a whimper is heard on what matters most,

where coming comes from, where going finds ending.

The sphere upon which mortals come and go,

Has no end nor beginning that we know;

And none there is to tell us in plain truth:

Whence do we come and whither do we go.

Ahmad Saidi, quatrain 75

Translation & Discussion of the quatrain: 1. The circle in which is that coming and going of ours 2. Of it neither beginning nor ending is/has been found - for aan raa, see W.M. Thackston, An Introduction to Persian, 3rd ed. revised, Iranbooks, Inc., 1993, 197-198 and Gernot L. Windfuhr, Persian Grammar: History and State of its Study, Mouton, The Hague, 1979, 49. Both note this classical usage for the -raa "dative" marker.  The term "dative" --  the word is the Latin translation of the Greek dotikê, "giving"; in Latin grammar the "dative(case)" denotes a noun/pronoun construction or "case" of reference -- reference to whom or to what the idea of the main verb relates. Here the reference has a possessive flavor: neither its beginning nor its ending has been discovered. Windfuhr cites 'a famous example': mard-i-raa do pesar budand - 'a man had two sons' 3. No one speaks on this issue rightly -- here dami zadan = sohbat kardan; Dashti has می نزند in his first edition and in this 5th edition as well on page 137, but here he has می زند ; this is likely a typographical error since می زند doesn't work metrically 4. Saying/Explaining where this coming is from and where the going is to -- here the function of ke (+-in) is to pose a question, as above, 'saying...'

Comments

[L. Daniels]

Would you consider grouping quatrains by type (love, death, what's it all about, etc)? You could then further separate these quatrains by the subtle distinctions within these types.

[Site Owner]

I will take your comment into account --I am now trying to make a plan for the continuation from quatrain 21 on. I would like to cover most of the quatrains 'agreed upon' by Dashti, Hedayat and Forughi-Ghani (as well as Ahmad Saidi).

[Site Owner]

This was first entered under Quatrain 19 and Site Owner has also included it here.

Administrator's apologies to ZT who posted this comment on September 4,2010 (which I have inadvertently deleted and cannot seem to retrieve but printed and give below):

"Congratulations on a very nice site.
I'm interested to know what you think of this book:
http://books.google.com/books?id=eNYLAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false
This seems to use a different Persian manuscript which I can't completely link up with the one you have used. Is the Dashti source that you have used available anywhere online? (Forgive my ignorance - I'm new to this)."

[Site Owner]

ZT, I have been using "Edward FitzGerald’s Rubâ’iyât of Omar Khayyâm with their Original Persian Sources," Bernard Quaritch, London ,1899 in which Edward Heron-Allen doesn't follow the Bodleian MS layout as he does in the work you have cited which is a translation, facsimile, text and notes of the 158 quatrains in this MS. Unfortunately I don't have access to my copy and will not for a while so I cannot look into this further or try to collate for you. Perhaps you can find my source online.
I thank you for again making me aware of this 1898 'Bodleian edition' of Heron-Allen.

I don't believe the Dashti is available online.

Thank you for your kind comments. I am also fairly new at this myself and have left it alone the last year or so for Hafez.

[ZT]

Thanks, again! Yes, the Edward Heron-Allen 1899 book you mention is available online:

http://books.google.com/books?id=nDZkAAAAMAAJ&dq=Fitzgerald&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false

(and download-able as a PDF thanks to Google)

Thank you again for putting together a great site.

[Site Owner]

And thank you again, ZT. I have added the links you have provided for both Heron-Allen texts in my Bibliography under 'Primary Texts.'
BR