Quatrain 43

 

این کوزه چو من عاشق زاری بوده است

 

در بند سر زلف  نگاری  بوده است

 

این دسته که بر گردن وی می بینی

 

دستی است که در گردن یاری بوده است

Dashti, quatrain 44, p. 252 

 

'in kuze cho man 'aasheq-e zaari budast 

dar band-e sar-e zolf-e negaari budast

'in daste ke bar gardan-e vay mi bini

dastist ke dar gardan-e yaari budast

 

A lover like me was this jug, in snare

Of beauty's tousled tresses long and fair;

The handle 'round its neck you see was once

The hand that fondly twined her lovely hair. 

Saidi, quatrain 99

 

The jug did once, like me, love's sorrows taste,

And bonds of beauty's tresses once embraced,

This handle, which you see upon its side,

Has many a time twined round a slender waist!

Whinfield, quatrain 32 

 

I think the Vessel, that with fugitive

Articulation answer'd, once did live,

And drink: and Ah! the passive Lip I kiss'd,

How many Kisses might it take--and give!

FitzGerald, stanza 36, 5th ed. 

 

Translation & Discussion of the quatrain: 

1.   This jug like me was a lover distraught  2.  It was chained to the tresses of some beauty --   در بند,  dar band-e (sar-e zolf-e negaari), suggests a fastening there's no escape from.  I think of Yeat's  'looped in the loops of her hair'   3.  This  handle you see on its neck   4.  Is the hand which was on the neck of a sweetheart

There is very little variation in the texts of Dashti, Forughi-Ghani and Hedayat. 

Aminrazavi (118) quotes Saidi's translation above, which he introduces by saying: 'Khayyam uses the imagery of a jug to exp0und upon the phenomenon of death, perhaps because the clay from which a jug is made symbolizes recycled bodies [see also quatrain  14 in this weblog].  Yet the primary function of a jug is to contain water which itself is the symbol of life':   FitzGerald's rendition superbly expresses life and death in this quatrain attributed to Khayyam.

 

This jug once lived a lover distraught
and like me tress-bound to some sweetheart.
See how jug handle conforms to jug neck,
 hand on the neck of someone he loved.