Quatrain 50

 

افلاک که جز غم  نفزایند دگر 

ننهند به جا تا بربایند دگر 

نا آمدگان اگر بدانند که ما 

از دهر چه می کشیم نایند دگر

Dashti, quatrain 32, p. 249          

 

'aflaak ke joz gham nafazaayand degar

nanhand be jaa taa berbaayand degar

naa  'aamadegaan agar bedaanand ke maa

'az dahr che mi kashim naayand degar 

 

The world above adds nothing but pain

it doesn't give before it takes again.

If the unborn world had ways to know

how this world makes mortals suffer so ...

no others would come to earth again.

 

Heaven multiplies our sorrows day by day,

And grants no joys it does not take away;

If those unborn could know the ills we bear,

What think you, would they rather come or stay?

Whinfield, quatrain 240 

 

Translation & Discussion of the quatrain: 

1.  The celestial bodies/the stars above, which do not add anything except pain 2.   put nothing in place before they take something else away -- other texts, including Dashti's 1st ed, Hedayat, 28, Forughi-Ghani, 101, and Whinfield, 240, negate the verb robaa'idan to read narobaayand/نربایند  instead of berobaayand/بربایند.  The meaning remains the same.  If the not having come ones/the unborn were to know  3.  how we suffer from the world/what we put up with from the world  4.  they would come no more

The following is a quatrain, similar in sentiment, which Ahmad Saidi includes.  Dashti et al.  do not use it, but Nicolas has it -- quatrain 127 (the text is Saidi's): 

 

این چرخ جفاپیشه و عالی بنیاد

 

هر گز گره کار کسی را نگشاد

  

هر جا که دلی دید که داغی دارد

 

داغ دگری بر سرآن داغ نهاد

 

'in charkh-e jafaapishe wo 'aali bonyaad

har gez gereh-e kaar-e kasi raa nagoshaad

har jaa ke deli did ke daaghi daarad

daagh-e degari bar sar-e 'aan daagh nehaad 

 

This ruthless Wheel that makes so great a show,

Unravels no one's knot, shares no one's woe;

But when it sights a wounded, weary heart,

It hurries on to strike another blow!

Saidi, quatrain 139 

 

A tack to take, if one can, is to get what you can while here, as in this previously posted quatrain (11 ):

بر چشم  تو عالم ارچه  می آرایند

مگرای  بدان  که عاقلان نگرایند

 

بسیار چو تو  روند و بسیار آیند

 

بِربای نصیب خویش  کت  بِربایند

    source, Dashti 66, p. 255 (& Forughi 69)
 

bar cheshm-e to aalam ar che mi aaraayand

magraay bedaan ke aaqelaan nagraayand

besyaar cho to ravand o besyaar aayand

berbaay nasib-e khish kat berbaayand

  

Though they bedeck the world to catch your eyes,

Be tempted not as never are the wise;

so many like you come, so many go--

You'd better get your share before life flies.

Saidi, quatrain 111

 

A few khayyamic things to hold to and to seek: confidence in the knowledge which one innately possesses, wine, love, simple living.