این کوزه چو من عاشق زاری بوده است
در بند سر زلف نگاری بوده است
این دسته که بر گردن وی میبینی
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 vey mibini
dastist ke dar gardan-e yaari budast
A love 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 tht 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 merry-make: and the cold Lip I kiss'd,
How many Kisses might it take—and give!
FitzGerald, stanza XXXV, 1st ed
This jar was once a gallant Tsar, I swear,
Who laid so eclipsed by his lady's hair;
Ah! even now the handle at his neck
Is ever curling round to clasp—the air!
Govinda Tirtha, V.19
Translation & Discussion of the quatrain: 1. This jug like me was a lover distraught/wasting away -- zaar has both meanings. Tirtha may have been invited by the sound to write Tsar! 2. It was chained to the tresses of some beauty -- dar band-e sar-e zolf-e negaari is a fastening of no escape. As in Yeats, where the speaker succumbs to love ("Brown Penny"); I am looped in the loops of her hair ... 3. This handle you see on its neck -- وی , vey, is the 3rd person pronoun او , u. 4. Is the hand which was on the neck of a sweetheart.
There is little variation in the texts of Forughi-Ghani and Hedaayat
Aminrezavi (118) quotes Saidi's translation, which he introduces by saying: "Khayyam uses the imagery of a jug to expound upon the phenomenon of death, perhaps because the clay from which a jug is made symbolizes recycled bodies of our ancestors" (see also Quatrain 14 in this weblog). He continues: "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 as does this quatrain attributed to Khayyaam.
This jug once lived as lover distraught,
tress-bound like me to some sweetheart.
See how her neck the handle conjoins,
hand on the neck of the one he loved