گویند که فردوس برین خواهد بود
وانجا می ناب و حورِعین خواهد بود
گر ما می و معشوق گزیدیم چه باک
چون عاقبت کار چنین خواهد بود
Dashti, quatrain 53, p. 253 , 5th ed.
guyand ke fardows-e barin khaahad bud
vanjaa mey-e naab o hur-e ‘in khaahad bud
gar maa mey o ma‘shuq gozidim che baak
chon ‘aaqebat-e kaar chonin khaabad bud
They say: "There will be Paradise Supreme
where wine is pure and houris reside."
If we take wine and lovers here
why should we bother, what to fear?
The pleasures we seek in the here and now
are just the ones we'll enjoy up there.
گویند بهشت و حورِعین خواهد بود
وانجا می و شیر و انگبین خواهد بود
گر ما می و معشوق گزیدیم رواست
چون عاقبت کار چنین خواهد بود
Dashti, quatrain 35, 1st ed.
guyand behesht o hur-e ‘in khaahad bud
vanjaa mey o shir o angabin khaahad bud
gar maa mey o ma‘shuq gozidim ravaast
chon ‘aaqebat-e kaar chonin khaahad bud
They say: "Paradise will have large-eyed beauties
and wine will be there, milk and honey too."
If we take wine and lovers here
to us that only seems seems right;
since what we'll find when we reach there
is what we're having on earth.
The composition of the second quatrain (Dashti's first edition) is similar to Forughi-Ghani (87) and Hedaayat (88) - Whinfield as well (185). Here is Elwell-Sutton's translation of Dashti's quatrain 35. The same text apparently appeared in his second edition, which Elwell-Sutton uses. At some point Dashti must have settled on the quatrain first quoted here (quatrain 53, my fifth edition):
They say there will be lovely maids in Heaven,
And wine as well, and milk, and honey sweet.
Then we are right to seek out wine and beauty,
For these are planned for us in that life too.
Elwell-Sutton, In Search of Omar Khayyam, quatrain 53, p. 196
They say "In Heaven Houris come to greet,
And rivers flow with honey pure and sweet."
'Tis meet we worship then our wife and wine,
For in the end with wife and wine we meet.
Govinda Tirtha, X. 85
(in the third line, in stead of gozidim, "we choose" or "take"
Tirtha has parastim, پرستیم, "we worship")
Translation & Discussion of the quatrain: Reading this quatrain I think of Mark Twain, who quipped in reference to piety and suppression of pleasures, that if there is so much to enjoy in Heaven, why should mankind forswear all earthly pleasures. Mehdi Aminrazavi (pp. 245-246) remarks ... 'it is not surprising that he [Twain] found in Khayyam what FitzGerald had found earlier - a familiar voice of discontent and a refusal to give in to the urge to make sense of it all.'
1. They say there will be Paradise above/on high/supreme/majestic - ke introduces indirect speech which I have made direct. برین, barin is an adjective, whose -in suffix is akin to other adjectives denoting position or time such as avvalin, "first." It can be simply "high" or it can be used "superlatively" = "highest" 2. And there will be pure wine and houris with large-eyes - hur-e ‘in. hur is literally "white", a plural of the adjectives, ahwar (masc.) and hawraa' (fem) -- the "white ones" -- here feminine plural of course to designate houris who will have lovely white skin and the whites of their eyes will contrast with black irises; ‘in is feminine plural (the singular is eynan), women with large, lovely eyes. This construction can be understood as two nouns, grammatically joined but coordinate in meaning, hur, women with pale skin and white eyes and ‘in, women with beautiful large eyes. Or ‘in can be an adjective qualifying hur -- "women with pale skin and white eyes having large and beautiful eyes" (see farhang-e bozorg-sokhan, 5.5133). I prefer the latter and would welcome viewer-comments. Three times at least the phrase appears in the Qur'an: 44.54, 52.20, 56.22. The Qur'an likely furnishes the pattern for Persian hur-e ‘in. This "formula" is like a Homeric epithet, I am thinking of "ox-eyed", boôpis (βοῶπις), beautiful, large eyes, a formula reminding the reader to visualize paradisal and beautiful maidens with large eyes of a sharp, black-white contrast. 3. If we choose wine and sweethearts what worry/fear (should there be)? 4. since the end product will be like this -- this means the same there as we propose doing/are doing here on earth. عاقبت کار, ‘aaqebat-e kaar is idiomatic, like the English idiom, "in the final analysis" or "at the end of the day"