Poetry  |  Omar Khayyam  |  Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam  |  Chapter 4

Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam — Chapter 4 (Part 15 of 19)

LVIII

Oh, Thou, who Man of baser Earth didst make,

And who with Eden didst devise the Snake;

   For all the Sin wherewith the Face of Man

Is blacken’d, Man’s Forgiveness give—and take!

KÚZA-NÁMA

LIX

Listen again. One evening at the Close

Of Ramazán, ere the better Moon arose,

   In that old Potter’s Shop I stood alone

With the clay Population round in Rows.

LX

And, strange to tell, among that Earthen Lot

Some could articulate, while others not:

   And suddenly one more impatient cried—

“Who is the Potter, pray, and who the Pot?”

LXI

Then said another—“Surely not in vain

My Substance from the common Earth was ta’en,

   That He who subtly wrought me into Shape

Should stamp me back to common Earth again.”