Snippets of Love

A friend had a piece up on her Facebook page this morning that i think i might put as a quote i love on my Facebook page. It had this illustration with it but i don't know who to credit it to. 

“When the wave realizes its part of the ocean, the resistance to change disappears.”

Thict Nhat Hanh

If I confide my secrets
to you in a bar,
it is far better than to pray
without you in
a house of worship.
You are the alpha and omega;
without you everything is nothing.
If you wish, you can
sentence us to hell,
and if you wish, you can
decide to cherish us.
Translated by Juan Cole
from Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat, [pdf] Whinfield 262/ Arberry 1949

Years ago my mother gave me a book called The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Inside her friend who had given her the book wrote.

“Greatest of all forms of wealth is the wealth of kindness,

Material goods are riches to fools only.”

Indian Proverb

The book was copyrighted in 1938 and is filled with plates of embellished illustrations. Unfortunately my mother pressed a rose the friend had given her in the book and ruined a plate. She left a note apologizing for her mistake as it went through several pages. But the messages remain.

i take the book out sometimes and read snippets, think about my mom and cherish Khayyams poetry. Omar liked a good glass of wine and a lot of his poetry reflects upon that.

I know the outside
of being and nothingness,
and I know the inside
of the high and the low.
Even so, I should be ashamed
of all my knowledge
if I knew of any higher status
than drunkenness.
Translated by Juan Cole
from Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat, [pdf] Whinfield 336

i think Omar liked to drink way more than i do but i can appreciate his reverence for a good glass of wine.

Juan Cole who writes a political blog about the Middle East also cherishes his poetry and has been translating some that he publishes at his site. i've put a few of them up here and close with one in my mom's book.

In this life, all those who have

half a piece of bread
and a resting place
in which to nest;
who are neither servants
nor masters of others–
let them rejoice,
for their world is a happy one.
Translated by Juan Cole
from Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat, [pdf] Whinfield 168

The elite and lofty crowd who
hold exalted office
are disgusted at the life of
grief and bother that they suffer.
But when they consider the ones who,
unlike them, are not the
prisoners of high ambition–
the amazing thing is that they do not
even reckon them as human.
Translated by Juan Cole
from Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat, [pdf] Whinfield 153

This poem i love the most.

Into this Universe, and why not knowing,
Not whence, like Water willy-nilly flowing:
And out of it, as Wind along the Waste,
I know not whither, willy-nilly blowing.

Translated by Edward Fitzgerald from Omar Khayyam's Rubaiyat

If the United States were able to develop a viable electric car and reliable renewables to power our electric grids it would take our focus off the gulf region. We would no longer care what they did for we wouldn't have to protect access to resources. Geopolitically that area of the world would become irrelevant and we could begin to love them again.

See ya next week.