Iman Motlaq Arani's essay 'Saying Yes to Life in the Poetry of Khayyam'

The sage Abū al-Fatḥ Ghiyāth al-Dīn ʿUmar ibn Ibrāhīm Khayyām, born in the fifth century AH in a town called Lūkar, opened his eyes upon the world. It is said that the name “Khayyām” derives from his ancestral trade, which was tent-making, and he himself, in the introduction to his book (Algebra), introduces himself as Khayyāmī or al-Khayyāmī; the epithet Khayyām is apparently only his pen name in his poetry, as for example he writes in a hemistich, “Khayyām, if you are drunk with wine, be merry.” The sage Khayyām was among the foremost of his age in astronomy, and it is said that he built an observatory during the time of Malik-Shāh the Seljuk and also made reforms to the Jalālī calendar. From him, who had a complete command of nearly all the sciences of his time, including jurisprudence, principles of jurisprudence, astronomy, the sciences of eloquence and rhetoric, philosophy, medicine, mathematics, and so on, fifteen works have survived, which are as follows: 1- Treatise on Algebra (which it is said he wrote when he was only twenty-three years old) 2- Treatise on the Explanation of the Difficulties in the Postulates of Euclid’s Book 3- Malik-Shāhī Zīj 4- Treatise on Physics 5- Necessities of Places 6- A Treatise on Being and Obligation 7- Treatise on Existence 8- A Booklet in the Persian Language 9- Treatise on the Balance of Wisdom 10- A Treatise on Form and Contradiction in Answer to Three Questions of Philosophy 11- Translation of Ibn Sīnā’s Sermon 12- Nowrūznāma 13- Treatise of Niẓām al-Mulk Concerning Governance, and finally two other works of which little more than their names remain. As expected from the subject of this writing, Khayyām is regarded here solely as a poet, although through the interpretation of his verses we will also enter into his philosophical dimension. The principal foundation of Khayyām’s poetry is reflection and thought upon the concept of human temporality, his being-in-the-world, and ultimately human death. A death that is the most certain possibility before us, which defines the dimension of our temporality and perishability as a being in the earthly realm. In his poetry, Khayyām explicates time as the “present moment,” which he indicates in his verses with the two words “ḥāl” (present) and “dam” (moment). Of course, this does not mean that Khayyām pays no attention to the course of time, as he writes, “Drink wine, for Time is a treacherous foe”; rather, in his belief, one should not be anxious about tomorrow and yesterday, for we know neither the cause of our creation in this world, “It was not made clear why in the clay-house of joy / The eternal painter adorned me,” nor of our tomorrow, “Today you have no access to tomorrow, / And the thought of your tomorrow is nothing but madness.” So, since it is neither this nor that, “Do not waste this moment if your heart is not mad with love, / For the value of this remaining life cannot be found.” Or in a more complete poem he says, “These one or two or three days, the turn of life has passed, / Like water in the stream and like wind over the plain. / Never did the sorrow of two days come to my mind: / The day that has not yet come and the day that has passed.” In one respect, Khayyām’s position on death can also be understood from the heart of his concept of time, and one can judge that, influenced by Epicurus, he believes that as long as I am, death is not, and when death comes, I am no more; therefore, one should not spend the present moment in thinking of death and fearing death. “We are, and a moment, and a minstrel, and this ruined corner; / Soul and heart and cup and garment all pawned for wine; / Free from hope of mercy and fear of torment; / Free from earth and wind and fire and water.” But this being free from what will come, in Khayyām’s thought, does not imply that one should therefore live as if one will live forever; rather, exactly the opposite: while he says one must say yes to life, seize the present moment, and enjoy it, one must also be aware of one’s own temporality and mortality. “That palace where Jamshīd took the cup in hand, / The gazelle gives birth and the fox takes rest there. / Bahrām, who hunted wild asses all his life, / See how the grave hunted Bahrām.” Or he says, “This old caravanserai which is called the world, / And is the resting place of the piebald steed of dawn and dusk, / Is a banquet left behind by a hundred Jamshīds, / Is a palace that was the leaning place of a hundred Bahrāms.” Or, “Before you and me, there were many nights and days; / The revolving firmament, too, was at some work. / Wherever you set foot upon the earth, / It is the pupil of some beloved’s eye.” And finally, the ethical message Khayyām gives us is this: “Since the mixture of your humors is to your desire for a moment, / Go, live joyfully, even if there is oppression upon you. / Be with the people of wisdom, for the origin of your body / Is dust and breeze and mist and a moment.”

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Saying Yes to Life in the Poetry of Khayyam

Author: Iman Motlaq Arani

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