RUBAIYAT

After Fitzgerald
"At this time Arabic had become the classical language of learning, and Arabic writings carried the prestige which formerly and afterwards was given to Greek. In the eleventh century the poet Omar Khayyam did important algebraic work, but by the end of that century a decline of Arabic and Muslim learning had set in."
( "A Shorter History of Science" by Sir William Cecil Dampier )

"Alas that spring should vanish wih the rose"-
You know the joy a perfect bloom bestows?
Then gently pluck the stalk with skill and care
First to discover where the prickle grows.

For they who pluck at roses by the bloom
For decoration of a living room
Will find the petal's delicacy crushed
And wander homeward lost in winter's gloom.

Who reaps the field while yet the corn is green
Will bring a blight upon the coming scene,
Unborn tomorrow dying for today
The golden harvest land will stay unseen!

'Tis well reclining underneath the bough
With one beside to sooth thy troubled brow,
But some did write the verse and tread the wine
That wilderness be paradise enow!

JMT 1946