Las Vegas daily optic. [volume] (Las Vegas, N.M.) 1880-1908, 1904-01-16
sEAcoM LioHT OF HISTORY.
TrIbulations and Triumphs that Mark
cd the Career Of o. khayyam.
tFrom the Milwaukee Sentinel.)


from the Milwaukee Sentinel.)
Omar Khayyam, editor Of the "Ru-
baiyat" and THE Face on the Bar
room Floor" was born in Naishapur.
Persia, in the latter part Of the elev-
enth century, at q time when goods
mixed drinks and poets were com.
paratively scarce.
Omar, although a poet Of the first
water, found it necessary to adopt a
trade as a means Of livelihood, for
the reason that poetry brought even
less in those days than It does now.
The average Persian was too busy
with his harem quarrels and wine
bouts to read and digest verse. and
Omar, realizing this, became a tent
maker, with a fair knowledge Of the
business and a union card countersign-
ed by Kkjhaiobadj Khorrannaijat,
walking delegate.
During his leisure moments Omar
dearly loved to shake his tent making
comrades, HE himself to the shade OF
q spreading chestnut tree, lick up q
few flagons of wine, and write qua.
trains bearing on the fine bouquet,
flavor and age of the wet goods ne
SO highly priced. These verses, beau
tiful though they were in the original
Pension, would scarcely be apprecl-
ated in modern times and among En-
glish speaking people. In Persia,
they resembled pi lines and sounded
like a bunch Of inebriates shaking
dice. For the benefit Of indulgent
readers We print below n OF the
original stanzas and the translation
In English.
Kiai, khoran, pkjlom, ~ Hjoirat
Gihoklm khairrasset, faikjoramaht.
Ypsilanti k~haikobnd I Jhamshyc
0kkh.
Heinekabucchler, fIjelfre Ruffonrat
Strange, is il not, that as We sfp the
Wine
And round the lamp posts in abandon
Irvine
our supple Limbs. we do not realtze
That we have come in.Contacl Will q
shine.
Omar found great difficulty N dls'
posing Of his poems tor a cash consia'
erait0u ms Youths Companion was
then unknown, and the newspapers
refused to print verse of any descrlp'
ton, except on the sporting page
where Omar's pride would not allow
him to spread his wares.
Finding that genius was a mighty
slim asset, he gradually dropped
away from the MUSES., and began Wit
ing ads for patent medicine firms and
whisky houses. His intimate knoWi
edge of fermented liquors proved o.
great assistance to him in this ven
ture. and and he accumulated wealtI
very rapidly.
In 11l3 A. ID. Mr.. Khayyam accept
ed the editorship Of the Mornlnt
ykhijlmnopxkyz, a trade journal de
voted to the interest Of tent manu-
facturers, and shortly afterward was
shot by an irate subscriber whom ne
had been dunning p~ersistently. Cen
turtles after, his poems were transiat
ed into our language by a poet nance
Fitzgerald, who realized from then
the gold that Omar could never gel
The tidings of his death caused
great sorrow among his employers
III good tentmakkrs We're rathe'
scarce. and one of them wrote the tol
lowing lines in memoriam:
Gone, and forever! whittier no on
knows;
Each dear companion. when his coli
he blows
Across The bar. viii drop q silen
tear
For Deathless Omar, lover OF III
Rose.
8s.s y
!,
This. only do we know His friend
he left,
And. as a consequence, we are berel
or one who had a great capacity
Who could convey a load Of wondrot
heft!
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