Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-07-21
.135 MORE VERSES
OF RUBA|YAT FOUND
Volume at Oxford Alone Is
Older Than One in Cal
cutta Bookshop.

underneath the bough with loaf of
bread and thermos bottle of-well,
lemonade--may be the product Of the
discovery in a Calcutta book shop of
an early volume of Omar Khayysm's
Rubaiyat containing l35 more quatrains
than Fitzgerald translated
Only the volume in the Bodletan
Library at oxford is older than the
newly found illustrated manuscript
which, according to news from India,
bears the date 1905.
Omar, the tentmaker, fast in his
grave on which the peach petals blow at
Nishapur, continues to be, despite the
gap of 900 years. Persia's best ambaSSa-
dor to EEglish-speaking countries" say
bulletin of the National Geographic
Society from it headquarters here.
Yet he who sang:
I sometimes think that never blows
so red
The Rose as where some buried
Caesar bled';
is little known as a poet in his own
country Abu-l-fat'h Omar. son of
Ibrahim the Tentmaker of Nishapur,
for SUCH was his name, holds in Persia
some modest fame as mathematician,
an ancient wise man, who. about
the time William the Conqueror WAS
conquering England, assisted in revis-
poet! We nave far better poets than
he, the Persians say. The Western
World will never believe it.
Mysticism Dominates Persians.
"If Omar Khayyam is poet without
honor in his own country there are GER
tain geographic reasons for the neglect
fnr ~ Nv -
erns PerSians we're in Omars day and
are to this day dominated by Moham-
medan mysticism which Omar, who
was as much a doubter and a realist
as most twentieth century scientists
f1outed with verses. Perhaps it is no
accident that Omar, himself scientist
and mathematician, has been found at
the side of the modern scientist, throw
ing doubts and question marks at cher
ished beliefs as skillfully as laboratory
research workers toss test tubes. equa-
tons and graphs at the same targets.
Religious teachers in Omar's Persia
held out promises of practical and
delightful paradise which they did not
hesitate to describe infinitely. Doubt
ing, Omar wrote: =
'Ah. make the most of what we yet
may spend,
Before we, too into the dust descend.
1.-THE teachers insisted on obedience
to the Korans order against the use of
intoxicating liquor. Omar, living in
Persia, the original home of the grape.
and loving wine, wrote:
All. my beloved, fill the cup that
clears
Today of past regret and future
fears
Omar Khayyam'S verses ran against
the tide of opinion in Persia of his day
and still run against the tide. He was a
hereto; his verses are still heretical
So Persia continues to think that Omar
as poet was good mathematician.
Much of the geography, the climate,
the flowers, the products and customs
of Persia can be found inlaid in Omar's
verses which have become SO familiar
to English readers. His most famous
Quatrain:
"A book of verses underneath the bough,
A jug of wine, loaf of bread-and thou
Beside me singing in the wilderness
oh, wilderness were paradise enowF
supplies thumbnail picture Of what
passes for a picnic and the last word in
holiday enjoyment throughout Moslem
North Africa, the Near East and P.rsia
excepting the wine which Is still for
hidden.
prom Tripoli to Cairo to Bagdad to
Teheran and Tashkent, $500 miles, q
bough and the shade it gives are lux
uries in q land of eternal SUM- Grass
is even rarer than trees no such thing
as an American or English lawn exists
So. when a holiday comes the people
leave the seclusion of their towns, wan
der down to the bank of stream where
there may be few trees and there
star scattered on the grass as Omar
mritas fhev raSf and o0aein
Women Picnic in Cemeteries.
"Often the greenest spots are the
cemeteries. To visit the graves women
of the harem are sometimes permitted
to go out once a week, an opportunity
they seldom pass by. not so much to pay
tribute to the dead as for an outing
favorite picnic grounds Of the Near
East.
Omar sings of roses. tulips and the
hyacinths of the garden; the peach
and the pear trees in bloom. The
brushes of artists, have added some very
definite ideas for US about Persian gar
dens. Yet a traveller to Persia reports
that although he searched high and
low, he has yet to find Persian gar
den On that dry plateau there is no
such thing as a garden in the American
or English sense.
"A garden to Persian is a grove of
trees kept alive by irrigation bitches
that receive precious water from some
creek fed by mountain SHOWS. 1t may
contain fountain much the worse for
wear, with broken tiles scattered about.
mud wall usually runs around the
green oasis, but unless it is a town
house garden, the wall does not exclude
the world. Indeed, in Persia, a garden
outside the gates is practically public
park open alike to the traveller, the mer-
chant ond chapherd hating hiq