Poetry of Spring and the New Year

from the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

Now the new year, reviving old desires,
The thoughtful soul to solitude retires
Where the white hand of Moses on the bough
Puts out, and Jesus from the ground suspires.

* * *

Persian poem sample from Persian Poema

* * *

Time & clime, & wealth & health, & root & fruit, & state & fate
May you in your majesty, continue in year and name
Year joyous, clime pleasant, wealth plenty, and health whole
Root constant, fruit enduring, state splendid, and fate tame.

Ó Shahriar Shahriari
December 24, 2001

***

An Ode To A Tree

You are the tall figure of desire, O' tree

The sky embraces you at all times
You are tall, O' tree

Your hands are full of stars and your soul full of spring
You are beautiful, O' tree

When winds make a nest in your tangled leaves,
When winds comb your green hair,
You are fantastic, O' tree

When the wild fingers of rain grasp you,
In its cold feast
You are the sad, sweet-singing musician, O' tree

Under your feet,
Here is night and night-struck people whose eyes
Have not seen the day
How is it that you have seen the day?
How is it that you have seen the sun?
And you are amazingly gazing at them, O' tree!

As you bound the earthly people by a thousand strings,
Don't be scared of thunder,
Don't be scared of lightning.
You will prevail, O' tree

Don't rebel, O' scared tree that like our hope,
You are with us, but still lonely, O' tree.


By Siavash Kasrai

***

Come, fill the cup, and in the fire of spring Your winter garment of repentance fling.
The bird of time has but a little way
To flutter-and the bird is on the wing.

On the passing of time ~~ translated by the 19th Century British poet, Edward Fitzgerald

The moving finger writes, and, having writ,
Moves on; nor all thy piety nor wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a line,
Nor all thy tears wash out a word of it.
Ah, fill the cup... What bodes it to repeat
How time is slipping underneath our feet.
Unborn tomorrow and dead yesterday,
Why fret about them if today be sweet?

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