The Book of Youth Is Closed
Omar Khayyamخیام
افسوس که نامه جوانی طی شد
Alas that the book of youth has been folded shut,
وآن تازه‌بهار زندگانی دی شد
and that fresh spring of life has turned to winter.
آن مرغ طرب که نام او بود شباب
That bird of joy whose name was youth:
افسوس ندانم که کی آمد کی شد!
alas, I do not know when it came, or when it went.
A note for readers
A lament for lost youth; Dey, the word for winter here, is a winter month of the Persian calendar. FitzGerald’s stanza ‘Alas, that Spring should vanish with the Rose! / That Youth’s sweet-scented manuscript should close!’ follows it closely. The quatrain is attributed to Khayyam, but the attribution, like that of all the Rubaiyat, is debated.
More poemsشعرهای دیگر
مرغی دیدم نشسته بر باره طوس
در پیش نهاده کله کیکاووس
I saw a bird perched on the ramparts of Tus,
with the skull of Kay Kavus set down before it.
A Bird on the Walls of Tus
یکی قطره باران ز ابری چکید
خجل شد چو پهنای دریا بدید
A drop of rain fell from a cloud;
it was ashamed when it saw the breadth of the sea.
A Drop of Rain
ابتدای کار سیمرغ ای عجب
جلوه‌گر بگذشت بر چین نیم‌شب
The beginning of the Simorgh’s story, how wonderful:
in all his splendour he passed over China at midnight.