Now the New Year reviving old Desires/The thoughtful Soul to Solitude retires
The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
"Now the New Year reviving old Desires
The thoughtful Soul to Solitude retires"
It's hard to write about poetry. I could say a lot, but really I just want to push the book under your nose and say, "Here, read this!".
Anyway, it's fantastic stuff, all about love and impermanence and beauty. And wine, which has an elusive kind of symbolism - does it mean life, or the present moment, or divine love, or even just wine?
The philosophy behind the Rubaiyat seems similar to that of Ecclesiastes. But there's a hint in the introduction that this is partly the translator's bias. I'll have to look out for another translation to compare.
It's funny what memories a book can set off.
I remember first reading TRoOK in the Banana Bookshop in Covent Garden while waiting for someone who entirely failed to meet me. But I didn't buy it. This copy is special because there's a sonnet someone else wrote to me inscribed in the front cover. I'd forgotten it until I opened the book, but now I remember exactly when I received it.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
"With New Year so young it still yawned and stretched"
A ghastly green knight challenges Gawain to a strange bargain, one that tests his honour to the limits.
I loved this as a story, but not so much as poetry. The Simon Armitage translation is fresh and lively and full of the alliteration of the original, not that I've read the original. And yet... I could say a poem is a success for me if there's a line or phrase somewhere that's so lovely or true that I want to learn it just so I can repeat it to myself for pleasure. I didn't find that here. But maybe something will jump out on second or third reading.
My copy of this is such a beautiful book, showing Gawain riding Gringolet through a snow-covered wood, just like the one I can see outside my window.
"Now the New Year reviving old Desires
The thoughtful Soul to Solitude retires"
It's hard to write about poetry. I could say a lot, but really I just want to push the book under your nose and say, "Here, read this!".
Anyway, it's fantastic stuff, all about love and impermanence and beauty. And wine, which has an elusive kind of symbolism - does it mean life, or the present moment, or divine love, or even just wine?
The philosophy behind the Rubaiyat seems similar to that of Ecclesiastes. But there's a hint in the introduction that this is partly the translator's bias. I'll have to look out for another translation to compare.
It's funny what memories a book can set off.
I remember first reading TRoOK in the Banana Bookshop in Covent Garden while waiting for someone who entirely failed to meet me. But I didn't buy it. This copy is special because there's a sonnet someone else wrote to me inscribed in the front cover. I'd forgotten it until I opened the book, but now I remember exactly when I received it.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
"With New Year so young it still yawned and stretched"
A ghastly green knight challenges Gawain to a strange bargain, one that tests his honour to the limits.
I loved this as a story, but not so much as poetry. The Simon Armitage translation is fresh and lively and full of the alliteration of the original, not that I've read the original. And yet... I could say a poem is a success for me if there's a line or phrase somewhere that's so lovely or true that I want to learn it just so I can repeat it to myself for pleasure. I didn't find that here. But maybe something will jump out on second or third reading.
My copy of this is such a beautiful book, showing Gawain riding Gringolet through a snow-covered wood, just like the one I can see outside my window.