LXXXI.

Oh Thou, who Man of baser Earth didst make, And ev'n with Paradise devise the Snake: For all the Sin wherewith the Face of Man Is blacken'd--Man's forgiveness give--and take!

* * * * *

This is a very composite quatrain, round which some controversy has raged. Professor Cowell has given the weight of his authority to the statement that «there is no original for the line about the snake.» This is true in so far as that the image does not occur in Omar, but FitzGerald had seen it in an important apologue in the Mantik ut-tair (beginning at distich 3229) in which we read of the presence of the Snake (Iblis) in Paradise, at the moment of the creation of Adam, and in the course of which, Satan himself addresses God thus:

If malediction comes from Thee, there comes also mercy, The created thing is dependent upon Thee since Destiny is in Thy hands; If malediction be my lot, I do not fear, There must be poison, everything is not antidote.

The influence of the following is traceable in the quatrains, C. 115, C. 286, and C. 510:

I am a disobedient slave, where is Thy mercy? My heart is dark, where is Thy light and clearness? If, for serving Thee, Thou givest me heaven, This a reward, but Thy grace and Thy gifts--where are they?

_Ref._: C. 115, L. 217, B. 214, S.P. 91, P. 23.--W. 93, N. 91, V. 211.

Oh! Thou who knowest the secrets of the hearts of all, Protector of all in their hours of helplessness: Oh, Lord! grant me repentance and accept my excuses, Oh! Thou who grantest repentance and acceptest the excuses of all.

_Ref._: C. 286, L. 449, B. 445, S.P. 235, B. ii. 308, T. 188.--W. 276, N. 236, V. 488.

Professor Cowell attributes FitzGerald's quatrain to the above ruba'i. _Vide_ the Editorial Note previously referred to.

The manager of the affairs of the dead and living art thou, Thou art the keeper of this unstable heaven; Though I am wicked, thou art my Master, Who can sin, seeing that thou art the Creator (of all)?

_Ref._: C. 510, L. 700, B. 691, S.P. 431, P. 2, B. ii. 584.--W. 471, N. 436, V. 753.

LXXXII.[82]

As under cover of departing Day Slunk hunger-stricken Ramazan away, Once more within the Potter's house alone I stood, surrounded by the Shapes of Clay.

LXXXIII.*

Shapes of all Sorts and Sizes, great and small, That stood along the floor and by the wall; And some loquacious Vessels were; and some Listen'd, perhaps, but never talk'd at all.

LXXXVII (_post_).

FitzGerald constructed these three quatrains from O. 103.

I went last night into the workshop of a potter, I saw two thousand pots, some speaking, and some silent; Suddenly one of the pots cried out aggressively:-- «Where are the pot-maker, and the pot-buyer, and the pot-seller?»

_Ref._: O. 103, C. 301, L. 470, B. 466, S.P. 242, P. 102, B. ii. 323, T. 202 and 297, P. v. 37.--W. 283, N. 243, E.C. 26, V. 509.

It will be observed that the reading of quatrain 87, l. 4, in the third edition of FitzGerald is close to this original. «Who makes--Who buys--Who sells--Who is the Pot?»

«Hunger stricken Ramazan» is described in C. 198.

They say that the moon of Ramazan[83] shines out again Henceforth one cannot linger over the wine; At the end of Sha'ban I will drink so much wine That during Ramazan I may be found drunk until the festival (arrives).

_Ref._: C. 198, L. 352, B. 348, S.P. 172, P. 347, B. ii. 216, T. 125.--W. 188, N. 172, V. 351. See also the quatrain from the «Notes,» p. 155.