Friday, October 12, 2007

A little light music

From the Rubaiyat-i-Omar Khayyam:

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.

From Before You Came by Faiz Ahmed Faiz, translated by Agha Shahid Ali:

Before you came,
Things were as they should be:
The sky was the dead-end of sight,
The road was just a road, wine merely wine.

From The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot:

LET us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherised upon a table;
Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,
The muttering retreats 5
Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels
And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells:
Streets that follow like a tedious argument
Of insidious intent
To lead you to an overwhelming question … 10
Oh, do not ask, “What is it?”
Let us go and make our visit.






3 comments:

Nilanjan said...

Stumbled upon this blog and rather liked it. Especially the ones on North East / Shillong - which is where I grew up as well. St Edmund's by any chance ? Regards Nilanjan

The Calumnist said...

Yes Edmunds it is!

J. Alfred Prufrock said...

Awld Omar AND Prufrock? We coincide to some extent.

And thanks for the Faiz. Must learn to read Urdu.

J.A.P.