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This chapter titled “The Robaiyat of Omar Khayyam: Re-Sewing the Tentmaker’s Tent: 1000 Bittersweet Sips from His Tavern of Happiness” is a section of the book Khayyami Robaiyat: Re-Sewing the Tentmaker’s Tent: 1000 Bittersweet Wine Sips from Omar Khayyam’s Tavern of Happiness, which is the eleventh volume of the twelve-book series Omar Khayyam’s Secret: Hermeneutics of the Robaiyat in Quantum Sociological Imagination, authored by Mohammad H. Tamdgidi. In this section of Book 11, Tamdgidi presents in a new thematic and individual logical order a set of 1000 Khayyami quatrains which he has selected from a wider pool of them that have been over the centuries attributed to Omar Khayyam. His study of the Khayyami Robaiyat in the four books is not intended to be archival in nature, although the quatrains (for which source information will be provided) have themselves resulted from such efforts made by others in the past. What he instead intends to demonstrate by selecting the 1000 quatrains from an already extant pool of Khayyami Robaiyat and presenting them in a specific succession order is that it is possible to organize a logically meaningful collection of them in a way that is both internally coherent as well as compatible with the worldview of Omar Khayyam as found in all of his extant and firmly attributed treatises and writings. The presentation of the Robaiyat in this section are new in three respects: 1) 1000 already extant selected quatrains are translated in new English verse so as to show faithfully both the literal meaning and the poetic form of each quatrain; 2) They are organized into three parts and their respective thematic sections in a new logical order to show that they fulfill a three-phased procedure of investigation Khayyam himself introduced in one of his major treatises; 3) The new collection is shown to be internally coherent and compatible with the worldview of Omar Khayyam as shared in his other firmly attributed writings. In Part 1, Tamdgidi offers the first of a three-part set of 1000 quatrains he has chosen to include in this series from a wider set that have been over the centuries attributed to Khayyam; it includes quatrains 1-338 for each of which the Persian original along with Tamdgidi’s new English verse translation for the same are shared. In Part 2, he offers the second of a three-part set of 1000 quatrains he has chosen to include in this series from a wider set that have been over the centuries attributed to Khayyam; it includes quatrains 339-685 for each of which the Persian original along with Tamdgidi‘s new English verse translation for the same are shared. In Part 3, he offers the third of a three-part set of 1000 quatrains he has chosen to include in this series from a wider set that have been over the centuries attributed to Khayyam; it includes quatrains 686-1000 for each of which the Persian original along with Tamdgidi‘s new English verse translation for the same are shared. For each quatrain a brief name has been given in Persian and English to facilitate its easier identification and substantive contribution to the Robaiyat. Tamdgidi shows that the quatrains 1-338, in the beginning 30 of which Khayyam offers an opening to his book of poetry as a secretive work of art, address the question “ Does Happiness Exist?” The latter question is the first of a set of three methodically phased questions Khayyam has identified in his philosophical works as being required for investigating any subject. The order in which the quatrains are presented shows that the quatrains included in Part 1 follow a logically inductive reasoning process through which Khayyam delves from the surface portraits of unhappiness to their deeper chain of causes in order to answer his question. The thematic topics of the quatrains of Part 1 as shared in Book 8 are: I. Secret Book of Life; II. Alas!; III-Times; IV-Spheres; V. Chance and Fate; VI. Puzzle; VII. O God!; VIII. Tavern Voice; and IX. O Wine-Tender! After the opening quatrains where Khayyam explains why he was composing a secretive book of poetry and what it aims to do, his inquiry starts with doubtful existential self- reflections on his life, leading him to first blame his times, then the spheres, then matters of chance and fate, soon realizing that he really does not have an explanation for the enigmas of existence, concluding that the answer only lies with God. So, he appeals to God directly for an answer. It is then that he hears the voice of the Saqi or Wine-Tender from his inner “ tavern,” to whom he replies in a series of quatrains closing Part 1. It is in the course of the inquiry in Part 1 that the idea of using Wine as a poetic trope is discovered by him, a matter that is separate from his interest in drinking wine, which he never denies but is secondary to the spiritual Wine discovered and advanced in his book of poetry that in fact represents his poetry, the Robaiyat, itself and its promise in answering his questions. The logical order of Khayyam’s inquiry shows how seemingly contradictory views that have been attributed to him can in fact be explained as logical moments in the successively deeper inquiries he makes inductively when addressing the question whether happiness exists in the created world. His inquiry is at once personal and world-historical, as two sides of expression of the human search for an answer. We should, therefore, judge each quatrain as a logical moment in Part 1’s inquiry as a whole, in anticipation of the two remaining parts of his book of poetry to be shared in Books 9 and 10 of the series, respectively addressing the two follow-up questions: “What Is Happiness?” and “Why Does (or Can) Happiness Exist?” Tamdgidi shows that the quatrains 339-685 address the question “What Is Happiness?” The latter is the second of a set of three methodically phased questions Khayyam has identified in his philosophical works as being required for investigating any subject. The order in which the quatrains are presented shows that the quatrains included in Part 2 follow a logically deductive reasoning process through which Khayyam advances in the causal chain of moving from methodological to explanatory and practical quatrains, by way of addressing the question noted above. The thematic topics of the quatrains of Part 2 as shared in Book 9 are: X. The Drunken Way; XI. Willfulness; XII. Foes and Friends; XIII. Wealth; XIV. Today; XV. Pottery; XVI. Cemetery; and XVII. Paradise and Hell. Khayyam begins with reflections on God’s created world, suggesting that its unitary existence cannot be understood using either/or dualistic lenses where the ways of knowing by the head, the heart, and senses are pursued separately. Instead, he advocates, building on the idea of the Wine trope discovered in Part 1, a “Drunken way” by which he means a unitary way of knowing symbolized by the spiritual indivisibility of Wine in contrast to the fragmentations of the grapes. He then embarks on a deductive method of emphasizing human willfulness, also created by God, offering humankind a chance for playing a creative role in shaping its own world. Khayyam then continues to apply such an explanatory model in dealing with social matters having to do with foes, friends, and wealth, leading him to advocate for the practical significance of “stealing” the chances offered in the here-and-now of today to transform self and society in favor of happier and more just outcomes. Using the tropes of visiting the jug-maker’s shop and the cemetery, he then emphasizes the need to maintain a wakeful awareness of the inevitability of one’s physical death in order to use the opportunity of life to cultivate universal self-awareness before it is too late, that paradise and hell and judgment days are not otherworldly, but realities of our here and now living. He thus transcends the sentiment of a promised future hope by advising us to create a happy life in the cash of the here-and-now, his own poetry itself being a means toward that end. Part 2 must then be understood in consideration of the other two parts of his book of poetry, one already shared in Book 8 addressing the questions “Does Happiness Exist?” and the next to follow in Book 10 addressing the question “Why Does (or Can) Happiness Exist?” Tamdgidi shows that the quatrains 686-1000 address the question “Why Does (or Can) Happiness Exist?” The latter question is the third of a set of three methodically phased questions Khayyam has identified in his philosophical works as being required for investigating any subject. The order in which the quatrains are presented shows that the quatrains included in Part 3 continue the logically deductive reasoning process started in Part 2, but serve as practical examples of how humankind can turn the activity of poetry writing itself as a source of joy in life when confronting the topics of death, survival, and spiritual fulfillment. The thematic topics of the quatrains of Part 3 as shared in Book 10 are: XVIII. Garden; XIX. Wine; XX. Love; XXI. Night; XXII. Death and Survival; XXIII. Liberation; and XXIV. Return. Khayyam’s overall sentiment in pursuing the inquiry in the third part of his book of poetry is expressive of joy. He begins by showing, using the example of his own poetry, how strolling in a garden offers opportunities to enjoy it even when writing about the transient nature of the roses and greens. He then offers in the longest section of his book a set of quatrains in praise of Wine, disguising therein a praise of the joy of writing his own poetry, Wine’s metaphorical double-meanings offering chances in the here-and-now of stealing joyfulness even when mistreated by his foes and amid feelings of helplessness in confronting physical death. He then turns to the topic of spiritual Love, signifying the role the sentiment of Love in search of the Source of creation plays in the evolutionary process of the succession order of the created existence as discussed in his philosophical and theological writings. He continues to the topic of death and the possibility of lasting spiritual survival and existence by practically encouraging the Drinkers of the Wine of his poetry itself to help bring about that end. He ends the Wine of his poetry by expressing how it has helped free himself from the prior (in Part 1) doubtfully expressed inevitability of physical death in favor of not just hopefulness (in Part 2) but the certainty of having initiated a lasting spiritual existence by way of the bittersweet Wine of his poetry itself, celebrating a return to the spiritual Source of all existence as woven into the 1000-threaded wick of the candle of his Love for God. We should therefore judge each step of the third part of Khayyam’s poetic inquiry in consideration of the two other parts of his book of poetry, those already shared in Books 8 and 9 addressing the questions “Does Happiness Exist?” and “What Is Happiness?” Book 11 is subtitled Khayyami Robaiyat: Re-Sewing the Tentmaker’s Tent: 1000 Bittersweet Wine Sips from Omar Khayyam’s Tavern of Happiness. Each book, independently readable, can be best understood as a part of the whole series. The poems, comprising Khayyam’s songs of doubt, hope, and joy, are therefore shown to be organized according to the three-phased method of inquiry he introduced in his philosophical writings, respectively addressing the questions: “Does Happiness Exist?”; “ What Is Happiness?”; and “Why Does (or Can) Happiness Exist?” [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
