[90] Literally «has become Dai,» the first winter-month; translated «December,» sub quatrain No. 9.
[91] Lit.: «Or from the invisible world increase my daily provision.»
[92] C. reads «this heart full of melancholy (or passion).»
[93] It will be observed that this quatrain in the first edition came a good deal closer to the original than this.
[94] Maghanah means anything connected with the Maghs or Magians (i.e., the Guebres or Fire-worshippers), and came to be a synonym for age, superiority, excellence, in which sense it is used here. S. Rousseau has a very interesting note upon the history of this word at p. 176 of his «Flowers of Persian Literature» (London, 1801).
[95] Meaning FitzGerald's Introduction. See Page 1.
[96] Prof. Cowell says: «I am not sure, but I fancy this hard verse really is: ‹O thou who art burned (in sorrow) for one burnt (in hell)—thyself being doomed to be burnt.› If this is correct (which is most probable) the accuracy of FitzGerald's translation is remarkable.»
[97] The phrase gauhar suftan = «to thread pearls» is used in Persian to mean «to write verses» or «to tell a story.» Omar uses it here referring to the generally antinomian tendency of his ruba'iyat.
[98] In this line Omar claims consideration on the ground that he has never questioned the Unity of God. Tawhid kerdan = to acknowledge One God. Muhammadanism is essentially Unitarian. FitzGerald appears to have missed the meaning here, reversing the doctrine, unless he means «I never misread One as Two.»
[99] L. 1. lit. «rubbed its side with heaven.» This is the quatrain that R.B.M. Binning found written upon a stone in the ruins of Persepolis (A Journal of Two Years' Travel in Persia, Ceylon, etc., London, 1857, Vol. ii. p. 20). FitzGerald quotes it in a letter to Prof. Cowell, under date 13th January, 1859. (Letters and Literary Remains of Edward FitzGerald, London, 1889. Macmillan, 3 vols., and 1894, 2 vols.) The word ku in Persian signifies «Where?»