Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,
We are entering the last few days of November. This month was a challenge for me to create, because I was not familiar with "The Rubaiyat" by Omar Khayyam and not familiar with the quatrain. But I did it again, of course not without help of the Internet, especially the website by Bob Forrest was a great source of information for me. I hope you did like this month, I enjoyed it ...
Okay ... I hope you all have had a wonderful weekend and I hope you will have an awesome week. I had a relaxed weekend, but of course I couldn't let go of CDHK. I have been very busy with the preparations for our next month. December we will (i hope) find our inspiration in quotes which I have extracted from several novels by Paulo Coelho. As you all know Coelho is one of my favorite authors and I have read a big part of the novels he has written. I think December will be a nice month. Of course in December we will have our weekend-meditations and our CDHK special feature "Seven Days Before Christmas" will be featured again, just because I like that feature.
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| Cover "The Rubaiyat" |
As I read this quatrain I was pleasantly surprised because in this quatrain I sensed Omar Khayyam's spirituality. I have told you a few times this month that Khayyam wasn't 100% muslim, sufi or christian, but in this verse I sensed more christianity than in all the other verses we have read this month. In my opinion in this quatrain Khayyam shows us that he is a christian and that he finally dared to be open about that. Of course in his time there wasn't that "evil" fight between Islam and other religions, at least not that I know of.
At the other hand this verse can also tell us that all religions are the same, because Khayyam mentions also Islam and Judaism next to Christianity. Was Khayyam the first philosopher who dare to say that all Gods Are One?
At the other hand this verse can also tell us that all religions are the same, because Khayyam mentions also Islam and Judaism next to Christianity. Was Khayyam the first philosopher who dare to say that all Gods Are One?
Let me give you the quatrain for today:
And this I know: whether the one True Light,
Kindle to Love, or Wrath consume me quite,
One Glimpse of It within the Tavern caught
Better than in the Temple lost outright.
© Omar Khayyam (Tr. FitzGerald)
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| The One True Light |
Background:
“The One True Light” is the Divine Light of Truth, and whether it infuses one with Love (= enthusiasm or devotion ?) or consumes one with Wrath (= exasperation or distaste?), it is better to have glimpsed it in the Tavern than not to have glimpsed it at all in the Temple (Mosque, Church or Synagogue). There is perhaps here some mockery of organised religion: does one really need a Mosque, a Church, a Synagogue – a Temple of any sort – in order to know God? In the Ouseley Manuscript, translated by Heron Allen we can find the following verse (no. 32) with a similar message:
In the spring, on the bank of the river and on the bank of the field,
With a few companions and a playmate houri-shaped,
bring forth the cup, for those that drink the morning draught
are independent of the mosque and free from the synagogue.
Or what do you think of these first two lines of verse 24 of the Ouseley Manuscript:
In cell, and college, and monastery, and synagogue
Are those who fear hell and those who seek after heaven.
Heron-Allen’s note on the first line indicates that the references are specifically to a Christian cell or monastery; the school attached to a mosque; a collective monastery or cloister; and a Jewish synagogue.
I think this quatrain is a very strong verse in which one can sense the spirituality and the power of the gods.
morningmist
sunrays
true light
sunrays
true light
© Chèvrefeuille (experimental haiku)
Well ... as I said earlier, another challenging episode, for sure not an easy one to work on or to work with. So ... good luck!
This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until December 3rd at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now ... have fun!
PS. At the left of our home-page you can read one of the "Seven Days Before Christmas 2016" episodes, just to give you an idea what this tradtional special feature means.
PS. At the left of our home-page you can read one of the "Seven Days Before Christmas 2016" episodes, just to give you an idea what this tradtional special feature means.
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