TEHRAN, May 18 (Mehr News Agency) -- Iranians celebrate the birth anniversary of Omar Khayyam Neyshaburi (1048-1131) on May 18, which is the national day of the Persian mathematician, astronomer, and poet.

Following are several quatrains of his Rubaiyat, which have been translated by E.H. Whinfield:

Arise! and come, and of thy courtesy

Resolve my weary heart’s perplexity,

And fill my goblet, so that I may drink,

Or e’er they make their goblets out of me.

When I am dead, with wine my body lave,

For obit chant a bacchanalian stave,

And, if you need me at the day of doom,

Beneath the tavern threshold seek my grave.

Since no one can assure thee of the morrow,

Rejoice thy heart to-day, and banish sorrow

With moonbright wine, fair moon, for heaven’s moon

Will look for us in vain on many a morrow.

Let lovers all distraught and frenzied be,

And flown with wine, and reprobates, like me;

When sober, I find everything amiss,

But in my cups cry, “Let what will be, be.”

... Payvand News - 5/18/07 ...