Notes:

[The references are, except in the first note only, to the stanzas of
the Fifth edition.]

(Stanza I.) Flinging a Stone into the Cup was the signal for "To
Horse!" in the Desert.

(II.) The "False Dawn"; Subhi Kazib, a transient Light on the Horizon
about an hour before the Subhi sadik or True Dawn; a well-known
Phenomenon in the East.

(IV.) New Year. Beginning with the Vernal Equinox, it must be
remembered; and (howsoever the old Solar Year is practically
superseded by the clumsy Lunar Year that dates from the Mohammedan
Hijra) still commemorated by a Festival that is said to have been
appointed by the very Jamshyd whom Omar so often talks of, and whose
yearly Calendar he helped to rectify.

"The sudden approach and rapid advance of the Spring," says Mr.
Binning, "are very striking. Before the Snow is well off the Ground,
the Trees burst into Blossom, and the Flowers start from the Soil. At
Naw Rooz (their New Year's Day) the Snow was lying in patches on the
Hills and in the shaded Vallies, while the Fruit-trees in the Garden
were budding beautifully, and green Plants and Flowers springing upon
the Plains on every side--

'And on old Hyems' Chin and icy Crown
An odorous Chaplet of sweet Summer buds
Is, as in mockery, set--'--

Among the Plants newly appear'd I recognized some Acquaintances I had
not seen for many a Year: among these, two varieties of the Thistle; a
coarse species of the Daisy, like the Horse-gowan; red and white
clover; the Dock; the blue Cornflower; and that vulgar Herb the
Dandelion rearing its yellow crest on the Banks of the Water-courses."
The Nightingale was not yet heard, for the Rose was not yet blown: but
an almost identical Blackbird and Woodpecker helped to make up
something of a North-country Spring.

"The White Hand of Moses." Exodus iv. 6; where Moses draws forth his
Hand--not, according to the Persians, "leprous as Snow," but white, as
our May-blossom in Spring perhaps. According to them also the Healing
Power of Jesus resided in his Breath.

(V.) Iram, planted by King Shaddad, and now sunk somewhere in the
Sands of Arabia. Jamshyd's Seven-ring'd Cup was typical of the 7
Heavens, 7 Planets, 7 Seas, &c., and was a Divining Cup.

(VI.) Pehlevi, the old Heroic Sanskrit of Persia. Hafiz also speaks
of the Nightingale's Pehlevi, which did not change with the People's.

I am not sure if the fourth line refers to the Red Rose looking
sickly, or to the Yellow Rose that ought to be Red; Red, White, and
Yellow Roses all common in Persia. I think that Southey in his Common-
Place Book, quotes from some Spanish author about the Rose being White
till 10 o'clock; "Rosa Perfecta" at 2; and "perfecta incarnada" at 5.

(X.) Rustum, the "Hercules" of Persia, and Zal his Father, whose
exploits are among the most celebrated in the Shahnama. Hatim Tai, a
well-known type of Oriental Generosity.

(XIII.) A Drum--beaten outside a Palace.

(XIV.) That is, the Rose's Golden Centre.

(XVIII.) Persepolis: call'd also Takht-i-Jam-shyd--THE THRONE OF
JAMSHYD, "King Splendid," of the mythical Peshdadian Dynasty, and
supposed (according to the Shah-nama) to have been founded and built
by him. Others refer it to the Work of the Genie King, Jan Ibn
Jan--who also built the Pyramids--before the time of Adam.

BAHRAM GUR.--Bahram of the Wild Ass--a Sassanian Sovereign--had also
his Seven Castles (like the King of Bohemia!) each of a different
Colour: each with a Royal Mistress within; each of whom tells him a
Story, as told in one of the most famous Poems of Persia, written by
Amir Khusraw: all these Sevens also figuring (according to Eastern
Mysticism) the Seven Heavens; and perhaps the Book itself that Eighth,
into which the mystical Seven transcend, and within which they
revolve. The Ruins of Three of those Towers are yet shown by the
Peasantry; as also the Swamp in which Bahram sunk, like the Master of
Ravenswood, while pursuing his Gur.

The Palace that to Heav'n his pillars threw,
And Kings the forehead on his threshold drew--
I saw the solitary Ringdove there,
And "Coo, coo, coo," she cried; and "Coo, coo, coo."

[Included in Nicolas's edition as No. 350 of the Rubaiyat, and also in
Mr. Whinfield's translation.]

This Quatrain Mr. Binning found, among several of Hafiz and others,
inscribed by some stray hand among the ruins of Persepolis. The
Ringdove's ancient Pehlevi Coo, Coo, Coo, signifies also in Persian
"Where? Where? Where?" In Attar's "Bird-parliament" she is reproved
by the Leader of the Birds for sitting still, and for ever harping on
that one note of lamentation for her lost Yusuf.

Apropos of Omar's Red Roses in Stanza xix, I am reminded of an old
English Superstition, that our Anemone Pulsatilla, or purple "Pasque
Flower," (which grows plentifully about the Fleam Dyke, near
Cambridge,) grows only where Danish Blood has been spilt.

(XXI.) A thousand years to each Planet.

(XXXI.) Saturn, Lord of the Seventh Heaven.

(XXXII.) ME-AND-THEE: some dividual Existence or Personality distinct
from the Whole.

(XXXVII.) One of the Persian Poets--Attar, I think--has a pretty story
about this. A thirsty Traveller dips his hand into a Spring of Water
to drink from. By-and-by comes another who draws up and drinks from
an earthen bowl, and then departs, leaving his Bowl behind him. The
first Traveller takes it up for another draught; but is surprised to
find that the same Water which had tasted sweet from his own hand
tastes bitter from the earthen Bowl. But a Voice--from Heaven, I
think--tells him the clay from which the Bowl is made was once Man;
and, into whatever shape renew'd, can never lose the bitter flavour of
Mortality.

(XXXIX.) The custom of throwing a little Wine on the ground before
drinking still continues in Persia, and perhaps generally in the East.
Mons. Nicolas considers it "un signe de liberalite, et en meme temps
un avertissement que le buveur doit vider sa coupe jusqu'a la derniere
goutte." Is it not more likely an ancient Superstition; a Libation to
propitiate Earth, or make her an Accomplice in the illicit Revel? Or,
perhaps, to divert the Jealous Eye by some sacrifice of superfluity,
as with the Ancients of the West? With Omar we see something more is
signified; the precious Liquor is not lost, but sinks into the ground
to refresh the dust of some poor Wine-worshipper foregone.

Thus Hafiz, copying Omar in so many ways: "When thou drinkest Wine
pour a draught on the ground. Wherefore fear the Sin which brings to
another Gain?"

(XLIII.) According to one beautiful Oriental Legend, Azrael
accomplishes his mission by holding to the nostril an Apple from the
Tree of Life.

This, and the two following Stanzas would have been withdrawn, as
somewhat de trop, from the Text, but for advice which I least like to
disregard.

(LI.) From Mah to Mahi; from Fish to Moon.

(LVI.) A Jest, of course, at his Studies. A curious mathematical
Quatrain of Omar's has been pointed out to me; the more curious
because almost exactly parallel'd by some Verses of Doctor Donne's,
that are quoted in Izaak Walton's Lives! Here is Omar: "You and I are
the image of a pair of compasses; though we have two heads (sc. our
feet) we have one body; when we have fixed the centre for our circle,
we bring our heads (sc. feet) together at the end." Dr. Donne:

If we be two, we two are so
As stiff twin-compasses are two;
Thy Soul, the fixt foot, makes no show
To move, but does if the other do.

And though thine in the centre sit,
Yet when my other far does roam,
Thine leans and hearkens after it,
And rows erect as mine comes home.

Such thou must be to me, who must
Like the other foot obliquely run;
Thy firmness makes my circle just,
And me to end where I begun.

(LIX.) The Seventy-two Religions supposed to divide the World,
including Islamism, as some think: but others not.

(LX.) Alluding to Sultan Mahmud's Conquest of India and its dark
people.

(LXVIII.) Fanusi khiyal, a Magic-lanthorn still used in India; the
cylindrical Interior being painted with various Figures, and so
lightly poised and ventilated as to revolve round the lighted Candle
within.

(LXX.) A very mysterious Line in the Original:

O danad O danad O danad O--

breaking off something like our Wood-pigeon's Note, which she is said
to take up just where she left off.

(LXXV.) Parwin and Mushtari--The Pleiads and Jupiter.

(LXXXVII.) This Relation of Pot and Potter to Man and his Maker
figures far and wide in the Literature of the World, from the time of
the Hebrew Prophets to the present; when it may finally take the name
of "Pot theism," by which Mr. Carlyle ridiculed Sterling's
"Pantheism." My Sheikh, whose knowledge flows in from all quarters,
writes to me--

"Apropos of old Omar's Pots, did I ever tell you the sentence I found
in 'Bishop Pearson on the Creed'? 'Thus are we wholly at the disposal
of His will, and our present and future condition framed and ordered
by His free, but wise and just, decrees. Hath not the potter power
over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and
another unto dishonour? (Rom. ix. 21.) And can that earth-artificer
have a freer power over his brother potsherd (both being made of the
same metal), than God hath over him, who, by the strange fecundity of
His omnipotent power, first made the clay out of nothing, and then him
out of that?'"

And again--from a very different quarter--"I had to refer the other
day to Aristophanes, and came by chance on a curious Speaking-pot
story in the Vespae, which I had quite forgotten.

[Greek text deleted from etext.]

"The Pot calls a bystander to be a witness to his bad treatment. The
woman says, 'If, by Proserpine, instead of all this 'testifying'
(comp. Cuddie and his mother in 'Old Mortality!') you would buy
yourself a rivet, it would show more sense in you!' The Scholiast
explains echinus as [Greek phrase deleted from etext]."

One more illustration for the oddity's sake from the "Autobiography of
a Cornish Rector," by the late James Hamley Tregenna. 1871.

"There was one odd Fellow in our Company--he was so like a Figure in
the 'Pilgrim's Progress' that Richard always called him the
'ALLEGORY,' with a long white beard--a rare Appendage in those
days--and a Face the colour of which seemed to have been baked in,
like the Faces one used to see on Earthenware Jugs. In our Country-
dialect Earthenware is called 'Clome'; so the Boys of the Village used
to shout out after him--'Go back to the Potter, Old Clomeface, and get
baked over again.' For the 'Allegory,' though shrewd enough in most
things, had the reputation of being 'saift-baked,' i.e., of weak
intellect."

(XC.) At the Close of the Fasting Month, Ramazan (which makes the
Mussulman unhealthy and unamiable), the first Glimpse of the New Moon
(who rules their division of the Year) is looked for with the utmost
Anxiety, and hailed with Acclamation. Then it is that the Porter's
Knot maybe heard--toward the Cellar. Omar has elsewhere a pretty
Quatrain about the same Moon--

"Be of Good Cheer--the sullen Month will die,
And a young Moon requite us by and by:
Look how the Old one meagre, bent, and wan
With Age and Fast, is fainting from the Sky!"