Public-Domain Khayyam: A Simple Rubai

This spring rubai urges enjoyment of the present. It appears in collections attributed to the eleventh–twelfth-century poet Omar Khayyam, including Ramazani’s public-domain edition. Its literary compression combines recognizable چهره‌ی گل, روی دل‌افروز, generic گویی, and the imperatives خوش باش and مگو.

The Ramazani edition’s rubai 46 on Wikisource and Hedayat’s public-domain selection place it under Khayyam. Ganjoor’s rubai 19 links a related text under Attar, with first-couplet variants. We therefore say traditionally attributed to Khayyam, not proven. Older چهرهٔ، گوئی، خوشست، دل افروز are normalized to چهره‌ی، گویی، خوش است، دل‌افروز. Review Metaphorical and Poetic Ezafe for the central images.

The Complete Public-Domain Rubai

An original, meter-aware translation is: “The Nowruz breeze upon the flower’s face is sweet; / within the garden, a heart-kindling face is sweet. / Whatever you say of yesterday brings no delight: / be glad, and speak no more of then—for today is sweet.” It preserves four lines and the repeated judgment without claiming Persian meter.

Line 1: Metaphorical چهره‌ی گل

The opening location بر چهره‌ی گل precedes the subject نسیم نوروز and final predicate خوش است. This is marked poetic ordering: neutral prose would more readily begin with the breeze. بر is literary-formal “on/upon,” where conversation normally uses روی.

Two ezafe chains make the image. چهره‌ی گل personifies the flower by giving it a face; نسیمِ نوروز identifies the breeze with the season. The ezafe after silent ه is written ه‌ی, while the ezafe after consonant-final نسیم is pronounced but unwritten.

The paraphrase restores subject-first order and replaces the evaluation خوش است with an event می‌وزد. It explains the scene but loses the poem’s personification.

The original sentence shows that body-part nouns can still personify nonhuman entities in modern literary-neutral writing.

Line 2: روی دل‌افروز

Here روی is the noun “face,” pronounced ru, not the preposition “on.” Ezafe links it to adjective دل‌افروز, literally “heart-kindling,” an elevated description of a beautiful beloved. English needs an article and may choose “a radiant face”; Persian has no equivalent of a in the line.

صحن چمن is another compact literary phrase: the open court or expanse of the garden. In present-day conversation, در باغ would be simpler and more natural.

This version states the activity دیدن that the verse leaves implicit. The poetry instead places image and evaluation side by side.

Line 3: هر چه گویی and the Double Meaning of دی

هر چه گویی is a free-relative frame: “whatever you may say.” Here literary گویی has a non-indicative value without modern subjunctive بـ. Modern conversation normally says هر چی بگی (informal, regional: Tehran) or careful هر چه بگویی.

The spelling دی permits two readings: di “yesterday/the past” and dey, the winter month Dey. The contrast with امروز makes di the primary reading here; Nowruz in line 1 also makes the differently pronounced month name available as a visual and seasonal echo. A responsible reading distinguishes the pronunciations instead of collapsing them into one form.

The colloquial version preserves the free-relative logic but changes چه to چی, را to رو, and the discourse tone completely.

Line 4: Two Imperatives

باش is the affirmative imperative of بودن; it does not take productive بـ in this form. مگو is the classical/literary negative imperative with مـ. Modern standard and conversational Persian use نگو. Literary ز again represents از.

The modern sentences make the implied practical action explicit.

Word Order, Repetition, and Meter

The first two lines begin with settings, then reveal an image, and only at the end deliver خوش است. The third reverses the evaluation to خوش نیست; the fourth restores خوش است after two commands. That pattern creates expectation even for a learner who cannot scan the meter.

Ganjoor identifies the meter as مفعول مفاعیل مفاعیل فعل, a standard rubai rhythm. At A2, the practical lesson is not to force every word into conversational pronunciation or rearrange it while reciting. Ezafe vowels and short literary forms such as ز help the line fit its rhythm.

Register and Responsible Attribution

بر، صحن چمن، ز، دی, مگو and the compact noun phrases mark literary diction. امروز، گل، نسیم، خوش، باش remain ordinary words. A modern speaker may quote the fourth line exactly, but outside quotation would normally say از دیروز نگو.

This wording separates textual presence in a Khayyam collection from certainty about medieval authorship.

Common Mistakes

1. Reading روی as the preposition “on”

2. Treating مگو as an everyday neutral form

3. Flattening دی into only one meaning

4. Claiming certain authorship

Key Takeaways

• Metaphorical ezafe creates چهره‌ی گل and رویِ دل‌افروز.
• Poetic setting-first order delays repeated خوش است until each line’s end.
• هر چه گویی means “whatever you may say”; modern speech prefers هر چی بگی.
• Written دی permits literary di “yesterday” and the month name dey; the contrast with امروز favors the first while the Nowruz setting echoes the second.
• مگو is a literary negative imperative; modern neutral Persian uses نگو.
• Cite the poem as traditionally attributed to Khayyam and state the source edition rather than claiming certain authorship.