Lxxix.*

What! from his helpless Creature be repaid Pure Gold for what he lent him dross-allay'd-- Sue for a Debt he never did contract, And cannot answer--Oh the sorry trade!

This quatrain would seem to be specially inspired by C. 201 and 433, which are so much alike (ll. 2, 3, and 4 are practically identical in both) that one or the other is obviously the addition of a later scribe.

When they mixed the earth of my shaping-mould, They produced an hundred wonders from me; I cannot be better than I am, For this is how I was turned out of the crucible.

Ref.: C. 201, L. 355, B. 351, T. 128.--W. 221, V. 354.

LXXX.

Oh Thou, who didst with pitfall and with gin Beset the Road I was to wander in, Thou wilt not with Predestined Evil round Enmesh, and then impute my Fall to Sin!

This quatrain is translated from O. 148.

In a thousand places on the road I walk, Thou placest snares, Thou say'st «I will catch thee if thou settest foot in them,» In no smallest thing is the world independent of Thee, Thou orderest all things, and (yet) callest me rebellious!

Ref.: O. 148, B. ii. 546.--W. 432, N. 390.

LXXXI.

Oh Thou, who Man of baser Earth didst make, And ev'n with Paradise devise the Snake: For all the Sin wherewith the Face of Man Is blacken'd--Man's forgiveness give--and take!

* * * * *

This is a very composite quatrain, round which some controversy has raged. Professor Cowell has given the weight of his authority to the statement that «there is no original for the line about the snake.» This is true in so far as that the image does not occur in Omar, but FitzGerald had seen it in an important apologue in the Mantik ut-tair (beginning at distich 3229) in which we read of the presence of the Snake (Iblis) in Paradise, at the moment of the creation of Adam, and in the course of which, Satan himself addresses God thus:

If malediction comes from Thee, there comes also mercy, The created thing is dependent upon Thee since Destiny is in Thy hands; If malediction be my lot, I do not fear, There must be poison, everything is not antidote.

The influence of the following is traceable in the quatrains, C. 115, C. 286, and C. 510:

I am a disobedient slave, where is Thy mercy? My heart is dark, where is Thy light and clearness? If, for serving Thee, Thou givest me heaven, This a reward, but Thy grace and Thy gifts--where are they?

Ref.: C. 115, L. 217, B. 214, S.P. 91, P. 23.--W. 93, N. 91, V. 211.

Oh! Thou who knowest the secrets of the hearts of all, Protector of all in their hours of helplessness: Oh, Lord! grant me repentance and accept my excuses, Oh! Thou who grantest repentance and acceptest the excuses of all.

Ref.: C. 286, L. 449, B. 445, S.P. 235, B. ii. 308, T. 188.--W. 276, N. 236, V. 488.

Professor Cowell attributes FitzGerald's quatrain to the above ruba'i. Vide the Editorial Note previously referred to.

The manager of the affairs of the dead and living art thou, Thou art the keeper of this unstable heaven; Though I am wicked, thou art my Master, Who can sin, seeing that thou art the Creator (of all)?

Ref.: C. 510, L. 700, B. 691, S.P. 431, P. 2, B. ii. 584.--W. 471, N. 436, V. 753.