Birthdays

Today is the nine hundred and sixtieth birth day of Omar Khyyam, who penned these immortal lines:

Awake! for morning in the bowl of night
Has flung the stone that puts the stars to flight.
And lo! the hunter of the East has caught
The Sultan's turret in his noose of light.

and in turn inspired Terry Pratchett to write these equally delightful, if less aesthetic, lines:

Get up! for morning in the cup of day
Has dropped the spoon that scares the stars away.

Of course Omar Khyyam didn't actually write that, not speaking English and all; Edward Fitzgerald did. How much his translation actually resembles the original is a question with the probable answer Not Much. Oh well, happy birthday, Omar.

And lately, by the tavern door agape,
Came dyrsling through th dusk an angel shape
Bearing a vessel on his shoulder; and
He bid me taste of it; and 'twas - the grape!