Think, in this batter'd Caravanserai,
Whose [Portals]1 are alternate Night and Day,
How Sultan after Sultan with his Pomp,
Abode his [destined hour]2 and went his way.3

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¹ in the first edition alone: "Doorways"
² in the first edition alone: "Hour or two"
³ Lehmann adds: "Waste not your hour!"

Text Authorship:

• by Edward Fitzgerald (1809 - 1883), appears in The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, First Edition, no. 16, appears in The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, Second Edition, no. 18, appears in The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, Third Edition, no. 17, appears in The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, Fourth Edition, no. 17, first published 1859 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Based on:

• a text in Persian (Farsi) by Hakim Omar Khayyám (c1048 - c1122) [text unavailable]
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Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

• by Granville Ransome Bantock, Sir (1868 - 1946), "Think, in this batter'd Caravanserai", published 1906 [ soli, chorus, and orchestra ], from Omar Khayyám, Part I, no. 17, Leipzig, Breitkopf & Härtel [sung text not yet checked]

The text above (or a part of it) is used in the following settings:

• by Liza Lehmann (1862 - 1918), "The worldly hope men set their Hearts upon", 1896 [ contralto solo ], from In a Persian Garden, no. 16
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• by Henry Houseley (1852? - 1925), "Part 2", published 1917 [ soli, chorus, orchestra ], from cantata Omar Khayyám, no. 2, New York : H. W. Gray
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Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

• Also set in French (Français), a translation by Frédéric Roger-Cornaz (1883 - 1970) , appears in Omar Khayyám. Les Rubáiyát, Paris, Éd. Librairie Payot et Cie ; composed by René Lenormand.
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• Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Friedrich Rosen (1856 - 1935) , no title, appears in Die Sinnsprüche Omars des Zeltmachers Rubaijat-I-Omar-I-Khajjam, no. 1 ; composed by Boris Blacher.
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Researcher for this page: Barbara Miller

This text was added to the website: 2009-01-12
Line count: 4
Word count: 30