by Hakim Omar Khayyám (c1048 - c1122)
Translation by Edward Fitzgerald (1809 - 1883)
Were it not Folly, Spider‑like to spin
Language: English after the Persian (Farsi)
Were it not Folly, Spider-like to spin The Thread of present Life away to win What? for ourselves, who know not if we shall Breathe out the very Breath we now breathe in!
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Text Authorship:
- by Edward Fitzgerald (1809 - 1883), no title, appears in The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, Second Edition, no. 14, first published 1868 [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]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2011-06-20
Line count: 4
Word count: 33