Omar Khayyam (204) “strangers cannot know You as Your close friends do”

Juan Cole 09/12/2012

Prudes don’t know Your grace
the way we do,
and strangers cannot know You
as Your close friends do.
You said, “If you commit a sin
I will consign you to hell!”
Yeah, sure- tell it to someone
who doesn’t know the real You!

Translated by Juan Cole
from Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat, [pdf] Whinfield 204

About the Author

Juan Cole is the founder and chief editor of Informed Comment. He is Richard P. Mitchell Professor of History at the University of Michigan He is author of, among many other books, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires and The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Follow him on Twitter at @jricole or the Informed Comment Facebook Page