Omar Khayyam (283) “Last night I wandered into a dark pottery workshop”

Juan Cole 10/03/2012

Last night I wandered into a
dark pottery workshop and saw
about two thousand pots lined up
in silence. But then suddenly
a vase cried out, inquiring, ‘Where
in the world are the potter and
the customers and salespeople?”

Translated by Juan Cole
from Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat, [pdf] Whinfield 283

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