For some we loved, the loveliest and the best
That from his Vintage rolling Time hath prest,
Have drunk their Cup a Round or two before,
And one by one crept silently to rest.
FitzGerald, Stanza XXII, 4th ed.
Heron Allen, 37: "The inspiration from this quatrain is found in C. 185."
یاران موافق همه از دست شدند
در پای اجل یکان یکان پست شدند
بودند بیک شراب در مجلس عمر
دوری دو ز ما پیشترک مست شدند
yaraan-e movaafeq hame az dast shodand
dar paa-ye ajal yekaan yekaan past shodand
budand be yek sharaab [tonoksharaab]* dar majles-e ‘omr
dowri do ze maa pishtarak mast shodand
*Arberry, Romance ... p. 205 translates (but first stating that Heron-Allen "incorrectly printed ba-yak for tanuk, mistranslated in consequence." This occurs in line 3 which H-A translates: "In the fellowship of souls they were cup-companions", literally they were "of one drink." tonoksharaab (or tanoksharaab) is a compound adjective and means to get drunk without drinking much. tonok ("slight, little") has cognates in Latin tenuis (thin) and other early languages, e.g., Sanskrit tanu and Old Church Slavic where we find tinuku. Old English, þynne. Now, Arberrry's translation and my rendition afterwards:
Our congenial friends have all departed
one by one they have been trampled by the foot of Doom;
their capacity for wine in the party of life was slight—
they became drunk a turn or two before us.
Friends of one heart,
falling
one by one
pressed by fate underfoot.
Life forbade them take much drink—
quicker to get drunk, earlier to leave,
a scant few rounds before us.
There are slight variants in other texts (Forughi-Ghani, quatrain 95; Hedaayat, quatrain 38. Dashti includes it also, quatrain 10, in his khayyaam-like-quatrains section. pishtarak seemed at first a problem. What was it? It finally occurred to me that it might be the diminutive of the comparative of pish. This is correct as confirmed in Anvari's sokhan-e bozorg, 2.1510.
Here is Saidi's variation (his text and translation to follow):
یاران موافق همه از دست شدند
در پای اجل یگان یگان پست شدند
خوردیم ز یک شراب در مجلس عمر
دوری دو سه پیشتر زما مست شدند
yaaraan-e movaafeq hame az dast shodand
dar paa-ye ajal yegaan yegaan past shodand
khordim ze yek sharaab dar majles-e ‘omr
dowri do se pishtar ze maa mast shodand
And gone are friends—the worthiest and best,
By Death asssailed are one by one supressed;
From beaker same we drank at life's great feast—
Few rounds before us drunk, they crept to rest.
Saidi, quatrain 136
yegaan yegaan means "one by one", and in the previous quatrain, yekaan yekaan means much the same: "one after another". yeg- , I believe, exists not as yeg but only as yegaan. In Saidi's text we see in the final mesraa‘ dowri do seh, "a round or two or three." In the previous quatrain we have "a round or two" -- dowri do.