جاوید نیم چو اندر این دهر مقیم
پس بی می و معشوق خطایی است عظیم
تاکی ز قدیم و محدث امّیدم و بیم
چون من رفتم جهان چه محدث چه قدیم
Dashti, quatrain 47, p. 252
jaavid nayam cho andar in dahr moqim
pas bi mey o ma‘shuq khataayist ‘azim
taakey ze qadim o mohdas ommidam o bim
chon man raftam jahaan che mohdas che qadim
I am not here forever in the world;
How sinful then to forfeit wine and love!
The world may be eternal or created;
Once I am gone, it matters not a scrap.
Elwell-Sutton, In Search of Omar Khayyam, quatrain 47, p. 195
Since none remain forever in this Inn,
To be without belov'd and bowl is sin;
How long of Old and New, O Man of Wit—
When dead, I care not new or old's the Inn.
Saidi, quatrain 9
Since our stay is impermanent in this Inn,
To be without wine and beloved is a sin;
O Ḥakīm, why worry if the world is created or eternal,
Once dead, what if created or eternal the inn.
Aminrazavi, p. 130 (The Wine of Wisdom)
We shall not stay here long, but while we do,
'Tis folly wine and sweethearts to eschew;
Why ask if earth etern or transient be?
Since you must go, it matters not to you.
Whinfield, quatrain 324
Translation & Discussion of the quatrain: Of these renditions, Whinfield's is my favorite for its simplicity and elegance. 1. Since I am not a dweller/resident in this world forever -- Hedaayat (93) and Forughi (127) read: چون نیست مقام ما در این دهر مقیم, chon nist maqaam-e maa dar in dahr moqim, "since there is no place in this world as residents." 2. So, (to be) without wine or beloved is a monumental sin. 3. How long (will be) my hope and fear over the eternal and the created - Saidi and Aminrazavi's source text has this variant: تاکی ز قدیم و محدث ای مرد حکیم , taakey ze qadim o mohdas ey mard-e hakim, "how long the created and eternal o wise man?" ( Aminrazavi has this note on Ḥakīm, p. 362 (note 104) -- 'The word "ḥakīm, which generally means "a wise man" in latter Islamic philosophy, became synonymous with a philosopher-theologian, a sage.") 4. When I have gone, the world, whether created or eternal?
Peter Avery (quatrain 93) has this note on lines 3-4, "created or eternal": "The reference is to the dictum of Aristotle's neo-Platonic commentators that the world being coeval with the Unmovable Mover cannot have been created but must be eternal or 'continuous' with the One beyond Being." In the Abrahamic tradition, God has created the world. Philosophers, as Avery remarks, would have viewed a world without beginning or end, that is qadim or eternal.
Aminrazavi sums up the wisdom in this poem (p. 130): "What distinguishes this mode of being [being in the present, in the here and now] from a mode of knowledge is precisely the admission that amidst uncertainty, ignorance, and impermanence, it is not what you know that matters but how you live that matters, and this howness, to the dismay of metaphysicians, requires a wisdom that is fundamentally human."