Rubaiyats of Lote-Tree

Hello Chaps and Chappesses.

This will be my final entry here on this board :-(

As you might be aware I am leaving Literature Net.

I am leaving because I have lost all enthusiasm for books and literature in general. It happens with me like this. I get engrossed in an idea or theme and become obsessed with it and then it's gone. It's over. It does not interest me again or for a long time. And secondly I am spending far too much times on forums. It has become an addiction.

Anyway I was thinking of deleting this blog. But then I thought I might as well leave it as a "I Woz Here" graffiti like the adoslecents do on public walls and lavatories. I am not saying LitNet is like a lavatory wall! I have enjoyed it here very much. It was interesting to get to know you all and I take with me from here are fond memories

Since this my last blog entry what shall say? I guess I need to say what I have learnt so far from forums. Perhaps it is obvious. That human beings are very much a social creatures. That even when techonolgy alienates us from each other we still find ways to make contact with others. That our identity and meaning is based on how we interact with others and how we relate to others. Techonolgy has allowed us to realize that no matter where you are from - from Alaska to outer Mongolia and speak different languages and percieve world via different idealogy - it's still our humanity that connects us. It's our humanity that bind us.

So I celebrate our humanity - the best of humanity with Pride and also come to terms with worst of humanity with understanding.

Human beings have defined an infinite variety of idealogies to make sense of this world. Some have said we are here on this world to love one another. Others have said we are here to pass a test in our humanity. Some have said we are here to develop our spirituality, to learn to let go of the ego that keeps us small and petty.

I see life as journey - an exploratory journey - both intellectual and spiritual; of the heart and the soul. The essences of spirituality being Love and compassion.

So I wish you all that you all have a happy and pleasant journies in life. And that this journey of exploration is both rewarding and fulfilling.

So take care you all.

Shalom, Salaam, Shanti and Peace to you all.

Regards,
Lote-Tree.

Contact with life makes us feel both light, heat and cold
But these are fleetings things we need to learn to endure
For when we have conquered life's trivalities
Then we are fit for immortality.
-Bhagavad Gita (my translations)

Go, go, go, said the bird: human kind
Cannot bear very much reality.
-T.S. Eliot

XII
A Book of Verses underneath the Bough,
A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread--and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness--
Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow!


XIII
Some for the Glories of This World; and some
Sigh for the Prophet's Paradise to come;
Ah, take the Cash, and let the Credit go,
Nor heed the rumble of a distant Drum!


XIV
Look to the blowing Rose about us--"Lo,
Laughing," she says, "into the world I blow,
At once the silken tassel of my Purse
Tear, and its Treasure on the Garden throw."


XV
And those who husbanded the Golden grain,
And those who flung it to the winds like Rain,
Alike to no such aureate Earth are turn'd
As, buried once, Men want dug up again.


XVI
The Worldly Hope men set their Hearts upon
Turns Ashes--or it prospers; and anon,
Like Snow upon the Desert's dusty Face,
Lighting a little hour or two--is gone.


XVII
Think, in this batter'd Caravanserai
Whose Portals are alternate Night and Day,
How Sultan after Sultan with his Pomp
Abode his destined Hour, and went his way.


XVIII
They say the Lion and the Lizard keep
The Courts where Jamshyd gloried and drank deep:
And Bahram, that great Hunter--the Wild ***
Stamps o'er his Head, but cannot break his Sleep.


XIX
I sometimes think that never blows so red
The Rose as where some buried Caesar bled;
That every Hyacinth the Garden wears
Dropt in her Lap from some once lovely Head.


X
And this reviving Herb whose tender Green
Fledges the River-Lip on which we lean--
Ah, lean upon it lightly! for who knows
From what once lovely Lip it springs unseen!


XXI
Ah, my Belov'ed fill the Cup that clears
To-day Past Regrets and Future Fears:
To-morrow!--Why, To-morrow I may be
Myself with Yesterday's Sev'n Thousand Years.


XXII
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.


XXIII
And we, that now make merry in the Room
They left, and Summer dresses in new bloom
Ourselves must we beneath the Couch of Earth
Descend--ourselves to make a Couch--for whom?


XXIV
Ah, make the most of what we yet may spend,
Before we too into the Dust descend;
Dust into Dust, and under Dust to lie
Sans Wine, sans Song, sans Singer, and--sans End!

-Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.