From Mrs. Shalian’s shelf comes another poetry wonder, printed over a hundred years ago and yet whispered as though yesterday. In our search for the future, how can we move forward without knowing the past.
Tagore in The Gardener writes,
“Who are you, reader, reading my poems an hundred years hence?
I cannot send you one single flower from this wealth of the spring, one single streak of gold from yonder clouds. … ”
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From the personal book collection of Mrs. Artin K. Shalian, an old family friend, I pulled out Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam by Edward Fitzgerald and Illustrated by Edmund Dulac. There is no date on the book – but it may have been published around 1909 or so.
I love these old books that offer a message as though there were just yesterday written.
Ah, my Beloved, fill the Cup that clears
To-day of past Regrets and future fears …
Omar Khayyam, a Persian poet, mathematician, philosopher (18 May 1048 – 4 December 1131) Continue reading
Sitting on my shelf is a worn, torn and colored Treasured Things children’s book with little poems to recite by poet, Annette Wynne. A telescope into the lives of children and adults in 1922.
Newspapers
If all the news gave out
And there should come a day
With nothing …. Continue reading
Tales from long ago continue to inspire dreams. An old book, a bit worn for its age, 1889, stating it was privately printed, only 300 copies, rests quietly on my shelf. The first line intrigues and more follows. It has been justly remarked that “the literature of a nation furnishes the best guide to researches … Continue reading
“In the transient clouds of early morning, I see only images of my native home; The warm south wind of late April also brings, Remembered fragrance of once familiar flowers … ”
Chinese poet and author, Hsu Yu wrote “Nostalgic Thoughts of Home” while living in Paris in 1937. Continue reading
Constantine Cavafy, a Greek poet, would have celebrated his 150th birthday this year. The poem Ithaca on destinations strikes a cord on how to live life and to appreciate every moment. Continue reading
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