10 Best Famous Rubai Poems

Here is a collection of the top 10 all-time best famous Rubai poems. This is a select list of the best famous Rubai poetry. Reading, writing, and enjoying famous Rubai poetry (as well as classical and contemporary poems) is a great past time. These top poems are the best examples of rubai poems.

• All Famous Rubai Poems

You know all secrets of this earthly sphere,
Why then remain a prey to empty fear?
You cannot bend things to your will, but yet
Cheer up for the few moments you are here!

My heart is weary of hypocrisy,
Cupbearer, bring some wine, I beg of thee!
This hooded cowl and prayer-mat pawn for wine,
Then will I boast me in security.

Awake! for Morning in the Bowl of Night
Has flung the Stone that puts the Stars to Flight:
And Lo! the Hunter of the East has caught
The Sultán’s Turret in a Noose of Light.

A draught of wine would make a mountain dance,
Base is the churl who looks at wine askance;
Wine is a soul our bodies to inspire,
A truce to this vain talk of temperance!

Irám indeed is gone with all its Rose,
And Jamshýd’s Sev’n-ring’d Cup where no one knows:
But still the Vine her ancient Ruby yields,
And still a Garden by the Water blows.

A cup of wine is better than the kingdom of Kawous,
and preferable to Kobad's throne or to the realm of
Thous. The sighs to which, at dawn, a lover is the prey
are sweeter than the groans of praying hypocrites.

 Now the New Year, reviving last Year's Debt,
The Thoughtful Fisher casteth wide his Net;
 So I with begging Dish and ready Tongue
Assail all Men for all that I can get.

Imports indeed are gone with all their Dues --
Lo! Salt a Lever that I dare not use,
 Nor may I ask the Tillers in Bengal --
Surely my Kith and Kin will not refuse!

Pay -- and I promise by the Dust of Spring,
Retrenchment. If my promises can bring
 Comfort, Ye have Them now a thousandfold --
By Allah! I will promise Anything!

Indeed, indeed, Retrenchment oft before
I sore -- but did I mean it when I swore?
 And then, and then, We wandered to the Hills,
And so the Little Less became Much More.

Whether a Boileaugunge or Babylon,
I know not how the wretched Thing is done,
 The Items of Receipt grow surely small;
The Items of Expense mount one by one.

I cannot help it. What have I to do
With One and Five, or Four, or Three, or Two?
 Let Scribes spit Blood and Sulphur as they please,
Or Statesmen call me foolish -- Heed not you.

Behold, I promise -- Anything You will.
Behold, I greet you with an empty Till --
 Ah! Fellow-Sinners, of your Charity
Seek not the Reason of the Dearth, but fill.

For if I sinned and fell, where lies the Gain
Of Knowledge? Would it ease you of your Pain
 To know the tangled Threads of Revenue,
I ravel deeper in a hopeless Skein?

"Who hath not Prudence" -- what was it I said,
Of Her who paints her Eyes and tires Her Head,
 And gibes and mocks and People in the Street,
And fawns upon them for Her thriftless Bread?

Accursed is She of Eve's daughters -- She
Hath cast off Prudence, and Her End shall be
 Destruction . . . Brethren, of your Bounty
Some portion of your daily Bread to Me.

Ah! wheel of heaven to tyranny inclined,
'Twas e'er your wont to show yourself unkind;
And, cruel earth, if they should cleave your breast,
What store of buried jewels they would find!

Allah hath promised wine in Paradise,
Why then should wine on earth be deemed a vice?
An Arab in his cups cut Hamzah's girths,—
For that sole cause was drink declared a vice.

The showers of grape-juice, which cupbearers pour,
Quench fires of grief in many a sad heart's core
Praise be to Allah, who hath sent this balm
To heal sore hearts, and spirits' health restore!