"And we, that now make merry in the Room:" FitzGerald’s The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám 1:22

"And we, that now make merry in the Room:" FitzGerald’s The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám 1:22

Quatrain no. 22 in the first edition of Edward FitzGerald’s translation of The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám again invokes the image of the way the living are walking atop those who lived and died before them, leaving them alone in the “room” of the world. The departed dead are dressed in blooms, i.e. flowers grow from their graves. These images are drawn from the Khayyami poetry, XXII. And we, that now make merry in the Room They left, and Summer dr…