The Quarantine Quatrains: A new Rubaiyat

Charles Mugleston has alerted us to the publication of a reworking of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam which has been created by the Revd Dr Malcolm Guite, together with the artist Roger Wagner. The book has been the subject of a recent article in the Church Times – see https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2020/4-september/features/features/pandemic-inspired-poetry-the-moving-finger-writes-again.

The new Rubaiyat is called The Quarantine Quatrains and it has been inspired by Dr Guite’s reaction to the Covid 19 pandemic. He writes: “Somehow this Mediaeval Persian reflection on life’s joys and sorrows, on how our mortal frailty intensifies our brief pleasures and deepens our love and intimacy, all seemed to speak immediately into our time, …”

ROGER WAGNER Artwork for the first section of The Quarantine Quatrains: A new Rubaiyat

“At first, there was a sense of time opening up, …” “But then there was a sense, of course, of frailty: a renewed awareness of my own and other people’s mortality, and a deepening empathy for all those for whom this crisis was bringing real suffering, and, in some cases, death.”

The Quarantine Quatrains: A new Rubaiyat is being produced with a limited print run and all profits are going to the Care Workers Charity. It is available for £15 including p&p from rogerwagner.co.uk .

The first two verses of this new Rubaiyat run as follows.

1

Awake to what was once a busy day
When you would rush and hurry on your way
Snatch at your breakfast, start the grim commute
But time and tide have turned another way.

2

For now, like you, the day is yawning wide
And all its old events are set aside
It opens gently for you, takes its time
And holds for you — whatever you decide.