My Dad's Favorite Book

My dad's favorite book was THE RUBAIYET OF OF OMAR KHAYYAM (English verse by Edward Fitzgerald). He knew the book intimately and could quote from it endlessly, and enjoyed doing so. Sometimes I would be riding along some country road as my dad drove his pickup truck, neither of us sure just where he was taking us, just exploring the huge state of Georgia. And he would break into a recitation of this or that verse of the RUBAIYET, and then he would ask me to interpret the verse. I was a fairly bright kid, but not that sharp. I've always figured that I'm smart enough to know that I'm not as intelligent as all that.

But my dad's favorite verse was this one, and one which I never had any trouble interpreting:

"And fear not lest Existence closing your
Account,should lose, or know the type no more;
The eternal Saki from the Bowl has pour'd
Millions of Bubbles like us, and will pour."

My dad's personal copy of the book is stored somewhere in the house. I stumbled upon it a few years ago, but forgot to shelve it and it's sitting now in that box, under other boxes of books. Until we get a bigger place and I can shelve them all, it will likely remain there, waiting. But I stumbled upon a hardback copy not too different from my dad's copy, and I bought it for fifty cents, and it will do until I can once again discover the copy that my dad himself handled and read those decades gone.

"Millions of Bubbles like us, and will pour."