About This Video
This quatrain by Omar Khayyam says: “If, in the spring, a fairy-faced beloved Offers me a cup of wine by the garden’s edge Though common minds may call it sin and shame, A dog is better than I if I still long for heaven.” Here, Khayyam once again challenges the moral and religious conventions of his time. He paints a vivid picture of earthly beauty, springtime, love, and wine, symbols of joy, life, and awareness. To him, paradise is not some distant promise after death; it’s right here, in the warmth of the moment, in nature, and in love. When he says, “A dog is better than I if I still long for heaven,” he’s rejecting blind faith that ignores the present. Why yearn for a paradise unseen, when beauty itself is before our eyes? Khayyam’s poetry invites us to wake up; to see that heaven is not beyond this world, but within it, if only we choose to live and love fully.