Five Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

 1

The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit
     Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it.

2
As under cover of departing Day
Slunk hunger-stricken Ramazán away
     Once more within the Potter's house alone
I stood, surrounded by the Shapes of Clay.

3

Shapes of all Sorts and Sizes, great and small,
That stood along the floor and by the wall;
     And some loquacious Vessels were; and some
Listen'd perhaps, but never talk'd at all.

4
Said one among them – "Surely not in vain
My substance of the common Earth was ta'en
     And to this Figure molded, to be broke,
Or trampled back to shapeless Earth again."

5
Then said a Second –"Ne'er a peevish Boy
Would break the Bowl from which he drank in joy;
     And He that with his hand the Vessel made
Will surely not in after Wrath destroy."

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 Edward FitzGerald's wonderfully translation