Bliss or Misery, Omar Khayyam Poetry

Bliss or Misery is a stanza from the famous Rubayyat of famous Islamic Persian poet, philosopher, mathematician, and scientist, Omar Khayyam.

Omar Khayyam عمر خیّام‎; was born on the 18th of May 1048 and passed away on the 4th of December 1131. Omar Khayyam was born in an area north-eastern of the historical land of Persia, in a city called Nishapur, now modern day Razavi Khorasan Province in Iran. Omar Khayyam was a multi-talented man. He was a poet, a mathematician, a philosopher, and an astronomer. He shined the most during the Seljuks state, close to the time of the First Crusade.

In astronomy, his works where highlighted through his development of the Jalali calendar. The Jalali calendar is a solar calendar using an incredibly focused 33-year intercalation cycle. His calendar was used as the basis for the Persian calendar that is still around after almost a millennium. In mathematics, two of his most known works are his contribution to the understanding of the parallel axiom as well as providing geometric solutions of cubic equations. In poetry, Omar Khayyam's quatrains (rubāʿiyāt رباعیات‎) came as a definition of Persian poetry. 

The Persian calligraphy writing "بر لوح’ نشانِ بودنى ها بوده ست.      بيوسته قلم ز نيكـ وبد فرسوده ست       در روزِ ازل هر آنجه بايِست، بداد.     غم خوردن و كوشيدنِ ما بيهود ست" has a literal translation of "Twas writ at first, whatever was to be, By pen, unheeding bliss or misery, Yea, writ upon the tablet once for all, To grieve or strive is all but vanity." In a more simplified English, it means: "On the eternal day, we as human beings have been given all the things we need to live on the earth. Thus, we should not envy things we don’t have since those things are ingrained in our existence. We only need to find them."

This design was suggested by Helen Righton, an appreciator of Persian literature.

Arabic and Persian writing are usually viewed with suspicion and fear as many people associate them unjustifiably with terrorism. Thus, through showing the beauty of Arabic and Persian writing and Arabic and Persian calligraphy via printing them on hippie T-shirts, sweatshirts, hoodies, tank tops, mugs, canvas, tote cotton bags, and mouse pads; we hope to change the perception of Arabic and Persian writing towards admiration and appreciation.