Lobster is better off starving. Witty rubai of lobster khayyam

Over the years, the number of quatrains attributed to Khayyam grew and by the 20th century exceeded 5,000. He reflects on God, but rejects church dogmas; his poems contain irony and free-thinking, joy of life and enjoyment of every minute of it. Perhaps all those who feared persecution for freethinking and blasphemy attributed their writings to Khayyam.

Although it is almost impossible to establish exactly which of the poems really belong to Khayyam (if he composed poetry at all), in the modern world Omar Khayyam is known precisely as a poet, the creator of original philosophical and lyrical quatrains - wise, full of humor and slyness.

Omara Khayyam - about life, happiness and love:

Having seen the frailty of the world, wait a minute to grieve!
Believe me: it’s not for nothing that your heart is pounding in your chest.
Don’t grieve about the past: what happened has passed away.
Don't worry about the future: there is fog ahead...

Don't envy someone who is stronger and richer.
3and sunset always comes with dawn.
With this short life, equal to a sigh,
Treat it as if it was rented to you.

Everything is bought and sold,
And life openly laughs at us.
We are indignant, we are indignant,
But we buy and sell...

They say that drunkards will go to hell.
It's all nonsense! If only drinkers were sent to hell,
Yes, all the woman lovers follow them there,
Your Garden of Eden would become as empty as the palm of your hand.

Yes, in a woman, as in a book, there is wisdom.
Can understand its great meaning
Only literate. And don't be angry with the book,
Kohl, an ignoramus, could not read it.

We are a source of fun - and a mine of sorrow.
We are a receptacle of filth - and a pure spring.
Man, as if in a mirror, the world has many faces.
He is insignificant - and he is immeasurably great!

Those who have been beaten by life will achieve more.
He who has eaten a pound of salt values ​​honey more highly.
He who shed tears laughs sincerely.
He who has died knows that he lives...

“Hell and heaven are in heaven,” say the bigots.
I looked inside myself and became convinced of the lie:
Hell and heaven are not circles in the palace of the universe,
Hell and heaven are two halves of the soul.

Isn’t it funny to save a penny all your life,
What if you still can’t buy eternal life?
This life was given to you, my dear, for a while, -
Try not to waste time.

To live your life wisely, you need to know a lot,
Remember two important rules to get started:
You'd rather starve than eat anything
And it’s better to be alone than with just anyone.

Don't do evil - it will come back like a boomerang,
Don't spit in the well - you will drink the water,
Don't insult someone of lower rank
What if you have to ask for something?

Don't betray your friends, you can't replace them,
And don’t lose your loved ones - you won’t get them back,
Don't lie to yourself - you'll find out over time
That you are betraying yourself with this lie.

The wind of life is sometimes fierce...
In general, however, life is good...
And it’s not scary when black bread
It's scary when a black soul...

No one can tell what roses smell like.
Another of the bitter herbs will produce honey.
If you give someone some change, they will remember it forever.
You give your life to someone, but he won’t understand.

Over the many millennia of human existence on earth, universal human culture has accumulated a wealth of knowledge in the field of the peculiarities of relationships between members of society. As one of the eastern sages said, “It is better to starve than to eat anything,” it is better to remain alone than to communicate with the unworthy.

Who said these words?

The words “It is better to starve than to eat anything”, “it is better to be alone than among people unequal to you” belong to the pen of the famous oriental poet Omar Khayyam.

He was originally from Persia, lived about a thousand years ago, and glorified himself as a famous mathematician and astronomer. Throughout his life, Omar Khayyam wrote short quatrains called rubai.

In these poems he expressed his life philosophy. Being a poet of Muslim culture, he did not share some of the tenets of this religion: he was skeptical about the divine plan of Allah, indulged in pessimism, observing examples of injustice and vice in front of him.

Philosophy of the Eastern poet

In his life position, he is most likely close to the figures of the Renaissance, who also sought with their whole lives to prove the right of man to independently build his own destiny and change the world around him.

As a matter of fact, Omar Khayyam’s poems received a kind of “rebirth” precisely in the Western world, when one of the Western poets began to translate them into English the century before last. Thanks to interest in the personality of the distant Persian author, his mathematical and astronomical achievements were rediscovered, so today the name of this man is known to any educated lover of literature.

“It’s better to starve than to eat anything”: is it better to be alone? What does this phrase mean?

The Little Rubai of O. Khayyam, which states that you need to carefully choose your circle of friends, has been the subject of controversy for quite some time. After all, man is a social being, he lives in communication with his own kind, so loneliness is often unbearable for him.

Why does the ancient poet offer solitude as a saving island of peace for each of us?

Let's try to answer this question.

Note that this poem (as the work of a true philosopher) contains a logical dilemma: “to be with just anyone” or “to be alone” (let’s quote the last line of the poem: “It’s better to be alone than with just anyone”).

Of course, there is a worthy alternative: rather than communicate with those who will never understand or appreciate you, isn’t it better to remain silent and reflective? After all, this option will be the best for everyone, isn’t it?

Sometimes O. Khayyam is accused of excessive arrogance, because his phrase: “It is better to starve than to eat anything” does not make anyone better. What? Is the poet really calling us to abstain from food?

No, he most likely teaches us to be picky about food (which is generally very relevant for us people of the 21st century). It is better to go hungry than to eat GMO foods, it is better to abstain from food than to eat goods from McDonald's.

You need to be picky in food and in choosing friends, then serious illnesses will not await you and the people who are next to you will not betray you in difficult times.

The poet is right after all. And this is wisdom coming from the depths of centuries.

How relevant is Eastern wisdom today?

And aphorisms are always relevant - both 1000 years ago and today, in our age of computer technology. A person remains a person, therefore the quiet rubai of O. Khayyam will always find their reader. And in our time, when short statements are perceived much better than the multi-volume works of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, even more so.

Therefore, read the immortal Persian poet and enjoy his works! And most importantly, look for a circle of true friends who would understand and appreciate you!

It is not uncommon for a situation where the “ideal woman” acts as a wife or permanent partner, while a man loses his soul with his mistress, who in no way fits into the role of a potential wife and mother, but with her spontaneous behavior gives him the thrill of sensations...

The other day I had to offer my vest to a man...
The man with whom I was once in love, but he preferred someone else.
I don’t know what you were thinking, but this man invited me to a conversation in order to at least pour out his soul to someone.

We had not seen each other for more than ten years, and in early August I was meeting my guests at the airport and accidentally met him.
After exchanging phone numbers, we agreed to call each other.

And here we are sitting with him in the park...
It’s not hot and I would love to go to a nearby cafe, but he keeps talking... talking... But I don’t interrupt - I’m afraid that if I interrupt him, this monologue will never continue. We need to let the person talk.

Long ago, he married a girl from our company.
She was a Leningrader, unlike us, who lived in dorms and “came in large numbers” from different parts of the USSR.
She differed from us in her manners, her noble upbringing, and some quality that was not in us.

Our youth was “poor,” but cheerful and active. We covered the entire Leningrad region with backpacks and tents.

Even during these campaigns, our Leningrad woman behaved somehow especially, with some kind of dignity, or something, and our boy “hung” on her in particular.
Soon, we partied at their wedding, and then, gradually, our paths diverged...

And here, in a nutshell, is his revelation.

The children have grown up.
It’s impossible to say that I was an ideal father... And I was only a good husband for a couple of years...
You won’t believe it - I’m tired of her decency in everything! I'm tired of toeing the line...

At first I liked that she dressed me up with taste, introduced me to theaters and various exhibitions, but suddenly I realized: I’m sick! Not mine!

I started walking. At first quietly, hiding, and over time - I no longer cared whether she knew about it or not.

She knew. At first she tried to call me to my conscience, throwing hysterics, but in vain - I was ready for a divorce, which she was terribly afraid of.

So they existed on the same territory until I met the Bitch - the complete opposite of my wife. FULL!!!

The bitch swore with such choice obscenities that I had never heard before; dressed like a punk; I’ve never even heard of what the rules of good manners are; manners... What manners are there!!! She could put her hand down my fly on the street... And in sex she had no equal - a virtuoso with a capital V!

It was crazy at first - the roof was completely blown away.
He rented an apartment for her and moved in with her. I only went home to change clothes and see the children.
This probably lasted about six months. Then the Bitch said that she was tired of living in a rented apartment and began to blow my mind by saying that I should take out a mortgage and buy an apartment.

And... I took it!!! Can you imagine?! I bought a two-room apartment, registered it for it, and at the same time felt like such a benefactor! I was proud of my action!

I was not proud for long... I had to work more - the loan had to be repaid...

One day I come home from work early, and my Bitch is wallowing in the bathroom with some asshole.
You should have seen me!!! I grabbed this goat (I almost tore off his tomatoes**) and threw him naked onto the stairs. And he striped his Bitch so much with the belt that she was like a zebra.
He probably would have killed her if the neighbors hadn’t called the police - the asshole, naked, called her at some apartment.

The bitch cried, swore that this would never happen again, and then...
Then she told me: “If that’s the case, get out!” My apartment. You are NOBODY here!

It was possible, of course, to fight for the apartment, to prove that it was I who bought it, but... What's done is done. You know me - I won’t waste time on trifles.

Returned to his wife. We live... I can’t get close to her - so... the mechanics are the same...
However, she is happy, she takes care of me as if I were some kind of disabled person; tries to guess and fulfill my every desire; won't contradict anything...
I guess I should be ashamed of what I did to her, but...
Not ashamed! Not at all...

Do you think I'm an idiot?
I am an idiot... However, DO NOT BE A SHAME - that's all!
The children are also not too happy with me, they understand everything - they have grown up.

He was silent for a while, looking at one point somewhere in the distance...

I liked you then, in my youth, but I couldn’t imagine you as my wife... Sorry!..
Well, what kind of wife are you? You were like a horse with balls** running through the forest, recklessly kayaking... Yes....

I was a fool... He smiled sadly: - Maybe it’s not too late?

LIFE is a strange thing... Once upon a time, I would have choked with delight upon hearing such words, but now...

How can one not recall the famous aphorism?

“To live your life wisely, you need to know a lot.
Remember two important rules to get started:
It’s better to starve than to eat anything;
It’s better to be alone than with just anyone.” (c)*

* Omar Khayyam.
** Expressions of the hero of the story (let the Reader forgive me for the “informat”)

Reviews

Oh, Anyuta! This is not a story, but a bomb! A poisonous bomb that explodes all moral standards... But such men are now a dime a dozen. I'm not a feminist, as you might think, but... I would kill such men. He no longer liked the normal, caring woman. No responsibility to children! thoughts only about living in chocolate. He gave everything to the Bitch, loving her for her rudeness and impudence - some kind of masochism, not love. Alas, your hero is not alone in life. Next to him are myriads of the same spoiled, self-centered people. Pechorin is no match for them. It's bitter to read, but this bitter pill cures illusions. Thank you, Anna! Sincerely,

I agree with you, Ella - Pechorin is resting (as it is fashionable to say now).
After this monologue, for a long time I was left with a feeling of disgust and the feeling that I had stepped on a pile of crap.
However... I remember the past: how upset I was by his indifference to me, how envious I was of his chosen one..! And, after all, he was already “sweet” even then, if you remember everything carefully.
Love is evil..:))
Thank you very much! Sincerely -

On the one hand, I always say that you should only build relationships with a person with whom you feel comfortable. If in a relationship you have to endure, educate, bend, manipulate - all this indicates that the relationship is toxic, and its participants are deeply neurotic people. But on the other hand, there is also the other side of the coin, when all the guys are not good enough for a girl and she breaks off the relationship over and over again at the very beginning, because she is sure that she will find someone better. Let's figure out what's going on here.

Of course, everyone wants someone who doesn’t drink, doesn’t smoke, and always gives flowers, who is decent, wealthy, promising, charming, with a sense of humor, caring, courageous... And who would argue, it’s better to be healthy and rich than poor and sick. But this is all from the head. This is a calculation.

The problem is that no one has ever loved anyone for a specific merit. No one will tell you: “I love my husband because he doesn’t drink or smoke.” Or: “I fell in love with Vasya when I found out what his salary was.” You can respect, admire, but not love for your virtues.

Nevertheless, many girls prefer to build relationships on calculation, because they are disappointed in love. Well, they didn’t meet their love. And they decided that there is no love. Because it’s already been a long time, and Herman is still missing. And they say: “I’ll meet a good guy, and we’ll be happy.” But if you have a heart-to-heart talk with such a girl, it turns out that there was love in her life. Well, it doesn’t happen that in 25-30 years a person has never been in love. Something just went wrong: he left her, he didn’t want to get married, he treated her badly, and something else. It is especially traumatic if there were several such stories. Such a painful attitude is formed: love is suffering, I don’t want to suffer, which means I don’t need love.

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Normal, healthy love, so to speak, will become possible as soon as the girl realizes her problem: for some reason she chooses the wrong guys over and over again. She is not confident in herself, she grew up in a toxic family, she has complexes - there could be a million reasons. But you need to understand yourself. A confident girl who is aware of her needs and respects her own and other people’s boundaries will definitely attract a person with a similar picture of the world, and they will certainly fall in love with each other. This is how life works: like attracts like. And if aggressors come to you over and over again, it means that you need them for some reason, you attract them. Maybe you had an aggressive father, maybe he beat your mother, and this painful family model took root in the subconscious. If you come across indifferent louts who are incapable of empathy, perhaps in your childhood love was replaced by provision: well-fed, healthy, toys - goodbye, what else do you need. Having dealt with this (perhaps on her own, perhaps with the help of a psychologist), the girl will change her life and discover that there are a lot of cool guys around with whom she can build healthy relationships. And you don’t have to go through it endlessly or worry about being left alone.

That is, the very problem of “getting laid” or “marrying the first person you meet” will disappear as soon as “marriage of convenience is better than love” and “I must get married at any cost and as soon as possible” are removed from my mind.

I will say more: marriages of convenience are overwhelmingly doomed to collapse, unless it is a fictitious marriage by agreement of both parties. In another case, it will be physically unpleasant for one of the partners to share a bed with an unloved person, his voice and smell will irritate him, quarrels will inevitably break out, but he doesn’t want to make peace either... Therefore, first of all, you need to “repair” your ability to love and be loved, and secondly, stop considering all men as potential husbands, and start simply living.

Now about the “picky ones”. This one is good to everyone, but he doesn’t earn enough. And that one over there is rich, but he changes women like gloves. And this one seems to be faithful and devoted, but lives with his mother. We are looking further. What's behind this? Fear. Fear of relationships as such. Because there is no ideal. This is a collective image with which you isolate yourself from real life. It arises because people are not confident that they themselves are capable of building a normal relationship with a living person.

How to draw the line between pathology and normality? It's simple. Your feelings must match your thoughts. Once that happens, bingo, you're in the top ten. That is, in a relationship you should be comfortable on all levels, from emotional to physical and mental. When you are drawn to a person, but you are aware that he is objectively suitable for you. That it’s not just “I can’t live without him,” but “I want to live with this serious, reliable, decent and responsible man to whom I am very attracted.”

Will you meet him? If you read the fifth paragraph carefully, be sure to.

In love, we all get what we deserve. And our partner is always our reflection. How Little Raccoon was afraid of the one sitting in the pond. So don't take the stick. And smile.

Photo: Sergejs Rahunoks/Rusmediabank.ru

Everyone knows the well-worn lines of Omar Khayyam: “To live your life wisely, you need to know a lot, remember two important rules to begin with: you’d better starve than eat anything, and it’s better to be alone than with just anyone.” People make them the slogan of their lives. But does this bring happiness, that’s the question...

In my opinion, the statement is controversial. I don’t want to argue with the great eastern sage, but simply look at this statement from the point of view of today’s reality. It’s wonderful to be an idealist, to wait for great love in which everything will be wonderful, to eat only healthy and high-quality products, but not everyone can afford it, by the way. Let's face it.

It seems to me that there is a need to write a rubaiyat refutation of this well-worn truth, which is adopted by those who do not want to work on relationships and live in a fictitious ideal world. And he suffers from this, by the way, because this world, invented by Khayyam and presented as the ultimate truth, is not at all similar to what actually surrounds us.

But what really?

When I read this rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, I imagine him. And I understand that he himself probably wrote these lines in a moment of disappointment and pain, from a bitter understanding of the impossibility of changing the world and making it perfect. Maybe even out of anger and powerlessness to achieve your unrealistic dream. But in the end, the result was an ideal formula, which many people have made the principle of their lives.

By the way, the “king of the philosophers of the East and West” was born into a family of artisans and would never have gone overboard with grub, and, like all other artisans, would have eaten “whatever,” that is, what he could get if he had not been invited to the palace Sultan Malik Shah as a close confidant. The Sultan entrusted the astronomer with the construction of the world's largest observatory and allowed him to study mathematics and poetry. Simply fabulously ideal conditions! Why not come up with the ideal formula for a wise life.

But Khayyam was “the most learned man of the century”, “the wisest of the sages”... Can we boast of the same? Most of us are the same artisan who makes tents and not every day has caviar to spread on bread and butter. Finally, face the truth and stop measuring yourself by the ideal standards of the Eastern sage.

What do we really have?
Crowds of completely imperfect, uncomfortable, unpleasant, alien and dubious personalities.
Poor quality food: genetically modified, nitrate, artificial, surrogate, expired, poisoned.
Disgusting environment.
Difficult relationships with people (almost everyone, even the good ones at first glance).
Imperfection of the world, people, oneself.
The struggle for survival in the literal and figurative sense of the word, which does not add empathy to people.
The race for money, status, prestige, fame is an eternal competition and clash of interests.

By the way, the Sultan offered Omar Khayyam to become the ruler of his hometown of Nishapur. But the far-sighted sage, knowing full well that he would have to deal with everyday city problems and their solutions, with people, simple and imperfect, who were different from his rich and powerful patrons, refused this offer. Who knows how the life of a sage would have turned out if he had not been lucky enough to make friends with the powers that be and if he had remained a poet among ordinary artisans.

Categoricalism and maximalism or tolerance and tolerance?

Even more difficult than with the quality of food, the situation is with the people who surround us. With those whom we do not choose (our relatives) and with those with whom we connect our lives, once calling them loved ones. Unfortunately, humanity has nothing special to boast about in the area of ​​improvement. Of course, we are already a little more cultured than the Neanderthals, but there is enough wildness in our lives. And at the most ordinary everyday level. We ourselves can easily be classified as those whom Omar Khayyam in his poem calls “just anyone.”

Ideal people don't exist and that's wonderful, in my opinion. Every person who surrounds us, at least someday, will fall into the category of unnecessary, inconvenient, uncomfortable for someone. Why should we not live now? Isolate ourselves from each other and wait for ideal partners and perfect relationships? The same eastern sage, in another poem, again states maximalistically: “Whoever lives with a tit in his hands will definitely not find his firebird.” Thank you, grandfather Khayyam. I sealed it! “Surely he won’t find it?!” Tick ​​your tongue, old man! You're cutting off all our wings.

Following this advice, you can spend your whole life chasing the mythical crane, without ever realizing that the tit that was offered to be held in your hands and which seemed gray and insignificant was our real crane. Sometimes it happens!

Or maybe we should not chase after cranes, but after love. For warmth and consonance, for people to whom we could give part of our soul and help become happy. Let these tits, in someone’s opinion, not seem so brilliant, influential and tall, but they will be people close to us.

Love and friendship are not a search for pleasant people, it is intimacy in which everything can be: joy and happiness, pleasant and not very pleasant moments, kind and not very kind words and deeds.

Love is not an ideal beautiful fairy tale that brings only joy and lightness, it is life itself with all its difficulties, contradictions, mistakes and doubts. Love is never perfect, but if it is in your heart, even the greatest difficulties can be overcome.

Love gives us faith in ourselves and people, no matter how imperfect they may be. By the way, sometimes we love even more those who are far from ideal. We love them not because they fly like cranes. But simply because they exist in the world. Sometimes it is difficult to explain why we love them. But this is the only thing that makes us truly wise and happy.

Poor thing, did he think that everyone would suddenly take his rubai into service in the literal sense and use them to justify their inability to communicate with people and be tolerant of them. I should ask Khayyam: “What if my loved one does something unpleasant for me, behaves like a “whoops”, offends, plays the fool, splashes the toilet... Should I immediately write him down? Throw you out of your life and starve alone again?”

I wonder what the old man would answer...