Friday, May 18

    Welcome to the Wannaskan Almanac for Friday.

    It's the birthday in 1048 in Nishapur, Iran of Omar Khayyam, best known as the author of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, which he probably didn't write.  He is famous among mathematicians for solving the cubic equations, and among astronomers for designing the Jalali calendar which was more accurate than anything in the west till the late 1700s
   Omar's talents were recognized at an early age and he left his tent-maker (Khayyam) family to get an education, eventually becoming an advisor to the sultan. When the sultan died, the clergy began attacking him for skepticism, so he made a pilgrimage to Mecca. He eventually returned home, but lived out his life as a recluse. Everyone wrote poems in those days, so Omar probably wrote a few too, but scholars say not those he's famous for. Omar, even in death, was respected for his math and astronomy and young poets would attach Omar's name to their offerings to get traction.
    There was a craze for the Orient in 19th century England and the poet Edward Fitzgerald translated and published poems attributed to Omar as the Rubaiyat, which means "quatrain."

Hollywood's alternative Wilderness

   It's also the birthday in 1642 of the city of Montreal. There should be an acute accent on the "e" but this is often forgotten by English-speaking writers. Montréal is the second largest French speaking city in the world after Paris. Sixty per cent of the population is bi-lingual. Paris doesn't come close to that accomplishment.
    French settlers built their city on an island in the St. Lawrence where Indians had once lived. The Indians had been wiped out by disease. The new settlers were subjected to Indian attacks and were almost completely eradicated before another batch of settlers arrived.
    Montréal became a center of the fur trade since it was the furthest upriver point that ships could navigate. Beyond that, it was canoe, all the was to Saskatchewan. Montréal was the capital of Canada until 1849, when a Tory mob burned the Parliament building for reasons too complicated to go into here. Queen Victoria decided to move the capital to the little city of Ottawa and be done with it.
    Montréal began to lose out to Toronto as Canada's premier city. The St. Lawrence Seaway opened in 1959, allowing ships to bypass the city. Social and political changes in the 1970s brought about by the French speaking majority's desire to preserve their language and culture sent many businesses and people to other cities.
   The 21st century has brought a revival to Montréal and the city continues to grow, merci.

    Today's poem is by Omar Khayyam, maybe.

AWAKE! for Morning in the Bowl of Night

Has flung the Stone that puts the Stars to Flight:

And Lo! the Hunter of the East has caught

The Sultan’s Turret in a Noose of Light.

Dreaming when Dawn’s Left Hand was in the Sky

I heard a voice within the Tavern cry,

“Awake, my Little ones, and fill the Cup

Before Life’s Liquor in its Cup be dry.”

And, as the Cock crew, those who stood before

The Tavern shouted — “Open then the Door!

You know how little while we have to stay,

And, once departed, may return no more.”

Come with me along the strip of Herbage strown

That just divides the desert from the sown,

Where name of Slave and Sultan is forgot —

And Peace is Mahmud on his Golden Throne!

A Book of Verses underneath the Bough,

A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread, — and Thou

Beside me singing in the Wilderness —

Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow!

     Come back Sunday for more squibs from @jmcdonnell123