Music + lyrics by Peter King
4:40 | :30 soundbite
This song was inspired by “The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam,” a long, intoxicating poem from 12th-century Persia translated into English by the Victorian poet Edward FitzGerald. That’s the poem with the lines: “A loaf of bread, a jug of wine and thou beside me in the wilderness …”
Khayyam was tapping into a theme that has haunted musicians, artists and writers in every age — the wisdom of the senses, of living and loving and finding what happiness we can in the moment, for tomorrow … well, tomorrow may never come:
White blossoms are falling one by one
Softer than the moonlight
That shines upon this summer night
Softer than the silences
That float between us when we smile
White blossoms are falling one by one
Softer than each fleeting chance
That comes and goes for new romance
Softer than your hands must feel
Come take my hand a while
Bridge:
And walk with me
Through a world in bloom
The grass is wet and overgrown
And there's a thousand smells of sweet perfume
White blossoms are falling one by one
Softer than the tick of time
That takes all blossoms past their prime
Let's cast aside our doubts and take a chance
While time allows
And fall like the blossoms
Fall into each other's arms right now
Right now