Tuesday 8 November 2016

The Throne Of Saturn

Up from Earth’s Centre through the Seventh Gate
I rose, and on the Throne of Saturn sate,
And many Knots unravel’d by the Road;
But not the Master-Knot of Human Fate.
-copied from here.

Marginally sfnal because of the reference to Saturn. Nominally linked to Poul Anderson's "The Saturn Game."

Does the poem refer to the planet or the god? There was a time before that distinction had been made. But I think that maybe in this case the name "Saturn" is an addition by the translator, Fitzgerald, rather than part of the Persian original?

It has been fascinating in recent posts to detour into the Rubaiyat and into a speculative time travel scenario but it is nearly time to rejoin Poul Anderson's The People Of The Wind where we left the Terran Imperial Space Navy attacking the planet Avalon.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

This is only tangentially related, but the late Allen Drury was an American novelist who wrote mostly political thrillers and historical fiction. But, he wrote one SF novel called THE THRONE OF SATURN. I'm pretty sure he took the title from the RUBAIYAT. I thought it was actually a pretty good novel. You might like it if you ever come across it.

Sean