Pamela Jerome

Colleague and friend

James was a remarkable person. We spent so many years together working in Yemen. He was my post-grad student before that. He also came to Yazd, Iran with me, and then when I was invited to ICOMOS to go back to assess the Bam earthquake, I sent him instead. We also traveled together to Mali. There was so much we shared together professionally. I not only considered him a remarkable protégé but also my friend. It's so sad to think that he is gone.

This is a quote from the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam:

XLIV

Do you, within your little hour of Grace,

The waving Cypress in your Arms enlace,

Before the Mother back into her arms

Fold, and dissolve you in a last embrace.

XLV

And if the Cup you drink, the Lip you press,

End in what All begins and ends in - Yes;

Imagine that you are what heretofore

You were - hereafter you shall not be less.

XLVI

So when at last the Angel of the drink

Of Darkness finds you by the river-brink,

And proffering his Cup, invites your Soul

Forth to your Lips to quaff it - do not shrink.

XLVII

And fear not lest Existence closing your

Account, should lose, or know the type no more;

The Eternal Sáki from the Bowl has pour'd

Millions of Bubbles like us, and will pour.

XLVIII

When You and I behind the Veil are past,

Oh, but the long while the World shall last,

Which of our Coming and Departure heeds

As much as Ocean of a pebble-cast.

XLIX

One Moment in Annihilation's Waste,

One Moment, of the Well of Life to taste -

The Stars are setting, and the Caravan

Draws to the Dawn of Nothing - Oh, make haste!

Yemen, 2003