Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
Overview
The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám is the title that Edward FitzGerald
Edward FitzGerald (poet)
Edward FitzGerald was an English writer, best known as the poet of the first and most famous English translation of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. The spelling of his name as both FitzGerald and Fitzgerald is seen...
gave to his translation of a selection of poems, originally written in Persian
Persian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
and of which there are about a thousand, attributed to Omar Khayyám
Omar Khayyám
Omar Khayyám was aPersian polymath: philosopher, mathematician, astronomer and poet. He also wrote treatises on mechanics, geography, mineralogy, music, climatology and theology....
(1048–1131), a Persian poet
Persian literature
Persian literature spans two-and-a-half millennia, though much of the pre-Islamic material has been lost. Its sources have been within historical Persia including present-day Iran as well as regions of Central Asia where the Persian language has historically been the national language...
, mathematician and astronomer. A ruba'i is a two-line stanza with two parts (or hemistich
Hemistich
A hemistich is a half-line of verse, followed and preceded by a caesura, that makes up a single overall prosodic or verse unit. In Classical poetry, the hemistich is generally confined to drama. In Greek tragedy, characters exchanging clipped dialogue to suggest rapidity and drama would speak in...
s) per line, hence the word rubáiyát (derived from the Arabic language
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
root
Root (linguistics)
The root word is the primary lexical unit of a word, and of a word family , which carries the most significant aspects of semantic content and cannot be reduced into smaller constituents....
for "four"), meaning "quatrain
Quatrain
A quatrain is a stanza, or a complete poem, consisting of four lines of verse. Existing in various forms, the quatrain appears in poems from the poetic traditions of various ancient civilizations including Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, and China; and, continues into the 21st century, where it is...
s".
The nature of a translation
Translation
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. Whereas interpreting undoubtedly antedates writing, translation began only after the appearance of written literature; there exist partial translations of the Sumerian Epic of...
very much depends on what interpretation one places on Khayyam's philosophy.
Discussions
Quotations
Morning when dawn's left hand was in the skyI heard a voice within the tavern cryAwake my little ones and fill the cupBefore life's liquor in its cup be dry.
Here with a Loaf of Bread beneath the BoughA Flask of Wine, a Book of Verse, and ThouBeside me singing in the WildernessOh, Wilderness were Paradise enow!
Quatrain XI
The Moving Finger writes, and having writMoves on, nor all thy Piety nor WitShall lure it back to cancel half a lineNor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.
Quatrain LI