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Fiction. Poetry. HTML: Edward FitzGerald gave the title The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam to his translation of poetry attributed to the Persian poet, astronomer and mathematician Omar Khayyam (1048-1123). The word "Rubaiyat" means quatrains - verses of four lines. These works by Fitzgerald are the best known English translations. This edition contains both the first and fifth editions of the Rubaiyat. This influential translation is seen by many as a zenith of English literature in the nineteenth century. Fitzgerald states that his translation "will interest you from its form, and also in many respects in its detail: very unliteral as it is. Many quatrains are mashed together: and something lost, I doubt, of Omar's simplicity, which is so much a virtue in him." And, "I suppose very few People have ever taken such Pains in Translation as I have: though certainly not to be literal. But at all Cost, a Thing must live: with a transfusion of one's own worse Life if one can't retain the Original's better. Better a live Sparrow than a stuffed Eagle.".… (more)
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The illustrations by Robert Stewart Sherriffs are done in a flat, 'children's book'1970's style, but they are colourful and represent scenes from the Quatrains not often depicted in the other illustrated editions I know. I like them!
And Jamshyd's Sev'n-ring'd Cup where no one knows:
But still the Vine her ancient Ruby yields,
And still a Garden by the Water blows.
- Verse V
The introduction and notes in this edition [9780713604184] are illuminating, and got me doing something I realise I
Depleting my store of cultural ignorance is a never-ending, but enriching, task.
I was not previously aware of the debate regarding the possibility of reading Khayyám's frequent references to
However that may be, this remains my favourite book of poetry (admittedly out of a relatively limited exposure to verse).
Apparently the oxford book of quotations quotes it more than Shakespeare or the Bible. I know why!
From the man who brought you Algaebra.
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"The Stars are setting and the Caravan/Starts for the Dawn of Nothing..."