Intro to Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam are a collection of quatrains - four line poetry stanzas - originally written by Persian scientist and poet Omar Khayyam (1048-1131) and first translated into English by the British writer Edward Fitzgerald (1809-1883) in 1859. As you can probably guess, some of the original meaning and messages may have literally been lost in translation as Fitzgerald translated these ancient poems from Farsi (the predominant language spoken today in modern-day Iran and parts of Central Asia, and what the original Rubaiyat was composed in) into English. Also, I am quite sure Fitzgerald added his own touch and interpretation into this translation thus further muddling the fidelity of the poem.

Even then, this translation, for all its shortcomings, would introduce the (Western) world to the genius and wisdom of Omar Khayyam. The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is a classic of the Islamic Renaissance and its lessons are applicable to this very day. Khayyam urged us to reject the notion that we were placed into this world for a reason and instead to come up with your own reasons for being. He also believed that we should live for this life and not for the next one. With this, I begin my journey into the fifth edition translation of Omar Khayyam's Rubaiyat by Edward Fitzgerald (which is available via Project Gutenberg) which I will summarize and discuss in the subsequent blog entries.

NOTE:

A copy of the Edward Fitzgerald translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is available at Project Gutenberg.

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