Product Description

This edition presents the classic free translation by Edward Fitzgerald of the great Persian poem by the 12th century astronomer and poet - Omar Khayyám. Fitzgerald's masterful translation was first published as an anonymous pamphlet in 1859. Its colourful, exotic and remote imagery greatly appealed to the Victorian age's fascination with the Orient, while its luxurious sensual warmth acted as a striking counterpoint to the growth of scientific determinism, industrialisation and the soulless Darwinian doctrine of the survival of the fittest. Greatly praised by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Swinburne, Ruskin and William Morris, the romantic melancholy of the poem anticipates the poetry of Matthew Arnold and Thomas Hardy, while its epicurean motifs link it to the Aesthetic Movement.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #91378 in Books
• Published on: 1997-08-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 112 pages

Customer Reviews

WHICH BOOK OF VERSE?
Intending purchasers of the Rubaiyat with this particular ISBN need to be wary. What I got here was exactly what I wanted, namely FitzGerald's first version, the version familiar to many of us from our schooldays as it is given in the additional poems at the end of Palgrave's Golden Treasury. FitzGerald revised the work no fewer than four times, and so far as I can see there is also a version in circulation with this same ISBN but giving one of the later texts and having a different editor as well as a different picture on the cover.

Presumably FitzGerald thought he was making improvements as he went along. For me, although some of the revised stanzas are probably better than his first attempts, and those that are completely new are very welcome, each successive version is a little weaker than the one before. He abandons, for instance, the magnificent and unique metaphor in the first quatrain, and the very effective quatrains where all four lines are made to rhyme disappear as well. The general feel of it all stays the same of course, but I sense a loss of vividness in the afterthoughts by and large.

The edition as I have it is edited by Alexander Hutchison who contributes a helpful short introduction. There is in addition a set of notes at the back, and these are thoughtful and informative also. I would imagine that for Eng Lit students this little book will be a godsend at such modest cost. Enthusiasts for the poem in general will find the printing beautifully clear, and I did not spot any misprints or inaccuracies. What I wanted is what I have been given here, but that was more by luck than by judgment on my part.

Once upon a time in Persia.....
"Awake! For morning in the bowl of night, has flung the stone that puts the stars to flight". Fitzgerald's (1851) masterful translation of Khayyam's 11th century poem evokes a romantic Persian landscape of minarets and rose-gardens by babbling streams. A Sufi, or religious mystic, Khayyam nonetheless extolled the virtues of wine, women and song in his humanistic view of the world. If our life on earth is so short, why not live every day as if it were our last?, he seems to say. His emphasis on the pleasures of drinking has curried much opposition from proponents of modern-day Islam, who would like to claim Khayyam as their own, but perhaps he is just using drunkenness as a metaphor for the ecstasy of love and spiritual fulfilment. For many readers, myself included, for whom the book has become a kind of textbook for life, it comes as a great relief to know that the path to happiness and spiritual enlightenment may involve no more than drinking wine in the company of friends. At this price the book is an excellent chance to fill in the gaps between the few quotations we all know and love. Give a copy to a friend as well and it will never be far from their bedside.

magical and philosophical
Fitzgerald's Rubaiyat is one of the deepest works of poetry that can hope to be found, especially in the more mystical first edition. Deeply recommended to everybody.