[Image fom Sandra Mason]
Bill was a great enthusiast for the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám and a collector of editions of the rubáiyát ever since his teen years. Throughout his life he propagated and promoted the philosophy and wisdom in the verses of the old Persian ‘hakim’. He was joint author of many works on the Rubáiyát, books, articles, lectures and much more. We only mention the important study The Art of Omar Khayyam (2007), and the analysis of FitzGerald’s letters in The Man Behind the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (2016).
Together with Sandra he joined meetings of the Dutch Omar Khayyám Society on several occasions, such as exhibitions and conferences, and contributed to the blog of the Dutch Club. Although Bill always stood somewhat in the background, his knowledge of and his love for the Rubáiyát has contributed to a steadily growing interest in the work of the old Astronomer-Poet of Persia. With Bill Martin we have lost one of the prominent members of the world of Rubáiyát enthusiasts.
As a more personal note: we, my wife and I, first met Bill and Sandra in 2002 and we have been in contact ever since. We learned to know Bill as a very gentle and nice person, always interested in our doings and well-being. The last time we met was June 2023, when he, despite his illness, still remained the remarkable person he has always been to us. What struck us too was how close Bill and Sandra were to each other, and we remember Sandra having said once: when Bill can’t go, I’ll go neither.
Omariana started in April 1998 as a newsletter, initially issued on paper, and later on as an e-mail newsbulletin. After a couple of years it seemed a logical step to turn it into a weblog, and this is what you are reading now.
Jaarboek 7. 25 jaar Genootschap is now published, as always by Avalon Pers, Woubrugge. The book contains a number of shorter articles in which the members of the Club look back onto their membership. Jos Biegstraaten, president from 1990 till 2014, presents a short history of the Society. Hans de Bruijn ponders on the eternal and unanswered questions surrounding the origins of the rubáiyát. Jos Coumans explains how and why he started to collect the editions of the rubáiyát. For Marco Goud the exploration of life and work of the Dutch poet P.C. Boutens leads to confrontations with Khayyám’s influence on Boutens’ work he cannot evade. Rokus de Groot first encountered Khayyám’s poetry in the leather workshop of Stavros Melissinos in Athens, who presented him with a signed copy of his ‘Persian Rubáiyát’. Johan ter Haar is fascinated by the diversity of interpretations of Khayyám’s poetry that range from pure mysticism to sheer nihilism, and Remi Hauman looks at the rubáiyát as a collective, national oeuvre by various Persian ghostwriters, with international dimensions. For Dirk Meursing the Society was a useful and joyful resource while working on his own translation, and Asghar Seyed-Gohrab, now president, remembers how in his youth in Tehran he was fascinated by the secrets and mysteries that Khayyám’s verses seemed to conjure. Jos Biegstraaten finally describes how Khayyám influenced the work of the Dutch graphic artist Siep van den Berg.
From left to right: Jos Coumans, Hans de Bruijn, Marco Goud, Dirk Meursing, Jos Biegstraaten, Gabrielle van den Berg, Johan ter Haar, Jan Keijser, Asghar Seyed-Gohrab, Rokus de Groot, Remi Hauman.
The Library of Congress opened an exhibition on March 29, titled “A Thousand Years of the Persian Book”. Purpose of the exibition is to take visitors on a visual journey of the rich literary history of Persian language, and to explore works of religion, science, modern literature, children’s books, women’s literature and the highly illustrated masterpieces of classical poetry for which Persian literature is most famous.