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FitzOmar the fascinating “The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam”

FitzOmar the fascinating “The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam”. D. Rice
English review, 24 (2013) 1, pp. 16-19.

Edward FitzGerald’s imperfectly translated collection of 75 quatrains by the 12C Persian polymath Omar Khayyam has become a global phenomenon since its initial publication in 1859. The best known poetry book in the world, the “Rubaiyat” has been produced in at least 900 editions in 85 languages, while 130 artists have illustrated it and 150 composers have set it to music. This article suggests the many reasons for its success, such as the brevity and consequent digestibility of its four-line stanzas, the vivacity of the dramas they contain, and their sense of honesty, humour and reassurance. It also acknowledges the astute marketing and merchandising campaigns that helped to establish the collection’s assimilation into popular culture.

A Comparative Study of Modulation in English Translations of Khayyam’s Quatrains

A Comparative Study of Modulation in English Translations of Khayyam’s Quatrains. Mojtaba Delzendehrooy ; Amin Karimnia.
Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences 70 (2013), pp. 28–40.

During the process of translation, the relatedness of content and form sometimes leads to some changes in semantics or point of view of the original text. This study tries to investigate the instances of modulation occurred in the translation of poetry. To this end, two English translations of Khayyam’s quatrains (FitzGerald and Emami) were studied to see what kinds of modulation have been used by the translators and consequently how they have changed the semantics and points of view of the original work; i.e. Khayyam’s quatrains. The two translations were studied carefully to identify the instances of modulations occurred.

Rescuing Omar Khayyam from the Victorians

Rescuing Omar Khayyam from the Victorians. J. Cole.
Michigan Quarterly Review, 52 (2013) 2, pp. 169-173.

The Rubaiyat or quatrains attributed to the mathematician and astronomer Omar Khayyam (d. circa 1126) of Nishapur were made famous by the loose rendering of Edward Fitzgerald, first published in 1859. Specialists in Persian literature now agonize over how many, if any, of these poems were actually written by Khayyam. For a century after his death he was not renowned as a poet, even to those who knew him and wrote about him. Slightly later sources occasionally attribute one or two, or some as many as thirteen, Persian quatrains to the scientist. The oldest substantial book of them giving him as the author is a 1460 manuscript from Shiraz now held in the Bodleian Library at Oxford (this was a principal source for Fitzgerald). Obviously it is very late, and eighty-two of the poems in it also appear in the divans or poetry collections of other authors.

Secular Pleasures and Fitzgerald’s Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám

Secular Pleasures and Fitzgerald’s Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. A. Çelikkol.
Victorian Poetry, 51 (2013) 4, pp. 511-532.

The author starts from the point of view that FitzGerald’s poem “imagines a secular experience that resists the reign of reason. Musing on transcendental matters cannot help the speaker to make sense of his own existence, but neither can rational inquiry. (…) he relates to the material world around him by seeking and embracing pleasure. Through the senses of wonder, connectedness, and enchantment inspired by the self’s engagement with the natural world, FitzGerald transfers some of the most fulfilling aspects of religion onto a secular experience.” The essays then goes on to demonstrate how this idea is an “articulation of some of the insights that have come to inform the critical study of the secular today”.

Edward Fitzgerald’s Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam: a Famous Poem and Its Influence …

Edward Fitzgerald’s Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam: a Famous Poem and Its Influence William H. Martin and Sandra Mason, Eds. A. Bulfin
English Literature in Transition, 56 (2013), 2, pp. 252-255.

Review of: Edward FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám: A Famous Poem and Its Influence. William H. Martin and Sandra Mason, eds. London: Anthem Press, 2011.

Khayyam who thinks and speaks Albanian

Khayyam who thinks and speaks Albanian. Abdulla Ballhysa; Mirela Shella.
Anglisticum Journal 2 (2013) 2, pp. 6-13

According to the Albanologist R. Jokli, Noli’s Rubaiyat stands as the best of the many translations of Fitzgerald’ version, but this translation, almost a recreation, can be considered his dearest, closest and most spiritual. Probably in none of his works did Noli express himself the way he did while translating (or better say culturally adapting into Albanian) Rubaiyat. This is the work in which he expressed his thoughts and his troubles, his vulcanic character, his creative courage, his tolerance, his humanity and his longing for freedom.

Les lectures de Khayyâm en France

Les lectures de Khayyâm en France. Sarah Mirdâmâdi.
La Revue de Tehran (2010) 59 (Octobre)

Les célèbres Robâiyât de Khayyâm ont fait l’objet d’un très grand nombre de traductions en différentes langues occidentales. Si la première et la plus fameuse fut la traduction anglaise de Fitzgerald, à partir de la seconde moitié du XIXe siècle, plusieurs traductions françaises des Quatrains ne tardèrent pas à être publiées. Les fameux poèmes suscitèrent de nombreux débats concernant la personnalité de leur auteur : Khayyâm était-il un hédoniste ou même un ivrogne aux penchants nihilistes avide de profiter des jouissances de l’instant présent ?

‘Umar al-Khayyám’s contribution to the Arabic mathematical theory of music

‘Umar al-Khayyám’s contribution to the Arabic mathematical theory of music. M. Barontini; T.M. Tonietti.
Arabic sciences and philosophy, 20 (2010), nr. 2 (Sept.), p. 255-279.

The authors present the Arabic text, with an English translation, of certain pages dedicated by al-Khayyām to the mathematical theory of music. Our edition is based on a manuscript extant in a library in Manisa (Turkey), and corrects the mistakes found in another transcription. Lastly, we compare the theory of al-Khayyām with other Arabic theories of Music, and with those coming from other traditions.

FitzGerald’s Omar and Hardy’s Jude: A Humanistic Kinship

FitzGerald’s Omar and Hardy’s Jude: A Humanistic Kinship. Asad al-Ghalith.
The Midwest Quarterly, 51 (2010) 1, pp. 57–69.

Edward Fitzgerald’s poem, The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, focuses on some of the major humanistic issues of the Victorian period: What is man? From whence did he come? What is his purpose in life? In FitzGerald’s translation of the poem, Omar appears to be strongly preoccupied with the fatalistic vision of man’s existence. This vision was one that emerged again and again in Victorian writers. Thomas Hardy, in Jude the Obscure, wrestled with a fatalistic view of man not unlike FitzGerald’s. This article will draw parallels between the two literary works not only to suggest a matter of influence, but also to stress the common intellectual heritage of humankind.

Ventriloquism

Ventriloquism. Marina Warner.
London Review of Books, 31 (2009) 7 (9 April)

Review of: Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám by Edward FitzGerald, edited by Daniel Karlin. Oxford, 167 pp, January 2009.