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Voice in Khayyam’s Rubaiyat and FitzGerald’s English translation

Voice in Khayyam’s Rubaiyat and FitzGerald’s English translation. Saeedeh Bisayar; Mahdi Safari; Mousaahmadian
International journal of English language, literature and translation studies, 2 (2015) 1, pp. 114–124.

This study attempted to examine the concept of “voice” in Khayyam’s Rubaiyat compared with Fitzgerald’s English translation through investigating the extent of ideological changes Fitzgerald applied in his paraphrase and through analysis of the existing voice in every selected quatrain of Khayyam’s Rubaiyat. For this purpose, six Persian quatrains by Khayyam have been selected randomly and their equivalences have been traced in the first edition of the translation of Rubaiyat by Fitzgerald.

The tale of the inimitable Rubaiyat

The tale of the inimitable Rubaiyat. T. Leacock-Seghatolislami.
In: Edward FitzGerald’s The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. Ed. by H. Bloom. Philadelphia, Chelsea House, 2004. p. 195-209.
(From Translation Persepctives XI. 2000)

Summary

In choosing to translate only the “Epicurean” quatrains, Fitzgerald gave the Rubaiyat a superficiality and a one-sidedness not found in the original. However, Tracia Leacock-Seghatolislami’ presents contrasting opinions. Divorcing the English poem from the Persian rubai, she exposes Fitzgerald’s lack of knowledge of Persian, the result being “a text so discombobulated that it is hard to trace in the Persian”. Despite this, Fitzgerald’s rendering “displays a sensitivity, a delicacy in the turn of phrase, which suggests that the poetic Muse was permanently encamped on his doorstep” (pp. 198-9). Though forcefully asserting the “true significance of much of Khayyam’s poetry, which often has a Sufistic feel to it”, the author fails to give convincing references or arguments for this.

The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám

The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. I.B.H. Jewett.
In: Edward FitzGerald’s The Rubáiyat of Omar Khayyám. Ed. by H. Bloom. Philadelphia, Chelsea House, 2004. p. 21-58.
(From Edward FitzGerald. © 1977 by G.K. Hall & Co.)

Jewett pinpoints interesting moments in the correspondence between Fitzgerald and his mentor, Cowell, comparing their versions of the same Khayyam quatrain, thus illustrating “dramatically the difference between translation and creation”. The importance Fitzgerald attached to his earlier translation of Jami’s Salaman and Absal is also touched upon. Fitzgerald emphatic stipulation that Omar never be published without Salaman was apparently disregarded after his death. The article further gives a brief treatment of the problem of the Persian quatrains’ authenticity and of Khayyam’s possible authorship and possible mysticism.

Les quatrains irréligieux d’Omar Khayyâm

Les quatrains irréligieux d’Omar Khayyâm. G. Lazard.
In: Au carrefour des religions: mélanges offerts à Philippe Gignoux. Bures-sur-Yvette, Groupe pour l’Étude de la Civilisation, 1995. p. 177-182.

The Persian poems of Omar Khayyam give interesting information on the religious views of this famous scientist. An investigation of the quatrains preserved by the most reliable sources points to Khayyam most likely being an atheist. This hypothesis explains why his poetry is ignored by the oldest writers who mention his name: it was produced for a small circle of close friends and, out of cautiousness, was not made known outside of it for some time.

‘Umar Khayyám

‘Umar Khayyám. Ch.-D. de Fouchécour.
In: Encyclopedia of Islam. New. ed. 1994. Vol. 10, p. 827-831.

Al-Imām Abū Ḥafṣ ʿUmar b. Ibrāhīm al-Ḵh̲ayyāmī is thus named in the Mīzān al-ḥikma which ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Ḵh̲āzinī composed in 515/1121, often mentioning Ḵh̲ayyām for his scientific works. Abū Ḥafṣ is a kunya customarily associated with the name ʿUmar, and al-Ḵh̲ayyāmī is the form which would be expected in an Arabic work.

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam: a critical assessment of Robert Graves’ and Omar Ali-Shah’s ‘translation’

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam: a critical assessment of Robert Graves’ and Omar Ali-Shah’s ‘translation’. J.C.E. Bowen
Iran: Journal of Persian studies 11 (1973), pp. 63–73

When Cassells in November 1967 published Robert Graves’s versification of 111 of Omar Khayyam’s quatrains, they announced it to be “for the first time a true translation of Omar Khayaam which reverses his philosophy as presented, in ignorance of the Persian language and of Sufi symbolism, by Edward FitzGerald”. They also called it “one of the most important literary revelations of our time”. In this article, the validity of these claims is examined.

Omar Khayyam: astronomer, mathematician and poet

Omar Khayyam: astronomer, mathematician and poet. John Andrew Boyle.
Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 52 (1969) 1, p. 30-45

General article investigating what is known about Khayyám, the years of his birth and death, his background, and the various manuscripts that have come to light in recent years.

The Omar Khayyam Puzzle

The Omar Khayyam Puzzle. L.P. Elwell-Sutton.
Journal of the Royal Central Asian Society 55 (1968) 2, pp. 167–179

A recent publication has stimulated interest once again in the Persian poet Omar Khayyam-though admittedly to the English speaking world he is already by far the best-known, and for many the only, figure in Persian literature. Yet in fact he is a rather shadowy, insubstantial person, largely ignored in his own land of Iran, and about whom surprisingly little is recorded in history. Much of what is related about him is purely legendary: for instance, the well-known story of his schooldays friendship with the vizier Nizam al-Mulk and Hasan Sabbah, founder of the sect of the Assassins-impossible on chronological grounds alone. Other legends have been ad added through the centuries, particularly by some of the Sufi sects in Iran and Afghanistan.

The real Omar Khayyam

The real Omar Khayyam. B. Csillik.
Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 10 (1960), p. 58-77.

Review of Arberry's edition of 1949.
This edition, as the Author-Editor himself tells us in his Introduction, had to fulfill the purpose of quickly presenting to the public, with a minimum of critical apparatus, the newly discovered facts in order to give share to others in the exciting work of further research. Beside the Introduction the book contains nothing but the printed text of the MS with the critical apparatus, the English versions and an alphabetical list of the quatrains. The Editor restored the dotted däl’s wherever the copyist omitted them by obvious inadvertency and — what the copyist did not even try to do — he distinguished the pä and gäf letters from the bä and käf letters. This peculiar employment of the däl, bä and käf letters speaks for the antiquity of the MS. The dots supplied by the Editor are not indicated, and this may be regretted in view of the potential hints which the presence or absence of the dots of the däl’s might have given to the student of phonology and linguistic history.

Houtsma and the story of the three school-fellows …

Houtsma and the story of the three school-fellows: Nizam al Mulk, Hasan B. Sabbah and ‘Umar Khayyam. S.Moinul Haq.
Journal of the Pakistan Historical Society, 28 (1953) 4, pp. 229–234.

The story of the three schoolfriends is generally considered to be controversial. The author however argues that there are authentic sources to support the story.