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Khayyam’s Quatrains as Fitzgerald’s Rubáiyat

Khayyam’s Quatrains as Fitzgerald’s Rubáiyat. Khayyam’s Quatrains as Fitzgerald’s Rubáiyat. Ismail Alghamdi, Mohammed Albarakati.
In: Journal of Translation and Language Studies, 5 (2024) 1, pp. 65-81.

Research studies from around the globe on Omar Khayyẚm’s Persian quatrains and their translation into English by the poet, writer, and translator Edward Fitzgerald, are in abundance. Researchers are, in general, in praise of the translation and give credit to Fitzgerald for making Khayyẚm a world-renowned poet. However, the translation has rarely been approached from a socio-political perspective, or a look into Fitzgerald’s ideological manipulation of the original. The present research study investigates two issues with Fitzgerald’s translation- ideological manipulation and selective translation. The study also looks into Khayyẚm’s life and his works. It probes into the effects this translation left on the literary scene. The study involves a comparative literary translation analysis to compare and contrast the elements found in Fitzgerald’s translation and two Arabic translations. Employing Lefevere’s (1992) theory of ‘translation as rewriting,’ this paper assesses the extent to which a translator’s ideology can lead to a misrepresented product of translation (Lefevere, 1992). The study adopts textual analysis as a research method to capture the epicurean elements recurrently emphasized by Fitzgerald in his translation.

Bois du vin, cueille la rose et pense. Variations d’Omar Khayyam sur le Carpe Diem horatien

Bois du vin, cueille la rose et pense. Variations d’Omar Khayyam sur le Carpe Diem horatien. Christine Kossaifi.
Bulletin de l’Association Guillaume Budé 1 (2001) 2, pp. 171–194.

Summary

L’ivresse de vivre qui habite O. Khayyam jusque dans la certitude de sa finitude est le reflet oriental du sourire tranquille d’Horace, avide de « cueillir le jour » dans sa richesse comme dans sa tristesse. Tous deux voient dans la jaillissement même de la vie la manifestation du divin et les paroles qu’A. Maalouf prêtre à O. Khayyam dans Samarcande auraient pu être celles d’Horace : « je contemple une rosé, je compte les étoiles, je m’émerveille devant la beauté de la création, de la perfection de son agencement, de l’homme, la plus belle œuvre du Créateur, de son cerveau assoiffé de connaissance, de son cœur assoiffé d’amour, de ses sens, tous ses sens, éveillés ou comblés » (p. 22). Des siècles plus tard, le jeune poète Ali Abdolrezaï, qui vit dans la Perse moderne, l’Iran tourmenté par l’intégrisme, dit : « c’est la vie qui écrit mes poèmes ». C’est la même vie, impérieuse, séduisante et éphémère, qui irrigue les Odes d’Horace et qui chante dans les Rubayat d’Omar Khayyam.

The Study of Rubaiyat attributed to Khayyam in Movies

The Study of Rubaiyat attributed to Khayyam in Movies. Milad Minakar, Amir Hossein Chitsazian.
In: CINEJ Cinema Journal, Vol. 8, no. 2 (2020), p. 324-352.

Summary

Among the literati and men of culture of Iran, it is not exaggerated to call Khayyam one of the vaguest figures. One might recognize him certainly and resolutely through his philosophical and scientific works; however, it was his Rubaiyat attributed to him which created many arguments. This paper studies Hakim Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat in English and Persian language feature and non-biographical movies; hence, biographical movies depicting factual or imaginary life of Khayyam or any serials, TV productions, documentaries, non- English, non- Persian movies are not included. The aim is to expound any relationships between the film and Rubaiyat; therefore, according to the type of the applied quatrain, movie genre, plot, some categories are propounded to classify the movies in which Khayyam’s quatrains are quoted such as Transiency-Death, Transiency-Carpe Diem, Heaven and Hell, and Determinism. Indeed, these categories can be applied to the theme of the movies or a single scene in which the stanza is quoted.