Archives

The exquisite amateur. FitzGerald, the Rubáiyát, and queer dilettantism

The exquisite amateur. FitzGerald, the Rubáiyát, and queer dilettantism. Benjamin Hudson
Victorian Poetry 54 (2016) 2 (Summer), pp. 155-177.

Though both popular and critical appraisals of FitzGerald’s translation have pointed out his, or the poem’s, amateurism, no inquiry has considered how the text itself cultivates its own antiprofessional stance—how it, in other words, invites readers to “Make Game” of life. Although this point may seem to be self-evident in a poem dedicated to inebriate pleasure, it is nonetheless worth considering, and clearly establishing, in order to identify how this amateurism, complicates erotic readings of the poem while enriching current critiques of its antiteleological temporality and agnosticism.

Theme of Wine-drinking and the Concept of the Beloved in Early Persian Poetry

Theme of Wine-drinking and the Concept of the Beloved in Early Persian Poetry. E. Yarshater.
Studia Islamica 13, (1960), p. 43-53.

Glorification of wine and drinking scenes is, in fact, one of the major themes of early Persian poetry. Descriptions are direct, vivid, and refreshingly varied. Generally, the poet speaks with knowledge and authority on the subject, and his delightfully appealing delineation reveals that sensuous quality so characteristic of Persian art. Many valuable details bearing on the drinking institution at courts, not recorded elsewhere, can be gathered from the poetry of the tenth and eleventh centuries.