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Photopoetry and the Problem of Translation in FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát

Photopoetry and the Problem of Translation in FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát. Michael Nott.
Victorian Studies, 58 (2016), 4, pp. 661-695.

In the early twentieth century, two photographers produced illustrated editions of Edward FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (1859). This essay examines the photographs of Mabel Eardley-Wilmot and Adelaide Hanscom Leeson, and explores how the Rubáiyát, while not an Orientalist poem, prompted Orientalist responses in photography. Eardley-Wilmot and Hanscom Leeson’s photobooks are early examples of photopoetry, a neglected art form in which combinations of poems and photographs create illustrative, evocative, and symbiotic relationships between text and image. Given FitzGerald’s own interest in photographic culture and the poem’s concerns with literal and metaphorical truths, the Rubáiyát illuminates practices of understanding and translating other cultures in the Victorian period.

Elihu Vedder’s Rubáiyát

Elihu Vedder’s Rubáiyát. Sylvia Yount.
American Art, 29 (2015), 2, pp. 112–118.

The distinctive work and career of Elihu Vedder have proven difficult to categorize in the history of American art. Part academic naturalist, part progressive symbolist, the artist is best remembered for his allegorical and literary paintings. Yet a more contextual examination of Vedder’s production challenges the standard view of him as a visionary out of step with the art world of his time and unconcerned with the broader cultural reach of his work.

Love and Death in Elihu Vedder’s Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám

Love and Death in Elihu Vedder’s Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. Akela Reason.
American Art, 29 (2015), 2, pp. 119–125.

Spiritual uncertainty figured in many of Elihu Vedder’s works. The artist acknowledged his fascination with this theme, writing in his autobiography, The Digressions of V., “it delights me to tamper and potter with the unknowable, and I have a strong tendency to see in things more than meets the eye.” Especially preoccupied by the mystery of death, Vedder returned to the subject again and again. Death comes in many forms in Vedder’s art—from “all-devouring” sphinxes presiding over desert wastes to the fratricidal conflict of the Old Testament, and devastating medieval plagues.

Khayyam, Omar ix. Illustrations of English translations of the Rubaiyat

Khayyam, Omar ix. Illustrations of English translations of the Rubaiyat. W.H. Martin, S. Mason.
Encyclopaedia Iranica Online, July 2009

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam contain some of the best-known verses in the world. The book is also one of the most frequently and widely illustrated of all literary works. The stimulus to illustrate Khayyam’s Rubaiyat came initially from outside Persia, in response to translations in the West.

The Art of Omar Khayyam: illustrating FitzGerald’s Rubaiyat

The Art of Omar Khayyam: illustrating FitzGerald’s Rubaiyat. Illustrated lecture given to the Iran Society on 22nd November 2007. W.H. Martin, S. Mason.
Journal of the Iran Society, 2 (2008), nr 7, p. 1-8.

The lecture is mainly concerned with the Rubaiyat and the extraordinary publishing phenomenon that is associated with it, particularly the extensive and continuing production of illustrated editions of FitzGerald’s version of the poem. In it, the authors draw extensively on their recently published book on the subject.

‘A restrained but full-blooded eroticism’ …

‘A restrained but full-blooded eroticism’. Letters from John Buckland Wright to Christopher Sandford, 1937-1939. Edited by Roderick Cave.
In: Matrix (1988) 8 (Winter), pp. 56-79.

Discusses the illustrating history and process of the Golden Cockerel Rubaiyat by Buckland Wright, and shows the erotic character of the illustrations.

Intersemiotic translations of Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam by Iranian and Thai illustrators: a comparative study

Intersemiotic translations of Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam by Iranian and Thai illustrators: a comparative study. Saber Atash Nazarloo, Hossein Navidinia.
Asia Pacific Translation and Intercultural Studies, 5 (2018) 1, p.p. 72-81.

Summary

One way of transferring the culture and identity of a nation is through book illustrations as a kind of intersemiotic translation. Omar Khayyam is an Iranian poet whose fame, thanks to FitzGerald, is now worldwide. Khayyam’s works have been translated to many languages and even some illustrators have tried to transform Khayyam’s quatrains into illustrations. Transferring textual materials into signs of non-verbal system is called intesemiotic translation. The aim of this paper is to analyze and compare samples of two successful illustrators, namely Muhammad Tajvidi, an Iranian illustrator who knows Persian, the language of Khayyam’s original works and Niroot Puttapipat, a Thai illustrator who does not know Persian, and therefore, the source of his illustrations is FitzGerald’s translations. Findings indicated that Puttapipat’s illustrations conveyed more cultural elements than Tajvidi’s, since the former is translated for a foreign audience.

A Thousand and One Nights. The art of folklore, literature, poetry, fashion & book design of the Islamic world

A Thousand and One Nights. The art of folklore, literature, poetry, fashion & book design of the Islamic world. Hiroshi Unno. Tokyo, Pie Books, 2016. 295 p. ISBN: 978-4-7562-4816-9.

Summary:

Middle Eastern literature and poetry, including Arabian Nights and Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, has captured the imaginations of European people with its mysterious atmosphere and tales of exotic lands. From the 18th to the early 20th century, various European editions of these stories were published that included imaginative illustrations by notable European illustrators such as Nielsen, Dulac, Pogány, Bull and others. This book is a visual art collection of the world featured in such European illustrations and introduces the ancient Islamic manuscripts and art on which the illustrations are based. Text in Japanese, with an introduction and captions in English.