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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.

Implications of Mystic Intoxication in Chinese and Iranian Poetry

Implications of Mystic Intoxication in Chinese and Iranian Poetry. R. Weston.
The Undergraduate Historical Journey, 1 (2014) 1, pp. 5-9.

In analyzing the works of Chinese Tang poet Li Bo (701-762),1 one notices the reoccurring reference to “drunkenness” or drinking of wine; though it can be taken at face value to represent a state of being in the literal sense—that is, what appears to be an intoxicated stupor—it seems more practical to consider a more figurative meaning. Namely, it is possible to interpret themes of wine and drunkenness as allegories for spiritual enlightenment, be it found in nature or simply life in general.

FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám: Critical Celebrations of a Beloved Poem

FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám: Critical Celebrations of a Beloved Poem. E. Nakjavani.
Iranian Studies, 47 (2014), nr. 4, pp. 627-648.

Erik Nakjavani reviews and discusses two recent volumes on the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. The first is ‘Edward FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám: A Famous Poem and its Influence’, by William H. Martin and Sandra Mason (Anthem Press, 2011). The reviewer discusses this work in respect of contemporary views about reception and assessment of poetry, by enthusiasts and devotees as well as scholars and academics. The second volume is ‘Edward FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám: Popularity and Neglect’, edited by Adrian Poole, Christine van Ruymbeke, William H. Martin, and Sandra Mason (Anthem Press, 2011), in which he summarizes and discusses the separate essays.

Woestijn waar ik dit paradijs aan dank – Claes vertaalt FitzGerald vertaalt Chajjaam

Woestijn waar ik dit paradijs aan dank – Claes vertaalt FitzGerald vertaalt Chajjaam. B. Crucifix.
Filter 21 (2014) 2, p. 7-19.

Paul Claes is a notorious Flemish translator, most famous for his translations of classic and modernist texts; but he is also a novelist and a poet, a critic and a scholar. This article examines how translation and writing interconnects in Claes’s translations and pastiche of Edward FitzGerald’s (free) translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Because of a cultural difference in legal status and representation, translating and writing are often considered to be strictly separate activities, establishing a hierarchical distinction between ‘creative’ and ‘derivative’ modes.

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”.

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 ?