Omar Khayyám en de Rubaiyat in vertaling en romans

Omar Khayyám en de Rubaiyat in vertaling en romans. Kees Hendrikse
In: Boekenpost 10 (2002), 61, p. 34–35

In de serie onder de titel BOEKBOEKEN bespreekt Kees Hendrikse bekende en minder bekende schrijvers met hun boeken over mensen die boeken lezen, schrijven, drukken of verkopen: Garfield, Canetti, Bradbury, Hanff, e.a. Dit keer de apocriefe lotgevallen van een wereldberoemde tekst.

A Case of Mistaken Identity in Translation: “Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat” in Dazai Osamu’s Novel No Longer Human

A Case of Mistaken Identity in Translation: “Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat” in Dazai Osamu’s Novel No Longer Human. George T. Sipos.
In: Sciendo. Romanian Journal of English Studies, 18 (2021) 1, p. 163-172.

Summary

This article explores the source and the meaning of the eleven quatrains quoted by modern Japanese writer Dazai Osamu (1909-1948) in his last complete novel, Ningen shikkaku (No Longer Human, 1948). Although dubbed as “rubaiyat”, which would indicate that they are translations of classical Persian poet and mathematician Omar Khayyam (1048-1131), the poems do not seem to match any of the known English translations from his work. This article explores the origin of the Japanese quatrains in Dazai’s novel, as well as their possible relevance for his literary work overall.

Jack Kerouac’s Rubaiyat: The Influence of Omar Khayyam

Jack Kerouac’s Rubaiyat: The Influence of Omar Khayyam. Michael Skau.
The Journal of Popular Culture, 48 (2015), 3, pp. 487–506.

Almost all of the Kerouac studies have ignored the influence of FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát in his life and work. The Rubáiyát provides significant similarities to Kerouac’s dualistic viewpoint: “the extremes of innocent indulgence of the beautiful variety of life and bitter, or even perverse, acceptance of the desolation of mortal existence”. The author, expert in ‘Beat poetry’ (Corso, Ferlinghetti, Burroughs, Ginsberg) points to numerous allusions to and echoes from Khayyám’s poetry, not only in On the road but in his other novels, essays and letters as well.

FitzGerald’s Omar and Hardy’s Jude: A Humanistic Kinship

FitzGerald’s Omar and Hardy’s Jude: A Humanistic Kinship. Asad al-Ghalith.
The Midwest Quarterly, 51 (2010) 1, pp. 57–69.

Edward Fitzgerald’s poem, The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, focuses on some of the major humanistic issues of the Victorian period: What is man? From whence did he come? What is his purpose in life? In FitzGerald’s translation of the poem, Omar appears to be strongly preoccupied with the fatalistic vision of man’s existence. This vision was one that emerged again and again in Victorian writers. Thomas Hardy, in Jude the Obscure, wrestled with a fatalistic view of man not unlike FitzGerald’s. This article will draw parallels between the two literary works not only to suggest a matter of influence, but also to stress the common intellectual heritage of humankind.

Gissing the ‘Omarian’ : Fin de siècle cult of Omar Khayyám and Gissing’s Born in Exile (1892)

Gissing the ‘Omarian’ : Fin de siècle cult of Omar Khayyám and Gissing’s Born in Exile (1892). Ayaka Komiya.
Hiyoshi Bulletin 41 (2002) p. 102-121

The year 1859 was made memorable in English literary history by the publication of three books—Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species, Samuel Smile’s Self-Help, and Edward FitzGerald’s The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyám. Although each of these three books is important in its own way, it is FitzGerald’s Omar Khayyám that bears the most importance to a study of George Gissing (1857-1903). Probably due to its extraordinaiy popularity, something that continues to this day, Omar Khayyám appears to have failed to attract attention as a serious work of art. However, its effect on contemporary literature was immense—so much so that its neglect is quite unwarranted. It is my aim here to remedy the present situation, at least in part, and to shed a new light on Gissing study by looking at the influence of Omar Khayyám on his works.

Omar Khayyam in Monto: a reading of a passage from James Joyce’s Ulysses

Omar Khayyam in Monto: a reading of a passage from James Joyce’s Ulysses. Carole Brown.
Neophilologus 68 (1984) 6, pp. 623-636

Readers of James Joyce’s Ulysses have found Stephen’s disquisition on gesture and his subsequent illustration of Omar Khayyam’s bread and wine rather curious and none too lucid. Given the speaker’s state of inebriation, the time of day (or, rather, night) and the locality – both in terms of Dublin’s topography and on the Homeric level – this lack of lucidity is perhaps not surprising.