Archives

The Impact of Power and Ideology on Edward FitzGerald’s Translation of the Rubáiyát

The Impact of Power and Ideology on Edward FitzGerald’s Translation of the Rubáiyát. A Postcolonial Approach. Bentolhoda Nakhaei
In: TranscUlturAl, 11 (2019) 1, p. 35-48

Abstract

This paper analyzes the issues raised by the change of ideology and the underlying meanings in five FitzGerald’s translations of Khayyám’s quatrains according to the theories of certain translation scholars such as André Lefevere and Antoine Berman. With regard to the fact that the British translator has given a harmonizing beauty and an epicurean flavor of his own to Khayyám’s Rubáiyát, could it be claimed that translator’s voice is louder than the author’s? From the transcreation point of view, one could wonder whether FitzGerald did maintain the intent, style, tone, and content of the Persian quatrains. Do FitzGerald’s translations evoke the same emotions and does it carry the same implications in English as Khayyám’s Rubáiyát does in Persian. In general, from a postcolonial perspective, FitzGerald’s five English translations could offer interesting and fertile ground for investigating the effects of power relationship between the colonizer and the colonized text during the Victorian age in England.

 

FitzGerald and the Rubaiyat, in and out of time

FitzGerald and the Rubaiyat, in and out of time. Erik Gray.
Victorian Poetry, 46 (2008), nr 1, p. 1-14.

This issue of Victorian Poetry commemorates a double anniversary: March 31, 2009 marks both the bicentennial of the birth of Edward FitzGerald and the sesquicentennial of his Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, which was published (give or take a few days) on the poet’s fiftieth birthday. It is quite fitting that we should celebrate this occasion and at the same time quite ironic. FitzGerald’s poem, after all, seeks to do away with commemoration, and even with time itself: it enjoins the reader to think only of today, abjuring all consideration of past and future.

The Russian perception of Khayyam: from text to image

The Russian perception of Khayyam: from text to image. F. Abdullaeva, N. Chalisova, N., Ch. Melville.
In: The great ‘Umar Khayyám. Leiden, Leiden University Press, 2012. pp. 161–188.

The authors show the extreme popularity of Khayyám in Russia, even before Fitzgerald’s translations were published. The English translation only added to Khayyám’s popularity. The authors investigate how different translations of a single quatrain were made and how a large number of illustrated translations usually erotic, were made based on these translations. They also examine the contemporary popularity of Khayyám and the ready availability of editions of his quatrains, from large bookstores to tiny book-stalls. The authors examine different translations in each generation and how these translations helped to popularize Khayyám. Attention is also paid to literary forgery and how it acquires national value and prestige: D. Serebryakov “claimed Omar Khayyám for the nation” in 2000 by stating that Khayyám’s native town was in Tataria.

FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát: popularity and neglect

FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát: popularity and neglect. A. Poole.
In: FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. Popularity and neglect. Ed. by A. Poole et al. London, Anthem Press, 2011. pp. XVII-XXVI.

Introductory essay.

Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
In: Taher-Kermani (Ed.) 2021 – The Persian Presence in Victorian. Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press, 2021. ISBN: 9781474448161. Pp. 146–173

Summary:
Omar Khayyám is known in Persian literary history as the supreme exponent of the rubáiy (pl. rubáiyát), a short verse from consisting of a single stanza, rhyming aaba. The extent of Khayyám’s fame, however, goes beyond the geographical or cultural boundaries of his place of origin. Thanks to Edward FitzGerald’s translation, Khayyám is now celebrated globally, not just as one of Persia’s classical poets, but as a learned philosopher who, in a collection of epigrammatic poems, has encapsulated some of the largest and most enduring preoccupations of humankind.