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Voice in Khayyam’s Rubaiyat and FitzGerald’s English translation

Voice in Khayyam’s Rubaiyat and FitzGerald’s English translation. Saeedeh Bisayar; Mahdi Safari; Mousaahmadian
International journal of English language, literature and translation studies, 2 (2015) 1, pp. 114–124.

This study attempted to examine the concept of “voice” in Khayyam’s Rubaiyat compared with Fitzgerald’s English translation through investigating the extent of ideological changes Fitzgerald applied in his paraphrase and through analysis of the existing voice in every selected quatrain of Khayyam’s Rubaiyat. For this purpose, six Persian quatrains by Khayyam have been selected randomly and their equivalences have been traced in the first edition of the translation of Rubaiyat by Fitzgerald.

Veiling the Mystic in the Hedonist’s Gear: A Comparative Rereading of Omar Khayyam’s The Rubaiyat …

Veiling the Mystic in the Hedonist’s Gear: A Comparative Rereading of Omar Khayyam’s The Rubaiyat and Harivansh Rai Bachchan’s Madhuśālā. Prasun Banerjee.
The Contour, 1 (2015) 4 (April), pp. 14-21.

Despite the conspicuous mystic perspectives, the recognition of the Rubaiyat to the Western literary discourse has essentially been as a hedonist poem celebrating the paganistic wine-intoxicated revelry and joys of earthly life and that of Omar Khayyam as the poet of the sharab (wine), saki (wine-girl) and peyala(wine-pot). But a careful scrutiny of the Persian and oriental tradition of poetry would reveal that the Rubaiyat is fraught with poetic devices that indicate at established Sufistic discourses in Khayyam’s verses, almost akin to the poets like Rumi, Hafeez or Ferdowsi.

Omar FitzGerald’s Rubaiyat. A panacea for Victorian era

Omar FitzGerald’s Rubaiyat. A panacea for Victorian era. Mahdi Baghfalaki; Zeinab Mahmoudibaha.
New Academia: An International Journal of English Language, Literature and Literary Theory, 4 (2015) 1, pp. 92–98.

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, often called ―the single best-selling book of poetry ever to appear in English‖, was an outlet relief for Victorian era and a source of inspiration for the major Victorian poets as well. Why should this be so? Why should an obscure dilettante’s translation of the quatrains of a minor Persian poet have gone more or less straight to the reading public’s heart and stayed there for a hundred years or so? This paper is an attempt to analyze the reasons beyond the success of Edward Fitzgerald‘s The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyamin Victorian era.

The Rubáiyát: A Labour of Love

The Rubáiyát: A Labour of Love. Reza Taher-Kermani.
Victoriographies, 7 (2017) 1, pp. 76-80.

This is an essay on the genesis of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. The contention is that the Rubáiyát ensued, at least, partly from the affection that Edward FitzGerald had for his friend and mentor in Persian, Edward Byles Cowell. FitzGerald used Omar Khayyám as an excuse to stay in touch with his dear friend Cowell, who left England after introducing him to Khayyám and his poetry. But FitzGerald soon fell in love with ‘Omar’, his new Persian mentor, and replaced the love that he had for Cowell with the one he developed for ‘Omar’. The result of this love was the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám.

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.

Khayyam, Omar vi. As mathematician

Khayyam, Omar vi. As mathematician. B. Vahabzadeh.
Encyclopaedia Iranica Online, May 2014.

Three mathematical treatises of Omar Khayyam have come down to us: (1) a commentary on Euclid’s Elements; (2) an essay on the division of the quadrant of a circle; (3) a treatise on algebra; and (4) the treatise on the extraction of the nth root of the numbers, which is not extant.

FitzGerald’s Anglo-Persian Rubáiyát

FitzGerald’s Anglo-Persian Rubáiyát. R. Taher-Kermani.
Translation and Literature, 23 (2014), nr. 3 (324-335)

This article examines Edward FitzGerald’s translation practice and the poetics of his Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (1859) in order to to enrich and supplement previous critiques. FitzGerald succeeded in ‘Persianising’ his re-writing of the rubáiyát by importing matter of peculiar Persian significance. In order to identify it, his translation of Khayyám needs to be read with, so to speak, a Persian eye; it has to be scrutinized as a native critic would read and analyse the poetry of, for example, Hāfiz. This is the fundamental approach of this essay.