The Englishing of ‘Omar Khayyám

The Englishing of ‘Omar Khayyám. John Drew
The Daily Star, 9-12-2017

Summary:
Drew points out that there is an Indian connection in the history of the Rubaiyat’s rise to fame, and that is the pirate Madras edition, produced by Whitley Stokes, a Dubliner who, unable to find work in London, sailed for Madras and evidently took a copy of the Rubáiyát with him. Once in Madras, Stokes met up with Thomas Evans Bell, a dissident army officer who was Hon. Sec. of the Madras Literary Society, and together they printed (anonymously) a pirate edition of the Rubáiyát. It not only reproduced Fitzgerald’s translations of Omar’s rubáiyát but also 32 by Cowell (published in the Calcutta Review, 1858), 10 in French by Garcin de Tassy and 15 versions by Stokes himself. Drew also compares some quatrains from the three translations.

Os Rubaiyat de Manuel Bandeira e de Torrieri Guimarães

Os Rubaiyat de Manuel Bandeira e de Torrieri Guimarães. Denise Botman.
In: Revista InComunidade, Edição de ABRIL de 2017.

Summary:
This article discusses a number of peculiarities in the translations into Portuguese by Bandeira and by Guimarães, both said to be based on the French translation by Toussaint. After examination and comparison of the text it appears that the translation by Guimarães is not based on Toussaint, as claimed by the translator but on Bandeira, which is considered to be an example of plagiarism or fraud, or both.

Umar Khayyam

Umar Khayyam. Mehdi Aminrazavi; Glen van Brummelen
In: The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Spring 2017

Summary

The authors argue that Umar Khayyam was a philosopher-sage (ḥakīm) and a spiritual-pragmatist whose Rubā‘iyyāt should be seen as a philosophical commentary on the human condition. The salient features of Umar Khayyam’s pioneering work in various branches of mathematics were also discussed. Khayyam’s mathematical genius not only produced the most accurate calendar to date, but the issues he treated remained pertinent up until the modern period. For Khayyam, there are two discourses, each of which pertains to one dimension of human existence: philosophical and poetic. Philosophically, Khayyam was the last Peripatetic in the Persian speaking world before philosophical thinking eclipsed the Eastern part of the Islamic world for several centuries. Khayyam defended rationalism against the rise of orthodoxy and made an attempt to revive the spirit of rationalism which was so prevalent in the first four centuries in Islam. Poetically, Khayyam represents a voice of protest against what he regards to be a fundamentally unjust world. Many people found in him a voice they needed to hear, and centuries after he had died his works became a venue for those who were experiencing the same trials and tribulations as Khayyam had.

Artists of the Omar Khayyám Club of London 1892 to 1929

Artists of the Omar Khayyám Club of London 1892 to 1929. Danton O’Day. Emeritus Press, 2017. 86 p. ISBN: 9781389917240

Summary:

This book documents the menu artists of the Omar Khayyam Club of London from 1892-1929.
While 26 artists were credited in the two books of the Club, there actually were 28 different menu artists. Of these several were not properly credited for their contributions. For example, one artist was credited for three pictures that belonged to two other artists. Another incorrectly attributed picture was done by an, as yet, unidentified artist. This book details these issues as well as providing many other insights, firsts and interesting facts:
-First complete documentation of the artists of the Omar Khayyam Club of London Menus, 1892-1929
-First time most of the pictures have been seen since their initial publication
-Discovery of numerous incorrect artist credits
-Discovery of an “Unidentified Artist”
-Recognition of artists who were not credited for their contributions
-Corrected lists and timelines of artists and their contributions
-Learn about the artists: a cartoonist, a spy, the man who developed camouflage and more…

Sipping from the Rubáiyát’s Chalice

Sipping from the Rubáiyát’s Chalice. My journey with the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. Martin Kimeldorf. Kimeldorf, 2017. 118 pp. ISBN: 9781537462608.

Contents:
Prefatory map
Introduction
Part I – My Rubáiyát memoir
Chapter 1 – Looking backward to find a way forward
Chapter 2 – Lessons from the Rubáiyát
Part II – The Poets and their Poetry
Chapter 3 – The grand collaboration
Chapter 4 – My favorite Rubáiyát quatrains
Chapter 5 – The sweet and sour chalice rim
Part III – Trying to Grasp the Scheme Entire
Chapter 6 – The artistic connections
Chapter 7 – Sipping the 21st century chalice
Chapter 8 – The Omarian Martini toast

Late night thoughts on reading Fitzgerald’s Omar Khayyam

Late night thoughts on reading Fitzgerald’s Omar Khayyam: my own reflections on a poem that has guided me well. Robert Gary. Independently published, 2017. 55 p. ISBN: 978-1520406756.

Summary:
This book is personal philosophical reflections on reading on Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, as translated by Edward Fitzgerald. Only some of the rubai are included, and the ones selected for including are taken from many different editions of the Fitzgerald translation based on the author’s own preference of which was the best. The French translations are his own amateur attempt to convey the basic meaning of a few rubai into modern French. The illustrations are Gary’s own gouache and watercolor paintings done in 1995.