The silk road of poetry: Omar Khayyam and Edward FitzGerald

The silk road of poetry: Omar Khayyam and Edward FitzGerald. David Mason.
In: Voices, places : essays. David Mason. Philadelphia, Paul Dry Books, 2018. 210 pp. ISBN: 9781589881235. – p. 33-40

Summary:
Poet David Mason explores surprising connections in geography and time, considering writers who travelled, who emigrated or were exiled, and who often shaped the literature of their homelands. He writes of seasoned travellers (Patrick Leigh Fermor, Bruce Chatwin, Joseph Conrad, Herodotus himself), and writers as far flung as Omar Khayyam, Jamal al-Din al-Afghani, James Joyce, and Les Murray.

Death Deemed Undead. The Fragility of Life and the Theme of Mortality and Melancholia In Omar Khayyam’s ‘Rubaiyat’

Death Deemed Undead. The Fragility of Life and the Theme of Mortality and Melancholia In Omar Khayyam’s ‘Rubaiyat’. Abhik Maiti.
American Research Journal on English and Literature. [2018, in Press]

Summary

he term “Vairagya” refers to a deeply ruminative cynicism arising out of wisdom, knowledge and awareness about the ways of the world especially its perplexing transience and man’s search for meaning in the grand scheme of things. No other topic engenders as much vairagic thinking as does the imponderability of life’s purpose, its relevance and meaning. The manifestation of this thinking can be seen in prose tracts, poetry, schools of philosophy, expositions, sayings and aphorisms. Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat belongs to this manifestation. With death as the final and unyielding reality it was but natural for Omar Khayyam to bring out the perplexing nature of human existence and passions there in for questioning in his rubai.

Translation and optical media: spirit-channeling in Edward FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám

Translation and optical media: spirit-channeling in Edward FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. Karin Littau
In: Amodern 8, 2018.

Summary

This essays gives a snapshot of the mid-Victorian period to address the ways in which Edward FitzGerald, wittingly or unwittingly, co-opted optical media into his translational practice and theory. His stance on translation – like that of his contemporary Dante Gabriel Rossetti – while imbued with older cultural beliefs and practices, such as the transmigration of spirits and souls, is also strikingly contemporary when it comes to one of the key media technologies of his age: the magic lantern. The focus on these little noticed connections between translation and optical media is intended as a step towards a more comprehensive media history of translation that pays attention to translation not only in the familiar contexts of oral and written cultures, but also in visual and screen cultures.

Inhoud …

A translation quality assessment of two English translations of Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam based on Juliane House’s Model (1997)

A translation quality assessment of two English translations of Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam based on Juliane House’s Model (1997). Sonia Ghafouripour; Razieh Eslamieh
International Journal of English language & translation studies, 6 (2018) 2, pp. 217–226

Summary

Translation Quality Assessment (TQA) is a fast-growing sub-field of Translation Studies. It focuses on the relationship between the texts translated from ST into TT. This study applied House’s (1997) TQA model to English translations of Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, in order to evaluate the quality of these translations. It was found out that both translators have successfully translated Khayyam’s poetry. However, the first translation by Saeed Saeedpour (2012) has fewer errors (68 errors) in comparison with second translation (95 errors) by Edward Fitzgerald (1859), as a conclusion, ST native speaker could master the implications better, so he could translate better than the TT native speakers.

Sufi symbolism in Tolib Shakhidi’s televised ballet The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

Sufi symbolism in Tolib Shakhidi’s televised ballet The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Marina N. Drozhzhina, Sitora D. Davlatova
Music Scholarship, 2018, Nr. 1, pp. 66-73

Summary

In the article devoted to one of the most well-known compositions by the Tajik composer Tolib Shakhidi the means of reflection of Sufi symbolism in the synthetic genre of the televised ballet are researched. Stemming from the essential parameters of the symbol (taking into account the formed traditions of study of this category), the authors propose their own perspective of the issue. The role of the symbol is shown in expounding by artistic means of the Sufi path of perfection (Tarikat) as a bridge between the two worlds. The orientation on the multilevel complex of sets (musical, scenographic, choreographical, scenic or poetical) and the specificity of the chief Sufi principle of zohirbotin (the inner vs. the outer) made it possible to carry out the analysis of the indicated phenomenon on the basis of a differentiated approach toward symbol.

“Bois du vin …”. English, French and German translations in Persian polyglot editions of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám

“Bois du vin …”. English, French and German translations in Persian polyglot editions of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. Jos Coumans.
In: Persica, 2017-2018, Vol. 26, p. 103-163.

Summary

Many recent editions of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, published in Iran, have more than one translation, sometimes up to thirty or more. Usually they contain the English translation by Edward FitzGerald, accompanied by a text in Persian and translations in French, German, Spanish, Russian, Urdu and so on. However, it is seldom clear who these translators are, as their names are usually not mentioned. In this article I have tried to identify these quatrains: who was the translator and from which edition were the quatrains selected. Nineteen editions, published in Iran between 1955 and 2016 were examined. The analyses are restricted to translations in English, French and German.

Early artists of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, 1914-1929

Early artists of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, 1914-1929. Danton O’Day. Emeritus Press, 2018. iv, 141 p. ISBN: 9781388734190.

Summary:

This intensely illustrated book focuses on the era from 1914-1929 that followed the Golden Age of Rubáiyát Art, 1884-1913. It reveals the work of 16 illustrators who produced two or more pictures to illustrate the poems and 9 other artists who embellished the poetry with page decorations, title page adornments and unique frontispiece images.
In these pages, the identity of a previously anonymous artist is revealed. New decorators are discovered. Tables and graphic timelines put all the work into perspective as multiple images—many published here for the first time in 90-100 years—reveal the often-unparalleled talent of artists who took their pens, inks and paints to the task of illustrating FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát.