The John Roger Paas Collection

Edward FitzGerald’s „Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám“ and Related Materials.The John Roger Paas Collection. Edited by John Roger Paas. Wiesbaden, Harrassowitz Verlag, 2023. 1184 pages, 3 parts. Part 1+2: Text, XXII, 872 pages; Part 3: Plates, 312 pages.

This catalog describes the private collection of Rubáiyát-related books and materials, covering more than 7,000 items. Part I lists the versions of the Rubáiyát, Part II shows references to the Rubáiyát, Part III describes the Rubáiyát in popular culture whereas Part IV includes related FitzGerald items. All this is recorded in three beautifully edited, large volumes. Volume III is an absolute eye-catcher showing over 2,000 book covers in colour.
What makes this catalog absolutely unique is the enormous amount of editions and publications, described in detail, but even more so the records of the individual versions issued by the commercial publishers like Crowell, Barse and Hopkins, Hurst and Company, Collins, Macmillan, Harrap and many more.
Besides that, there is a wealth of bi(bli)ographic information on publishers, translators, artists, which makes this work an indispensable instrument for the serious study of the translations, editions and reference material of the Rubáiyát.

A Rubáiyát library

The Rubáiyát Library Catalogue is a new free online database of editions and translations of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám.

The catalogue can be used to search for translators, contributors (editors, artists etc.), publishers, as well as language, media type and so on. There is also a range of browsing options. There is no login required.

The contents of the Library database are taken mainly from existing bibliographies and other bibliographic sources. New titles are added regularly and can be browsed under ‘Newly added titles’. As of to date the database contains some 1.500 titles.

New Rubáiyát recordings

We received a notification recently that Librivox has again released a Rubaiyat recording. It is called “A multilingual Rubáiyát”: 14 recordings including a version in Dutch as well as in English, French, German, Greek, Italian and Spanish.

The translations featured in this recording are as follows:

First Edition
French translation by Charles Grolleau
Italian translation by Fulvia Faruffini
German translation by Walter Fraenzel
Spanish translation by Ismael Enrique Arciniegas
Dutch translation by Christiaan Leendert van Balen Jr.
Fourth Edition
Spanish translation by Jose Castellot
Fifth Edition
Italian translation by Mario Chini
French translation by James Henry Hallard
Greek translation by Ernest Crawley
Italian translation by Diego Angeli  – Summary by algy pug

More information is available at the LibriVox catalog page.

New editions

Edward Fitzgerald’s Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Introduction and notes by Robert D. Richardson; original art by Lincoln Perry. New York, Bloomsbury, 2016. ISBN 9781620406564
The mystic Rubáiyát. [Illustrated by Penelope Cline]. Fig Tree Press, 2016.
75 tarot cards.
The quatrains of Omar Khayyam. Translated from the Persian by Joobin Bekhrad. Bloomington, Balboa Press, 2016. ISBN 9781504362542
The Rubáiyát. Along the Red Book Road.Quatrains of Omar Khayyám rendered into English verse by Edward FitzGerald. Introduction by Louis Untermeyer. Paintings by Linda Carter Holman. Oregon House, Red Shoe Publishing, 2015. ISBN 9780976973225.
John Morris-Jones: Penillion Omar Khayyâm. Golygwyd Dafydd Glyn Jones. Bangor, Dalen Newydd, 2015. ISBN 9780993251016

 

New books

Two new titles have been published recently:

Rubá’iyát of Hakim ‘Umar Khayyám. Selected quatrains of Khayyám. Translated into simple Solati Cover 2015English with spiritual interpretation. Edited and translated by Bahman Solati. Boca Raton, Universal-publishers, 2015. 109 pp. ISBN: 978-1-62734-033-5.

In this edition 60 quatrains are literally translated and presented with a spiritual explanation and with the Persian text of the quatrains. The introduction (20 pages) highlights the most important facts, features and history of Khayyám’s rubáiyat. Solati published a number of studies on Hafez, as well as on the impact of Sufism on post-Islamic Persian literature.

The 108 quatrains of Omar Khayyam. Persian – English – Chinese. [Selection and translation] Sen Du 108 quatrainsDu. Litfire Publishing, 2015. 148 pp. ISBN: 978-1-942296-75-1.

This is a somewhat remarkble edition, as it not only presents the quatrains in English, Persian and Chinese, the verses are also classified by subject matter in ten sections. Each quatrain has a title and for each one a rhyme pattern is given for the Persian text. These patterns are collated in a table at the end of the book. The Introduction and the Notes are partially in English and Chinese, whereas the Notes are composed from ‘copy-pasted’ fragments from various older editions and studies, which results in a somewhat cluttered impression. To fully enjoy this edition the reader needs to understand the Chinese language.

The Rubáiyát from the Bodleian ms.

The new website called Concordances of the Rubáiyát, is a project I have been working on for a couple of years. The website presents the quatrains from the Bodleian manuscript of the Rubáiyát that FitzGerald used for his famous translation. Together with the Persian text, taken from Heron-Allen’s edition of 1898, a number of corresponding translations is listed underneath each quatrain.

You will also find a number of (sortable) tables of corresponding quatrains, based on the tables in studies and publications by Anet (1957), Arberry (1949 and 1952),  Heron-Allen (1898), Thompson (1906) and Tirtha (1941). More tables will follow.
Finally there is a list of translations from a number of authors whose quatrains have a correspondence to the Bodleian manuscript.

Work on the project is still in progress, and I would highly appreciate to receive comments, corrections and suggestions.

A new French translation

Mercier Quatrains CoverFrench novelist and essayist Renaud Mercier published a versified adaptation of the quatrains from the Bodleian manuscipt, based on the edition by Edward Heron-Allen of 1898.  In a short introduction the translator explains why the rhyme scheme has been altered to AABB, which means that there is no ‘free’ third line, as not to discomfort French ears.

The booklet is printed on demand, and is also available as a Kindle e-book, from Amazon.

Les quatrains d’Omar Khayyam (adaptation versifiée). Renaud Mercier. 2014.
72 p. ISBN: 9781494315399