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1Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (Fitzgerald)

By Omar Khayyám

"Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (Persian: رباعیات عمر خیام). The Rubáiyát (Arabic: رباعیات) is a collection of poems, originally written in the Persian language and of which there are about a thousand, attributed to the Persian mathematician and astronomer Omar Khayyám (1048 – 1123). "Rubaiyat" (derived from the Arabic root word for 4) means "quatrains": verses of four lines." (summary from Wikipedia.)

2Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (Fitzgerald 5th edition)

By Omar Khayyám

The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám is so-named from the Persian word rubáiyát - a Persian word denoting a specific type of two-line stanza. Omar's Rubaiyat is a beautiful anthology of Islamic wisdom literature: originally penned in medieval Persian during the late 11th century AD. <br /><br /> The best known English translations are those by Edward Fitzgerald: his fifth (and last) translation includes a mere 101 quatrains - a fraction of Omar's original work. Fitzgerald's selection loosely groups quatrains by theme; rendering quatrains into English as four-line, rhymed stanzas.<br /><br /> Omar's writings are pervaded by the consciousness of the transient quality of life. In his Rubáiyát, the author ponders the limits of human knowledge and morality: and confronts his readers point-blank with the difficult questions that challenge every generation: <br /><br /> - what is the ultimate benefit derived from human knowledge? <br/> - given human mortality; is is best to guide our lives by the dictates of reason, or sensuality? <br/> - what happens to my soul when I die? <br/> - why did God - the Creator - give me existence? <br/> (Introduction by Godsend)

The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (Persian: رباعیات عمر خیام) is the title that Edward Fitz-Gerald gave to his translation of a selection of poems, originally written in Persian and of which there are about a thousand, attributed to Omar Khayyám (1048–1131), a Persian poet, mathematician and astronomer. A Persian ruba'i is a two-line stanza with two parts (or hemis-techs) per line, hence the word "Rubáiyát" (derived from the Arabic root word for "four"), meaning "quatrains".<br/><br/> The translations that are best known in English are those of about a hundred of the verses by Edward FitzGerald (1809–1883). Of the five editions published, four were published under the authorial control of FitzGerald. The fifth edition, which contained only minor changes from the fourth, was edited after his death on the basis of manuscript revisions FitzGerald had left. FitzGerald also produced Latin translations of certain rubaiyat.<br/><br/> As a work of English literature FitzGerald's version is a high point of the 19th century and has been greatly influential. Indeed, The term "Rubaiyat" by itself has come to be used to describe the quatrain rhyme scheme that FitzGerald used in his translations: AABA. However, as a translation of Omar Khayyam's quatrains, it is not noted for its fidelity. Many of the verses are paraphrased, and some of them cannot be confidently traced to any one of Khayyam's quatrains at all. Some critics informally refer to the FitzGerald's English versions as "The Rubaiyat of FitzOmar", a nickname that both recognizes the liberties FitzGerald inflicted on his purported source and also credits FitzGerald for the considerable portion of the "translation" that is his own creation. In fact, FitzGerald himself referred to his work as "transmogrification". "My translation will interest you from its form, and also in many respects in its detail: very unliteral as it is. Many quatrains are mashed together: and something lost, I doubt, of Omar's simplicity, which is so much a virtue in him" (letter to E. B. Cowell, 9/3/58). (Introduction from Wikipedia)<br/><br/> This recording includes readings of all five editions by Edward Fitzgerald as well as the introduction to the third edition. (Note by Algy Pug)

The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (Persian: رباعیات عمر خیام) is the title that Edward FitzGerald gave to his translation of a selection of poems, originally written in Persian and of which there are about a thousand, attributed to Omar Khayyám (1048–1131), a Persian poet, mathematician and astronomer. A Persian ruba'i is a two-line stanza with two parts (or hemistechs) per line, hence the word "Rubáiyát" (derived from the Arabic root word for "four"), meaning "quatrains". (Introduction by Wikipedia) <br><br>The three translations by women comprise this collection of recordings of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. (Note by Amy Gramour)

LibriVox volunteers bring you 12 recordings of Quatrain from The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. Translated by Henry George Keene. This was the Weekly Poetry project for June 26, 2011.<br><br>The popularity of the celebrated translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam by Edward Fitzgerald has cast many other worthy translations into undeserved obscurity. Among the earlier translators was Henry George Keene (1781-1856) whose translation of one quatrain appeared in 'Fundgruben des Orients' in 1816.<br><br>Instead of the image of the wine and cup popularly associated with the Rubaiyat, the stanza translated by Keene refers to an image even more thoroughly explored in the poem : the potter and his clay. It may be said that while the wine represents the chemistry of Omar's universe, the clay represents the physics. In this context, wine can be seen, not merely as an intoxicant, but rather as the mysterious elixir which enables the clay figures to enjoy a brief experience of life before they crumble into dust.(Summary by Algy Pug.)

Omar Khayyám (1048–1131) was a Persian poet, mathematician and astronomer. In the Western world he is most famous for his many rubáiyát (quatrains), a four line rhyming stanza, which were popularized in an extensively reworked collection in English by Edward Fitzgerald, the first edition of which appeared in 1859.<br><br> However, Fitzgerald was neither the first nor the most scholarly of the translators of Omar Khayyam’s rubáiyát. As well as translating the poems of Hafez and Rumi, Edward Henry Whinfield (1836-1922) also produced a much more extensive English version of the rubáiyát. In 1883 he published a bilingual edition of 500 quatrains, in which the Persian original is presented side by side with the English translation.<br><br> This is a bilingual recording. Each quatrain will be read first in Persian and then in English translation. While listeners unfamiliar with the Persian language will not able to appreciate the meaning of the quatrains in their original form, everyone can at least enjoy the musicality of Omar’s verse, which Whinfield often succeeds in capturing. (Summary by Algy Pug)

LibriVox volunteers bring you 20 recordings of Quatrain by Omar Khayyám. This was the Weekly Poetry project for January 29, 2012.<br/><br/>This is the first known English translation of a quatrain by Omar Khayyám. It appeared in Sir William Jones's "A Grammar of the Persian Language" (1771). (Introduction by Algy Pug)

Richard le Gallienne was an English poet and critic, who, although unfamiliar with the Persian language, had a profound interest in the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. In 1897 he published a collection of 211 quatrains, which was based on earlier English translations, in particular the prose version by Justin Huntly McCarthy. A expanded edition, containing fifty additional quatrains was published in 1901, and this has been used for the present recording. (Summary by Algy Pug)

In 1906, Eben Francis Thompson,scholar and poet, published a limited edition of his translation of the Quatrains of Omar Khayyam. This edition contains 878 quatrains, and represents the most extensive translation of Omar's rubai in any language.<br><br>In the Introduction, Nathan Haskell Dole writes: Mr Thompson has put into English verse this whole body of Persian poetry. It is a marvel of close translation, accurate and satisfactory. He has succeeded in doing exactly what he set out to do - to add nothing and to take nothing away, but to put into the typical quatrain, as determined by Fitzgerald and others, exactly what Omar and his unknown imitators said. (Summary by Algy Pug)<br><br>This project was proof listened by Algy Pug and Bev J. Stevens.

One of the greatest works of poetry in history, this lyric poem presents the deep feelings and emotions of the poet on subjects such as life, death, love, God and destiny. (Summary by Michael Armenta)

Justin Huntly McCarthy (1859 - 1936) was an Irish scholar, author and nationalist politician. In 1889 his prose translations of 466 quatrains of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám was published by David Nutt. An abbreviated edition, containing a shorter introduction and translations of 373 quatrains, was published by David Nutt in 1898, and this has been used for the present recording. (Summary by Algy Pug)

One of the earliest versions of Omar Khayyám's quatrains by an American translator is John Leslie Garner's collection, published in 1888. It contains 152 quatrains, which the translator calls "Strophes." The collection is divided into eleven books, introduced by quotations from Bourne's "Anacreon," Leconte de Lisle, Giordano Bruno, Goethe, Alfred de Musset, Paul Bourget, Marcus Antoninus, St. James, Sully-Prudhomme, Edmund Waller, and Escriva.<br /><br />In his preface Garner says : "The collection might have been made much larger, but it was deemed inadvisable, as Omar's themes are not many, and the ever-recurring Wine, Rose, and Nightingale are somewhat cloying to Occidental senses." Garner further states: "The great questions of human life are of all times and of all ages, and although Omar never tired of struggling with them, he discovered nothing new, and at last, feeling that Death alone was certain, he resigned the task in despair...." Hence, Garner's version is pervaded by a gentle melancholy, and provides a striking contrast with the rubric splendour of Fitzgerald's famous rendering, and is therefore more consonant with current thinking about Persia's most celebrated classic poet. (Summary by Algy Pug)

The translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam by Edward Fitzgerald has remained the most celebrated rendering in English of the Persian poet's work. While several other scholars produced their own translations of the Rubaiyat, yet others contented themselves by just paraphrasing the work of Fitzgerald. This recording features three reworkings of previously published translations. Arthur Guiterman and Ruel William Whitney based their renderings on the Fifth Edition of Fitzgerald's translation and Richard Le Gallienne, a distinguished poet in his own right, compiled his version from a variety of sources, in particular the prose translation by Justin Huntly McCarthy. The edition of the Le Galliene version used in this recording is a special selection made for an American friend by the poet from his larger collection of 261 quatrains, which has previously been recorded for LibriVox. (Summary by Algy Pug)

In 1867 Jean Baptiste Nicolas (1814-1875), scholar and career diplomat, published the first major French translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. This version is in prose and the collection contains 464 verses.<br><br>In Nicolas’ view, Omar was no Epicurean reveler but rather a relentless spiritual seeker – his frequent allusions to wine and lovers are metaphors, expressive of a divine discontent that can only be resolved by union with a mystical beloved. However, most other translators and commentators regard Omar as a man who sampled and enjoyed both earthly and philosophical delights.<br><br>In 1903 Frederic Rolfe, the self styled “Baron Corvo”, published an English translation of Nicolas’ version. In the same year Robert Arnot published a collection of translations which also included an English version of Nicolas’ text. While both these translations are in prose, Rolfe’s version, with its heraldic and evocative verbiage, and its presentation of Omar as a more rounded personality than Nicolas’ etiolated mystic, can be considered, as with Fitzgerald’s celebrated translation, as an independent work of art. (Summary by Algy Pug)

In addition to Edward Fitzgerald, many authors have produced versions of the quatrains of Omar Khayyam. This collection features the work of some less well known English translators. In an article in The North American Review, 1869, Charles Eliot Norton included a prose translation of thirty-nine quatrains from the monumental French translation by J.B. Nicolas. In 1887 a translation of 50 quatrains by Michael Kearney was published in a collection of the works of Edward Fitzgerald. The Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Vol. 46, 1877, contains a selection of nine quatrains translated by Peter Whalley. A series of fifty-five quatrains translated by H. G. Keene was published in an article "Loose Stanzas" in The Calcutta Review in January 1895. In The Manchester Quarterly, vol. 18, Jan. 1899 twenty rubai were rendered into English verse by George Milner from the literal prose translations of Edward Heron-Allen. In 1899 Tinsley Pratt published translations of twenty-five quatrains in "Persephone in Hades and other poems.” In 1913 thirty-two quatrains translated by George Plimmer were released in his “Omariana”, which was privately printed. This project is a sequel to two previous Rubaiyat miscellanies. https://archive.org/details/rubaiyat_miscellany_1311_librivox https://archive.org/details/second_rubaiyat_miscellany_1711_librivox - Summary by Algy Pug

16Multilingual Rubaiyat

By Edward FitzGerald and Omar Khayyám

The most famous translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is that by Edward Fitzgerald into English, of which five editions were published between 1859 and 1889. Many translations into other languages have been published since that time. A number of translators, who were not conversant with the Persian language, chose to translate one of Fitzgerald's versions rather than the original. This project features several of these translations, based on the first, fourth and fifth editions of Fitzgerald.<br> Translations featured in this recording:<br> First Edition<br> French translation by Charles Grolleau<br> Italian translation by Fulvia Faruffini<br> German translation by Walter Fraenzel<br> Spanish translation by Ismael Enrique Arciniegas<br> Dutch translation by Christiaan Leendert van Balen Jr.<br> Fourth Edition<br> Spanish translation by Jose Castellot<br> Fifth Edition<br> Italian translation by Mario Chini<br> French translation by James Henry Hallard<br> Greek translation by Ernest Crawley<br> Italian translation by Diego Angeli - Summary by algy pug

While the translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam by Edward Fitzgerald has become the best known English language version of this classic poem, it is neither the most complete or accurate rendering of Omar's oeuvre. Among others, E.A.Johnson (also known as Johnson Pasha) spent nearly thirty years translating all 762 verses of the Lucknow Edition of the Rubaiyat. Apart from this singular publication, the life and activities of the translator remain hidden in obscurity. - Summary by Algy Pug

The quatrains of Omar Kheyyam of Nishapour. Now first completely done into English verse from the Persian, in accordance with the original forms, with a biographical and critical introduction by John Payne. London, "Printed for the Villon Society by private subscription and for private circulation only", 1898. - Summary by Algy Pug