Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful, I would recommend it to anyone!
Review: I first read this work of art a month ago, and many times after that. My parents were surprised that I, being 14 years of age, liked it, although I think anyone with a bit of an understanding towards life would enjoy it. Being Persian myslef, and knowledgable towards the history of Omar Khayyam and his time,I read this book in Persian, English and French. Although I think that without doubt anyone who is able to should read the Persian edition, the English translation did not lose the touch and certain charm of the works. Don't underestimate your children either. I mean hey, give it a shot, they might like it!
Rating:
Summary: The prose of mortality, temporality and eternal Joy!
Review: If anyone who can so clearly pose the question of mortality and temporality of our existence it is Omar Khayyam. Khayyam understood the meaning of not being in control of our lives and deaths, and found the limits of our freedom. He understood what was impotant in life. And through his life, his teachings and his Rubaiyat conveyed the meaning, though in somewhat of a cryptic form, nevertheless complee and intact to us.The worldly hope men set their hearts upon Turns ashes or it prospers; and anon Like snow upon the deserts dusty face Lighting a little hour or two is gone Khayyam understood that it is our fate, our destiny, something beyond our controls to be born into this world. He also understood that death was an inevitable fate for anyone who was ever born. He understood that our bodies come from dust and clay, and return to clay. He understood the fantasy of concerning ourselves with the future, as well as the neurosis of staying in our past. He saw that all we have is this ever slipping moment, this now, which itself has a timeless quality. And we, that now make merry in the room They left, and summer dresses in new bloom Ourselves must we beneath the court of Earth Descend, ourselves to make a couch for whom He understood that in life what is important is that deeper joy and love for which we have infinite yearning, as well as capacity to both receive and emanate. His Rubaiyat force us to ask those ultimate existential questions, and lead us down a path that, unless we are lost along the way or are destabilized by the abyss which we must traverse, must inevitably reach the same answer. The ultimate truth that in life all that matters is love and joy. Ah love! Could though and I with fate conspire To grasp this sorry scheme of things entire Would not we shatter it to bits and then Re-mould it nearer to the hearts desire! On the whole Omar Khayam is an over achieving genius; besides being a poet and a philosopher; he is well regarded for this prionciples on mathematics, astronomy; he had calculated the solar calander with precise accuracy. He was knowlegeble and held discussions in sciences as medicine and chemistry.
Rating:
Summary: Haunting, and thought provoking
Review: Just a few of Omar's best lines, to whet your apetite...."The moving finger writes and having writ moves on, nor all your piety and wit shall lure it back to cancel half a line, nor all your tears wash out a word of it"....heavy stuff eh! and my personal favourite....." Ah love should though and i with fate conspire, to grasp this sorry scheme of things entire, should not we shatter it to bits and then remould it nearer to the hearts desire"...a good one for valentines.
Rating:
Summary: The one poet worth reading
Review: Khayyam's poetry is a beacon of honesty and courage in a writing form rife with the romantic,silly and childish.Poetry has almost exclusively been the domain of the mystifiers and the pretentious.Khayyam's message is looked down upon by the people who don't have the courage to be pessimists and instead hide behind their daddy in the sky or in some metaphysical womb.Khayyam, like Lucretius,looked honestly around him and drew the conclusions we all know deep down to be true but are usually to weak to admit.Khayyam knew life was an absurdity and the greatest absurdity was not to enjoy yourself and do and think as you please.After all, this is the REAL religion that the world has always adhered to,whatever its pretenses to the contrary.After reading Khayyam almost all other poets seem insipid by comparison.Every poem is exquisite and has the ring of truth.Never mind if Fitzgerald's translation is not faithful to the original Persian;the miraculous,yet simple truth of Khayyam comes through just the same.If you buy one book of poetry in your life make this book the one.
Rating:
Summary: One of the giants poets ever!
Review: Kheyyam signed his name to the immortality with this set of poems where the inspiration motives are specially the wine , th elove , the nosthalgy and obviously the love .
Fitzgerald mada a worthable work of translating to English .
You feel a real sense of paganism poetry through the several Rubaiyats . Omar was a remarkable mathematician too .
I personally recommend to read this book with the Antar Symphony of Rimski Korsakov as musical background and obviously a sensitive human being .
A real song to the senses and the soul .
Rating: 
Summary: Translating Khayyum
Review: Many people accuse the Fitzgerald translation of deviating too much from the Persian original. Personally, I don't like to see poetry translated from one language to another in verse either, because I will always feel that something has been missed. However, if it is not translated in verse, then it is no longer has the quality of the original poetry. So what shall we do here? I think that Fitzgerald has done an excellent job in translating Khayyum. It is said that good poetry has a balance of two things - beautiful language and meaning. Ftizgerald has achieved this. If you are looking for a more "literal" translation, to get exactly what Khayyum said and thought, then you are better to look to a word for word, unrhyming translation, that has taken care to keep the authentic quatrains only - not all the ones ascribed to him. The "Persian Heritage Series" has produced a good translation like this. Also beware of "commentaries" telling you that Omar Khayyum was a sufi, mystic, or whatever... and that his verses have special meanings outside of the literal interpretation. It is true that poets in Persia used such imagery as "may" (wine), "maykhana" (tavern), "saqi" (cup-bearer), "yar-e nazanin" (lovely maiden) etc. etc. to bring across meanings of God, and heaven, though this doesn't mean that these things are always implied. One of the qualities of poetry is that it is ambiguous. It must be recognised that people like Omar Khayyum and Hafez were living in times of religious persecution. If you said something against the established sect, then you could be accused of "kufr" (blasphemy) and punished accordingly. Khayyum himself was accused of kufr, as was Hafez in his time through a line of poetry he had written. Hafez protected himself through the ingenious adding of another line of poetry, clearing his name. Khayyum protected himself because he was a guest at the royal court. :)
Rating:
Summary: Ruba'iya't of Omar Khayya'm
Review: Omar Khayya'm was known as the astronomer-poet of Persia. This work would be perfect for a collegiate literary course emphasizing multi-cultural aspects in classic world writings. This
poetry traverses many different cultural
perspectives. Here are some tantalizing samples: "Now the New Year reviving old Desires,
The thoughtful Soul to Solitude retires,
Where the White Hand of Moses on the Bough
Puts out, and Jesus from the Ground suspires." Alongside these lines is a picture of a young lady strolling
in the countryside ostensibly searching for something or
someone in vain. The combination of the poetry and the
drawing provide the reader with much to ponder. Surprisingly,
the musings of a Persian writer make reference to Jesus
in a work written in the 12th century or thereabouts. Let's look at another quatrain. "And this I know: whether the one True Light,
Kindle to Love, or Wrath consume me quite,
One Glimpse of It within the Tavern caught
Better than in the Temple lost outright." The writer praises the act of coming to the truth. Apparently,
he doesn't care whether or not it is arrived at in the Tavern.
Alongside is a penciled drawing of a drunk man raising a
glass of wine to the heavens. Another quatrain addresses our futile attempts to change fate: "Ah, Love! could thou and I with Fate conspire
To grasp this sorry Scheme of Things entire,
Would not we shatter it to bits-and then
Re-mould it nearer to the Heart's Desire! " The lines describe changing the scheme of things. If we could
change things, what would we put in place of the old and whose
desires would be placated? G-d gave us free will and the
individual and collective control over destiny. When things
go wrong, how can we blame G-d for the fateful turn. It is
man (person) who controls destiny through free will.
When free will goes awry, it is not G-d's fault. Rather,
unintended twists in the road are consequences of our own
choices devoid of influences by G-d or any deity. Let's look at one final quatrain-just for measure: "Ah, fill the Cup:- what boots it to repeat
How Time is slipping underneath our Feet:
Unborn To-Morrow and dead YESTERDAY,
Why fret about them if To-Day be sweet! " The author conveys the importance of enjoying a good day.
He asks that we not spoil celebration with worries about
the morrow or regrets about things that are done and cannot
be changed in any event. Relish the present-especially if it
is an enjoyable present because tomorrow is yet unborn,
uncontrollable and maybe irrelevant. This work has stood the scrutiny of 800 or so years. It is
written thoughtfully and with a modicum of wit. I would
recommend reading it in order to explore an important
multi-cultural experience rarely enunciated in Western writings.
Rating:
Summary: Raise your glass to the transience of life
Review: Omar Khayyam (1048-1131) was a Persian mathematician whom we in the West know primarily as the poet of the Rubaiyat (literally: quatrains). In fact most people only know Omar Khayyam for the 101 individual quatrains translated and arranged by Edward Fitzgerald in 1859. Fitzgerald's work was more than an ordinary translation, one critic wrote, it was so inspired that some people believed it was an English poem with Persian allusions. Omar Khayyam writes about the fragility and transience of life, Oh threats of Hell and Hopes of Paradise!
One thing at least is certain - this Life flies;
One thing is certain and the rest is Lies;
The Flower that once has blown for ever dies. (#63) and about the inspiration to be found in wine and friendship: A Book of Verses underneath the Bough,
A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread - and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness -
Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow! (#12) In his best moments he rises above what some critics saw as cynical lament and reaches an appealing state of amused resignation: Myself when young did eagerly frequent
Doctor and Saint, and heard great Argument
About it and about: but evermore
Came out by the same Door where in I went. (#27) The world of Omar Khayyam - Islamic Persia in the eleventh century - demands some explanation to fully appreciate the poetry. Unfortunately, my edition (Peter Pauper Press, White Plains, NY, 1991) did not contain footnotes to the quatrains and only the shortest of introductions. Scholarly comment is often indicated for key words in poetry. Take the word "wine", for example. It is interesting to be reminded that the subject of wine was inflammable because wine and drunkenness were prohibited by the principles of Islamic law. However, "wine" can also be interpreted as a metaphor referring to spiritual or romantic intoxication. Bottom-line: I recommend to enjoy this book with a glass of full-bodied Italian red wine of the sort the Italians like to call "wine for meditation."
Rating:
Summary: the various translations are very different
Review: One should be wary when purchasing or reading a copy of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. The various translations are VERY different. They are based on different original manuscripts, which do not contain exactly the same material. The FitzGerald translation is much more of an interpretation of Khayyam than a translation, although it is a wonderful piece of work in and of itself, it is victorian baroque romanticism not Sufism. From my own personal experience (I've read much of three of the translations, the ones by FitzGerald in the 1850s, by a professor from Cambridge made in the mid 1900s, and by Robert Graves in the 1960s) I would suggest that you go with the most modern translation (which is no longer the translation by Graves). The Graves translation definately is a work of both deep philosophical ideas and of beautiful poetry.
Rating:
Summary: signpost on the road to the abandonment of God
Review: Published in 1859, the same year as Darwin's Origin of Species, the Rubaiyat, in addition to being great poetry, is a key signpost on the road to the abandonment of God by Western Civilization. After meager initial sales, the poems were passed around by such figures as Richard Burton, Dante Gabriel Rosetti, Robert Browning, William Morris & Swinburne and the praise from these men lead to it's becoming a bestseller. FitzGerald, was born on March 31, 1809 in Suffolk. He married unhappily and escaped from his marriage by devoting himself to translating Omar Kayyam's poetry. Kayyam was a Persian mathematician and astronomer, born in Persia on May 18, 1048. The rubaiyat are sort of like haiku in that they were not really the product of poets, they were mostly written by Persian intellectuals.. They are two line stanzas, split in two again. The first, second and last lines rhyme; the third is unrhymed. FitzGerald was captivated by Kayyam's work, but in translating them, he made them very much his own, rather than slavishly reproducing them word for word: VII 25 Come, fill the Cup, and in the Fire of Spring 26 The Winter Garment of Repentance fling: 27 The Bird of Time has but a little way 28 To fly--and Lo! the Bird is on the Wing. XI 41 Here with a Loaf of Bread beneath the Bough, 42 A Flask of Wine, a Book of Verse--and Thou 43 Beside me singing in the Wilderness-- 44 And Wilderness is Paradise enow. XXIII 89 Ah, make the most of what we yet may spend, 90 Before we too into the Dust descend; 91 Dust into Dust, and under Dust, to lie, 92 Sans Wine, sans Song, sans Singer, and--sans End! XXVI 101 Oh, come with old Khayyám, and leave the Wise 102 To talk; one thing is certain, that Life flies; 103 One thing is certain, and the Rest is Lies; 104 The Flower that once has blown for ever dies. XXXIV 133 Then to this earthen Bowl did I adjourn 134 My Lip the secret Well of Life to learn: 135 And Lip to Lip it murmur'd--"While you live 136 Drink!--for once dead you never shall return." XXXVII 145 Ah, fill the Cup:--what boots it to repeat 146 How Time is slipping underneath our Feet: 147 Unborn TO-MORROW, and dead YESTERDAY, 148 Why fret about them if TO-DAY be sweet! XXXIX 153 How long, how long, in infinite Pursuit 154 Of This and That endeavour and dispute? 155 Better be merry with the fruitful Grape 156 Than sadden after none, or bitter, Fruit. XLIX 193 'Tis all a Chequer-board of Nights and Days 194 Where Destiny with Men for Pieces plays: 195 Hither and thither moves, and mates, and slays, 196 And one by one back in the Closet lays. LI 201 The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, 202 Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit 203 Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, 204 Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it. These resulting poems reflect the atheism of the two men and are pretty much nihilist, existential and decadent. But they struck an immediate chord with the dissipated intellectuals of FitzGerald's time and have naturally retained their appeal in our Godless age. Moreover, as A.S. Byatt writes, "FitzGerald's verse is insidiously memorable. It sings in the mind, controlled by its steady rapid rhythm and its strong, emphatic, reiterated rhyme, which in turn is made mysteriously open by the one unrhymed line in each verse." The end product is some of the most memorable poetry of all time. And the final one reproduced above, "The Moving Finger writes", is one of the most quoted poems in the English language. This is a work worth knowing, both for its beauty and because of the influence of the malignant message it conveys, which sadly has become the ethos of the age--Carpe Diem! GRADE: C
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