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The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
Author: Robert D. Richardson, Omar Khayyam
A work of staggering poetic beauty that has inspired the likes of John Ruskin, T. S. Eliot, and Robert Bly, The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam was written in eleventh-century Persia and was largely unknown in the West until it was translated into English by Edward FitzGerald in 1859. In FitzGerald's hands, the individual Persian quatrains of the origi...  more »
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ISBN-13: 9781620406564
ISBN-10: 162040656X
Publication Date: 6/14/2016
Pages: 144
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0 stars, based on 0 rating
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
Book Type: Hardcover
Other Versions: Paperback
Members Wishing: 1
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sphinx avatar reviewed The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam on + 97 more book reviews
I cannot read or speak Persian/Farsi, so this refers only to the English interpretation, without reference to the original.

I found this to be a beautiful, touching, and contemplative poem, which can be read literally, as a celebration of wine and the beauty of the world that surrounds us, or symbolically, as a reminder to welcome in to one's soul the 'wine of divine light'. Khayyam implores the reader to remember that life is short and a beautiful gift, and that one needs no church or priest or holy book to access heaven, as it is available all around us, if only we can sense its presence. This is the sort of mysticism found in Walt Whitman, and if you like one, you'll probably like the other.

The translation seems very fluid and expresses the dual meaning of the text well.


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