Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

This paper introduces the presence of Islam and Islamic culture in the work of Fernando Pessoa. It consists of a chronological and textual overview of these themes in the author's writing and intellectual course. Focusing primarily on Pessoa's literary estate and private library, this paper points out and presents Pessoa's interests in Islam, Islamic Philosophy, Arabic literature, Omar Khayyām and al-Andalus. A hermeneutical, cultural and bio-bibliographical framework is proposed and further research possibilities are suggested. The paper is followed by a publication of twelve texts from the author's literary estate concerning these themes.

In this thesis, the elements of existentialism theory have been accurately identified in "Bartleby, the Scrivener" by the celebrated American writer "Herman Melville," and in "Ba Kamale Taasof" (Unfortunately) written by the well-known Iranian writer "Bahram Sadeghi." Then, the stories have been successfully compared in the light of existentialism theory, fulfilling all the research goals. Considering the background of the thesis, it's worth mentioning that no articles, research, or theses have been written about the comparative analysis of "Bartleby, the Scrivener" and "Ba Kamale Taasof." This could be due to the translation of Melville's story from English to Farsi more than a hundred years after its publication. In this thesis, the main characters of the stories have been compared to determine their differences and similarities, as well as to discover the effects of the societies they lived in on their behaviors, lives, and deaths. Additionally, considering the different approaches of various existential theorists to existentialism, the thesis follows the theories of Jean-Paul Sartre. Through a thorough review of existentialism in the thesis and a comparative analysis of "Bartleby, the Scrivener" and "Ba Kamale Taasof," it has been demonstrated that the elements of existentialism, including alienation, loneliness, anxiety, and civil disobedience, are not dependent on a specific time and place. Humanity has always faced and will continue to face these challenges.

This is a brief look upon the sceptic ideology lying beneath the poems of the two paramount poets, William Shakespeare and Omar Khayyam. My objective is to compare the resemblance found in the poems of these two poets in order to prove that even though they lived in different milieus, they shared an identical sceptic perspective towards death.

This article explores the source and the meaning of the eleven quatrains quoted by modern Japanese writer Dazai Osamu (1909-1948) in his last complete novel, Ningen shikkaku (No Longer Human, 1948). Although dubbed as “rubaiyat”, which would indicate that they are translations from the work of classical Persian poet and mathematician Omar Khayyam (1048-1131), the poems do not seem to match any of the known English translations from his work. This article explores the origin of the Japanese quatrains in Dazai’s novel, as well as their possible relevance for his literary work overall.

The year 1859 is a seminal moment for both Persian and English poetry. In that year, the English poet Edward Purcell FitzGerald (1809–1883) published an adaptation of the quatrains attributed to the Persian philosopher poet Omar Khayyam, under the title The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, the Astronomer-Poet of Persia. It was to become one of the world’s best-known poems. Although several poets before FitzGerald had translated specimens of Persian literature into English, his translations transmitted the Persian sentiments into English poetry, and have remained popular in world literature ever since. At first the translation was not successful at all, as the history of the first edition indicates. The book contained 75 quatrains and was published anonymously in an edition of 250 copies, 40 of which were bought by FitzGerald himself. With this poor start, the remaining books were sent to Bernard Quaritch’s bookshop, where they were shelved and later placed in a box outside the door for sale. In 1861, Whitley Stokes and John Ormsby discovered the book. Stokes purchased copies of the Rubáiyát for his friend Dante Gabriel Rossetti, who introduced the book to the Pre-Raphaelite circle. Its enthusiastic reception among the Pre-Raphaelites led FitzGerald to publish a second edition of the Rubáiyát in 1868 to which he added 35 quatrains. The cult of Rubáiyát was born. The Rubáiyát ran to a third edition in 1872, a fourth in 1879, and a fifth, posthumous, edition in 1889 (Karlin 2009, l–lvi). FitzGerald’s quatrains have been the source for hundreds of translations in various languages. Some 310 editions have sold millions of copies around the world.

Western Sufism is sometimes dismissed as a relatively recent "new age" phenomenon, but in this book, Mark Sedgwick argues that it actually has very deep roots, both in the Muslim world and in the West. In fact, although the first significant Western Sufi organization was not established until 1915, the first Western discussion of Sufism was printed in 1480, and Western interest in some of the ideas that are central to Sufi thought goes back to the thirteenth century. Sedgwick starts with the earliest origins of Western Sufism in late antique Neoplatonism and early Arab philosophy, and traces later origins in repeated intercultural transfers from the Muslim world to the West, in the thought of the European Renaissance and Enlightenment, and in the intellectual and religious ferment of the nineteenth century. He then follows the development of organized Sufism in the West from 1915 until 1968, the year in which the first Western Sufi order based not on the heritage of the European Middle Ages, Renaissance and Enlightenment, but rather on purely Islamic models, was founded. Later developments in this and other orders are also covered.

Western Sufism shows the influence of these origins, of thought both familiar and less familiar: Neoplatonic emanationism, perennialism, pantheism, universalism, and esotericism. Western Sufism, then, is the product not of the new age but of Islam, the ancient world, and centuries of Western religious and intellectual history. Drawing on sources from antiquity to the internet, Mark Sedgwick demonstrates that the phenomenon of Western Sufism not only draws on centuries of intercultural transfers, but is also part of a long-established relationship between Western thought and Islam that can be productive, not confrontational.

The introduction covers the impact of the old FitzGerald translation on modern English and American literature.  The poetry is then translated into contemporary English, with a mixture of blank and free verse.  Part III is a long historical epilogue on the origins of the unconventional and skeptical quatrain in medieval Iran, with comments on authorship and authoriality.

The present paper seeks to address and examine Edward FitzGerald’s globally-known poem afterlife, The Rubáiyát. Translation can serve as a force for literary renewal and innovation. For many years translation was regarded as a marginal area within comparative studies, now it is acknowledged that translation has played a vital role in literary history and great periods of literary innovation tend to be preceded by periods of intense translation activity. The significance of FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát lies in how the poem was read when it appeared and in the precise historical moment when it was published. The impact of FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát was such that on the one hand it served as a model for a new generation of poets struggling to make the skepticism and pessimism a proper subject for poetry, while on the other hand it established a benchmark for future translators because it set the parameters in the minds of English-language readers of what Persian poetry could do. The present chapter tries to show that FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát had a role in forming pre-modern English poetry, notably Housman’s poetry, in terms of form and content. Housman’s A Shropshire Lad and FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát have undeniable similarities.

از احوال خیّام اطلاع زیادی در دست نیست. گویا مجموعة اشعار مدوّنی نداشته و اگر هم داشته به دست ما نرسیده است. قدیم‌ترین مجموعه‌های رباعیات منسوب بدو که در دست است در نیمۀ دوم سدۀ نهم هجری قمری گرد آورده شده و مشحون است از رباعیاتی که قطعاً و یقیناً از خیّام نیست. ناچار باید اشعار اصیل او را به مرور ایّام در لابه‌لای متون کهن یافت و این البته کاری است که پژوهشگران تا حدّ ممکن انجام داده‌اند. اما همچنان ممکن است اشعار یا اطلاعات تازه‌ای از خیّام در کتب قدیم دستیاب شود. موضوع این یادداشت از جملۀ همین آگاهیهای تازه و موثق است که هم ارزش تاریخی دارد و هم شعری.

Literary impact of Persian has found on the Assamese in addition to linguistic influence. Many writers have received the inspiration from the Persian literature. Besides this, some translating works from Persian have been found in the Assamese literature. These translations works have immensely contributed to the development of Assamese literature in special and promotion of cultural synthesis in particular. One of them is Omar Khayyam, the poet, philosopher, writer, astronomer, mathematician and much more. In this article a study has been done on the impact and influence of Omar Khayyam on Assamese literature.