A book of poems in class,

A jug of wine, a loaf of bread and thou

Beside me singing in the Wilderness --

Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow!

The quatrain above comes from the second edition of Edward Fitzgerald The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, 1868. Fitzgerald Treatment of Persian poet Omar Khayyam's poems brought to the attention of the Western world more than 700 years after the poems were written.

OmarKhayyam

Omar Khayyam (1048-1123) was born in Nishapur, the capital of Khorasan, Persia, now Iran. He was born Ghiyath al-Din Abul Fateh Omar Ibn Ibrahim al-Khayyam. Little is known about his past life, but the largest manufacturer name Khayyam means 'tent' and it means that both the father and Omar Ibrahim may have practiced that trade.

Omar was educated locally and graduated from a treatise on algebra in his youth. He became aware of the presence of Sultan Malik Shah Omar bidRoyal Court. The vizier Nizam al-Mulk Omar has a pension that allowed him to devote himself to research in his favorite subjects of mathematics and astronomy. He was commissioned to build an observatory in Isfahan, and was later accused of eight other scientists to change the Muslim calendar. Omar has published several books on astronomy and algebra, in competition with the study of modern Europe.

Even if identified, wrote as a mathematician and astronomer, Omar's poems during hisLife. His preferred style was to write four-line stanzas, and it is believed that he has written more than a thousand of them over the course of his life. Not all manuscripts survived, but about 600 poems have been attributed to him, however, critics agree that not all of these were written by Omar Khayyam.

The Rubaiyat is a plural word referring to the four-line stanzas that said Omar. Each quatrain is properly called stealing. In modern convention Rubaiyat now refers to fourLine of a poem with the rhyme scheme AABA each row of which expresses a complete thought.

The main topics Rubaiyat of Omar, the mortality of the human spirit and the fragility of human existence. The tone of his poems is often pessimistic. Omar writes vividly about the impossibility of understanding the universe. As a counterpoint, also writes about the wisdom of life at this moment, the exchange of friendship and companionship to enjoy the wine in the tavern.

NotAs expected, Omar was seen with suspicion by orthodox Muslims poems. As the wine and drunkenness were prohibited by Islamic law, efforts were made to interpret metaphorically his poems on wine, as in the spiritual or romantic intoxication.

Omar said a student at the end of his life: "My grave is to be situated where the north wind may scatter roses over it." Omar Khayyam died in Nishapur in 1131 According to the biography of Ali ibn Azidu'l-Baihaqi, Omar called his familylisten to his last will and said, "Oh Lord, you have the sum of my ability. Forgive me, because really, my knowledge is my recommendation that you know."

Treatment Edward Fitzgerald

The world knew very little about the poetry of Omar Khayyam, Edward Fitzgerald, the second edition of 'The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam in 1868. The first edition of 250 copies was published in 1859 anonymously and unnoticed. But the 1868 edition was made surprisingly well.The output 101 quatrains of Omar Khayyam treated as a long poem. Many critics believed that it was an English poem with Persian allusions.

Fitzgerald Omar poems do not translate literally. He interpreted freely and can also combine some of the poems of a poem entirely new. But his translation was enthusiastic and skillful, faithful to the spirit of the poetry of Omar Khayyam, if not its words.

In fact, Fitzgerald said of his work not as a translation, but asCorruption. Fortunately, the work of Fitzgerald is so good that some in the Western world, given the fact that some of his own creation, the work of Fitzgerald.

Fitzgerald created with iambic pentameter quatrains. That is, the device contains in each line five meters, and each foot is an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable iambic. The model for the four lines rhyming AABA.

Note: the last line of "A book of poems under the branch, whereFitzgerald chose the word enow produce the final iambic foot.

Other language

There are many sources to see and read Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam in the original language of Persian.

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam has been translated into many languages around the world. Many English translations follow Fitzgerald. If interested and for the sake of comparison, here are some additional translations of "a book of poems, under the branches are"Quatrain.

Since the first edition of Fitzgerald, still in iambic pentameter:

Here with a loaf of bread beneath the bough,

A bottle of wine, a book of poems - and you

Beside me singing in the Wilderness --

And Wilderness is Paradise enow.

Exit in 1882 by Edward Henry Whinfield:

In the spring sweet grassy bank I sought

And beyond the wine and a fair Houri brought;

And when people called me gracelessDog,

There was another thought to paradise!

The translation of 1888 by John Leslie Garner

Yes, dear, if the laughs spring blows

O'erflowing with you next to me and the Cup

Spending the day in this meadow Waving,

And the dream, giving no thought for the sky.

Recovered in 1898 prose translation by Edward Heron-Allen:

I want some 'ruby red wine and a book of verse,

Just enough to keep me alive, andhalf a loaf is necessary;

And then, I and thou should sit in a desolate place

Better than the empire of the sultan is.

Finally, just for fun, here Wendy Cope transcription of the struggle of South London amateur poet, a figure that has been created, Jason Strugnell's translation:

Here with a bag of potato chips under the branch,

A can of beer, a radio - and

Beside me half asleep in Brockwell Park

And Brockwell Park is Paradiseenow.

At least he got the right enow part.