Edward FitzGerald’s translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam was a worldwide publishing phenomenon from about 1880 until the 1970s, and is still beloved by many readers. Rubaiyat is actually a plural, meaning “quatrains.” The singular would be ruba’i, with a long a and “a” long “i.” The word is from the Arabic root for […]
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Omar Khayyam
The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam on the New Year
Trans. Edward FitzGerald (1859) | – IV 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. VII Come, fill the Cup, and in the fire of Spring Your Winter-garment of Repentance fling: The Bird […]
Omar Khayyam on New Year
The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam Trans. Edward Fitzgerald I. Awake! for Morning in the Bowl of Night Has flung the Stone that puts the Stars to Flight: And Lo! the Hunter of the East has caught The Sultan’s Turret in a Noose of Light. II. Dreaming when Dawn’s Left Hand was in the Sky I […]
For World Poetry Day, Verses Straight From Persia’s Heart
By Salam Aleik | ( GlobalVoices.org) | – – How might someone in Tajikistan, the only Persian-speaking republic in the former Soviet Union, describe a beautiful and lively night spent in the company of family and friends? Perhaps he or she would use the word dilafruz, which literally means ‘firing the heart’. Azerbaijani folk art […]
Informed Comment Fundraiser: Support Independent Journalism!
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Exciting news, folks: Informed Comment is in the midst of a major redesign and aims at becoming a magazine. The redesign is not cheap, and neither will be our plans to attract more writers for the site. And, we undertake this endeavor at a time when […]
Painting of the Day: Girl w/ Wine Cup, Isfahan, Iran, 1650
British Museum | Persian Watercolor in style of Muhammad Qasim | – – “Girl with a wine cup Style of Muhammad Qasim Safavid Iran, Isfahan, 1640-50 Ink and opaque watercolour on paper By 1650 drawings of young men or women holding wine cups in the countryside had become standard rather than hackneyed fare in Persian […]
Garden Party, 1640: Iranian Lady entertains European Gentleman
Metropolitian Museum of Art | Isfahan Tile | – – “At the center of this scene, a lady leans on a bolster pillow and languidly holds out a filled cup. Making somewhat immodest eye contact with the viewer, she displays burn marks, associated with mystics and lovers, on her lower arms. A male figure in […]
Image of the Day: “Jonah and the Whale” (Persian Miniature)
Metropolitan Museum of Art | (Persian Miniature Painting) | – – “Jonah and the Whale”, Folio from a Jami al-Tavarikh (Compendium of Chronicles [A medieval World History]) Inscription: In Persian, on the arms of Jonah: “The sun’s disk went into darkness, Jonah went into the mouth of the fish.” The story of Jonah and the […]
Love and Wine (Poem of the Day: Abu Nuwas of Baghdad)
Abū Nuwas al-Hasan ibn Hanī al-Hakamī (756–814) | Love and Wine | – – Ho! a cup, and fill it up, and tell me it is wine, For never will I drink in shade if I can drink in shine. Curst and poor is every hour that sober I must go, But rich am I […]
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