The fourth quatrain in Edward FitzGerald’s 1859 first edition of The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám is: IV Now the New Year is 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. اکنونکه جهانرا بخوشی دسترسیست هر زنده دلی […]
Month
Category
- Africa (255)
- Asia (1,275)
- Australasia (36)
- Authoritarianism (404)
- Canada (9)
- Culture (585)
- Economy (1,082)
- Agriculture (3)
- Banking (67)
- Boycotts (1)
- Carbon Footprint (6)
- Corporations (56)
- Cryptocurrency (2)
- Debt (21)
- Degrowth (1)
- Democratic Socialism (20)
- Demographic Decline (1)
- Development (26)
- Downward Mobility (1)
- Employment (118)
- Food Insecurity (21)
- Homelessness (17)
- Industry (5)
- Inequality (428)
- Inflation (5)
- infrastructure (11)
- Insurance (1)
- Investment (93)
- Market Crash (12)
- Middle Class (61)
- Monopolies (8)
- Neoliberalism (205)
- Plutocracy (636)
- Poverty (209)
- Poverty (17)
- Regulation (3)
- Retirement (1)
- Sanctions (5)
- Tariffs (4)
- Taxes (38)
- Technology (4)
- Trade (121)
- Weapons sales (8)
- Education (198)
- Energy (1,782)
- Agrovoltaics (3)
- Batteries (53)
- Coal (140)
- Electricity Cost (2)
- Fossil Fuels (332)
- Fracking (50)
- Geothermal (7)
- Green ammonia (5)
- Green Energy (428)
- Green Hydrogen (8)
- Heat Pumps (6)
- Hydroelectric (16)
- Hydroelectric (2)
- Mining (1)
- Natural Gas (107)
- Nuclear Energy (161)
- Petroleum (303)
- Power Grid (12)
- Pumped Hydro (6)
- Solar Energy (436)
- Tar Sands (13)
- Wave Energy (10)
- wind energy (356)
- Environment (2,767)
- Climate Change (1,688)
- Acidification of Oceans (54)
- Agriculture (26)
- Biodiversity (15)
- Climate Refugees (6)
- CO2 (133)
- Dehydration (5)
- Denialism (154)
- Desalinization (5)
- Desertification (163)
- Divestment (2)
- Dust Storms (7)
- Environmental Investment (1)
- Extreme Heat (403)
- Extreme Weather (300)
- Flooding (139)
- Food Supply (3)
- Forests (18)
- Green New Deal (42)
- Green Recycling (2)
- Greenwashing (3)
- Mass Extinction (63)
- Methane (21)
- Net Carbon Zerio (8)
- Nitrous Oxide (2)
- Rainforests (19)
- Rivers (12)
- Sea Level (341)
- Soil Carbon Release (14)
- Super Storms (266)
- wildfires (244)
- Wood Buildings (1)
- Climate Crisis (1,393)
- Drought (299)
- Ecology (2)
- Ecology (12)
- Environmentalism (393)
- Green Transportation (259)
- Ice Melt (141)
- Invasive Species (2)
- Islands (3)
- Oceans (106)
- Oil Spills (8)
- Pollution (234)
- Water (100)
- wildlife (23)
- Climate Change (1,688)
- Europe (1,404)
- Featured (4,387)
- Haiti (1)
- Health (717)
- History (375)
- Human Rights (1,671)
- Apartheid (263)
- censorship (335)
- Death Penalty (31)
- Disappeared (4)
- Displaced and Refugees (584)
- Food Insecurity (31)
- Gay rights (29)
- Genocide (80)
- Human Rights Watch (93)
- Indigenous Rights (1)
- Migrants (4)
- privacy (21)
- Rights (92)
- Slavery and Trafficking (16)
- Starvation (5)
- Torture (103)
- Trans Rights (5)
- Transgender Rights (5)
- Unlawful Imprisonment (111)
- Unlwful Killing (84)
- War Crimes (433)
- War Rape (9)
- International Politics and Economy (2,146)
- Arms Sales (75)
- BRICS (3)
- Corruption (269)
- Crime (133)
- Democracy (337)
- Dissent (456)
- Domestic Terrorism (15)
- Drones (113)
- Espionage (1)
- G20 (1)
- Guns (9)
- Hacking (8)
- Immigration (22)
- Immigration (5)
- Islamophobia (384)
- Migrants (2)
- military (125)
- nationalism (118)
- NATO (38)
- Neocolonialism (1)
- Peace (147)
- Policing (2)
- Politics (309)
- Politics&Culture (21)
- Propaganda (13)
- Race (2)
- Smuggling (1)
- Juan Cole (271)
- Latin America (106)
- media (491)
- Middle East (10,283)
- Arab World (5,350)
- Iran (1,410)
- Israel (994)
- Israel/ Palestine (3,827)
- Israel/Palestine (9)
- Kurds (296)
- Red Sea (1)
- Turkey (608)
- Turkiye (135)
- Patriarchy (11)
- racism (479)
- religion (1,538)
- robots (3)
- Romance (1)
- science (177)
- Secular (West) (9)
- Secularism (30)
- Spirituality (22)
- Statelessness (15)
- Stranded Assets (1)
- Surveillance (283)
- Terrorism (1,096)
- Tolerance (6)
- Uncategorized (8,088)
- United Nations (183)
- Urbanization (4)
- US Foreign Policy (1,418)
- US politics (5,584)
- Anti-War Movement (13)
- Campaign Finance (31)
- Censors (22)
- Central Intelligence Agency (63)
- Charity (1)
- Civil Rights (96)
- Congress (82)
- Conspiracy Theories (24)
- Constitution (417)
- Courts (15)
- crime (12)
- Democratic Party (977)
- Democratic Socialists of America (22)
- Domestic Terrorism (20)
- Drone Warfare (27)
- Espionage (124)
- Ethnicities (397)
- Far Right (403)
- FBI (48)
- Federal Government (1)
- Foreign Policy (204)
- Gay Rights (17)
- Guns (97)
- Immigration (257)
- Israel Lobbies (131)
- Marijuana (4)
- Militarization (274)
- National Security State (477)
- Native Americans (41)
- Nuclear arsenal (8)
- penitentiaries (6)
- Pentagon (580)
- Police (43)
- prison reform (10)
- Private Prisons (4)
- Progressive Politics (15)
- Puerto Rico (30)
- Religious Right (16)
- Reproductive Choice (69)
- Republican Party (3,161)
- Supreme Court (133)
- Voter suppression (36)
- Whistleblowers (7)
- Xenophobia (9)
- Veterans (35)
- Voting Rights (16)
- War (632)
- White Supremacists (241)
- wikileaks (8)
- women (572)
- workers (235)
- Writing (5)
- Youth (219)
poetry
“Those who Stood before the Tavern” – FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám 1:3
Omar Khayyam Persian Poetry
“Awake my little ones and fill the Cup!” FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám 1:2
Persian poetry of life and love
FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám 1:1
British man of letters Edward FitzGerald translated the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám from two Persian manuscripts and published it in 1859. He had substantial help from young Orientalist Edward Cowell, who discovered a manuscript of the Rubáiyát dated 1460 CE in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. Rubáiyát means “quatrains,” and in Persian poetry they consist […]
Palestinian Literature: A Rich Literary Heritage from a Nation in Exile
By Heather Laird, University College Cork (The Conversation) – Palestinian literature is unique. It stands apart for its ability to capture a nation’s identity in exile – shaped not by borders, but by memory, resistance and longing. The settings of modern Palestinian literature include Israel, the occupied territories, countries more broadly in the Middle East, […]
The Deep History of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Letters and Politics on KPFA with Mitch Jeserich: KPFA Special – The History Behind The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam – Interview with Juan Cole (Long excerpt of computer-generated transcript cleaned up by ChatGPT; caveat emptor): Mitch Jeserich: Good day and welcome to Letters and Politics. I’m Mitch Jeserich. “Since we […]
“Raise a Glass with Someone Pretty:” New Year’s Day in the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – I am rewriting a previous essay here and adding some new translations. The world has seen a lot of misery this past year, I thought it might be nice to talk about poetry and rebirth today. In 2020, I brought out a new translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, […]
Piety and Sexuality: The Subaltern Poetry of Mir Taqi Mir
Mir Taqi Mir (1723-1810) is recognized as one of the greatest poets of the Urdu language. He is claimed by Pakistan as one of the premier poets who helped to shape the language and its literature. Of course, he is hardly known in the West. So, we hear him as a subaltern voice. A new […]
Artists Bring Human Richness at Times of Strife – and must be allowed to Speak about the Israel and Gaza
By Lowell Gasoi, Carleton University | – The current Israel-Hamas war has dominated the news for the past few months. As reports of military machinations and diplomatic efforts have gained attention, the art world has struggled with responses to the horrors of this war. For example, controversy and calls for transparency and accountability followed the […]
© 2025 All Rights Reserved