Description
Book Synopsis''The Moving Finger writes; and, having writMoves on: nor all thy Piety nor WitShall lure it back to cancel half a lineNor all thy tears wash out a word of it.''In the ''rubáiyát'' (short epigrammatic poems) of the medieval Persian poet, mathematician, and philosopher Omar Khayyám, Edward FitzGerald saw an unflinching challenge to the illusions and consolations of mankind in every age. His version of Omar is neither a translation nor an independent poem; sceptical of divine providence and insistent on the pleasure of the passing moment, its ''Orientalism'' offers FitzGerald a powerful and distinctive voice, in whose accents a whole Victorian generation comes to life. Although the poem''s vision is bleak, it is conveyed in some of the most beautiful and haunting images in English poetry - and some of the sharpest- edged. The poem sold no copies at all on its first appearance in 1859, yet when it was ''discovered'' two years later its first admirers included Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Swinb
Trade ReviewReview from previous edition 'handsome, richly illuminating' * Boyd Tonkin, Independent *
Table of ContentsIntroduction ; Note on the Text ; Note on the Pronunciation and Transcription of Persian Words ; Select Bibliography ; A Chronology of Edward FitzGerald ; RUBAIYAT OF OMAR KHAYYAM ; Table of Corresponding Stanzas ; Appendix 1: Contemporary Responses ; Appendix 2: Tennyson, 'To E. FitzGerald' ; Variants ; Explanatory Notes
