Search results for ""Author Edward Fitzgerald""
Dover Publications Inc. The RubáIyát of Omar KhayyáM: First and Fifth Editions
£5.74
Oxford University Press Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám
'The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a line Nor 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, Swinburne, and Ruskin. Daniel Karlin's richly annotated edition does justice to the scope and complexity of FitzGerald's lyrical meditation on 'human death and fate'. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
£8.42
Bodleian Library The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám: Illustrated Collector’s Edition
'A Book of Verses underneath the Bough, A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread – and Thou …' When Edward Fitzgerald first published his translation of the poetry of Omar Khayyám in 1859 it had little impact on the literary world. But a chance find in a bookshop by a friend of the Pre-Raphaelites led to it being taken up by William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones, and from then on its popularity grew. Since then, it has become one of the most popular poems. In turn, it has influenced writers such as Matthew Arnold and Thomas Hardy, not to mention many musicians and film-makers in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Omar Khayyám (1048–1131) was a Persian poet and philosopher who lived at the court of Malik Shah. He was also an astronomer and a mathematician. A manuscript of some of his rubáiyát (four-line verses) survives in the Bodleian Library and a copy of this manuscript is thought to have inspired Fitzgerald to begin the translation. Fitzgerald’s mystical and sensual version of Omar Khayyám’s quatrains is freely translated and restructured to follow the course of a day. The epigrammatic stanzas, infused with a melancholy yet consoling philosophy that urges readers to seize the day and ‘make the most of what we yet may spend’, have proved to be enduringly intriguing and popular. Through brilliant imagery they celebrate the sensuous pleasures of life – wine, food, love – while also mourning the painful truth of its brevity. This decorative edition features gorgeous colour illustrations with an oriental theme by René Bull, first published in 1913, which provide a perfect counterpoint to the lines of this extraordinarily influential poem.
£30.00