In 1859, Edward FitzGerald translated into English the short, epigrammatic poems (or "rub�iy�t") of medieval Persian poet Omar Khayy�m. If not a true translation--his Omar seems to have read Shakespeare and the King James Bible--the poem nevertheless conveyed some of the most beautiful and haunting images in English poetry, and some of the sharpest-edged. By the end of the century, it was one of the best-known poems in the English language, admired by Swinburne and Ruskin. Daniel Karlin's richly annotated edition focuses on the poem as a work of Victorian literary art, doing justice to the scope and complexity of FitzGerald's lyrical meditation on "human death and fate." Karlin provides a fascinating critical introduction which documents the poem's treatment of its Persian sources, along with its multiple affiliations with English and Classical literature and to the Bible. A selection of contemporary reviews offers an insight into the poem's early reception, including the first attack on its status as a translation.
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Introduction
Note on the Text
Note on the Pronunciation and Transcription of Persian Words
Select Bibliography
A Chronology of Edward FitzGerald
RUB�IY�T OF OMAR KHAYY�M
Table of Corresponding Stanzas
Appendix 1: Contemporary Responses
Appendix 2: Tennyson, 'To E. FitzGerald'
Variants
Explanatory Notes
Daniel Karlin is Professor of English at the University of Sheffield. His books include Proust's English and Browning's Hatreds.
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Distributor: Oxford University Press USA
Publication Date: 07-01-2010
Pages: 240
Measurements: 5.000in X 7.600in X 0.700in X 0.400lb
