OMAR KHAYYÁM

Omar and the Pre-Raphaelites, by Bob Forrest.

The story of the 'discovery' of The Rubaiyat by the Pre-Raphaelites, and the enthusiasm it inspired in the likes of Rossetti, Swinburne, Burne-Jones and Morris is too well known to need repeating here. Yet, despite their enthusiasm, it surprises me how little of their work was directly inspired by Omar.
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Omar Khayyam. 119 kwatrijnen vertaald en berijmd door Ewoud Bon. Barneveld, Boekenbent, 2011. 127 p.
ISBN 97890-8570-908-4

Translation into Dutch from FitzGerald, and a number of English, German and French versions.

To order this book: http://shop.boekenbent.com/product_info.php?products_id=627

Liederen van Khayyam. Sadegh Hedayat ; vertaalwerk [uit het Perzisch en aant.]: Ali Soleimani. Drachten, Het Talenhuis, 2013. 350 p.
ISBN: 978-90-78660-21-7

Hommage aan de 110e geboortedag van Sadegh Hedayat, 17 februari 1903, Teheran, Iran.
Translation of: Taraneh-haye Khayyam

To order this book: http://www.talenhuis.com/boeken/lied/lied.htm

The year 2009 marked the two hundredth anniversary of the birth of the English poet Edward FitzGerald, and the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the publication of the first version of his poem The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. For the Bodleian Library (Oxford, UK) this was occasion to display three items from its holdings which illustrate the development of this celebrated work of English literature: The Ouseley MS 140, a transcript by FitzGerald from the copy that E.B. Cowell made from the Ouseley MS, and FitzGerald's first edition of 1859.

Visit the exhibition following this link: http://www.odl.ox.ac.uk/digitalimagelibrary/oriental_exhibition.html

After the limited edition in 2009 of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám Folio Society publishes a new edition. It is based on the 2009 deluxe version, including the introduction by S. Byatt and the illustrations by Niroot Puttapipat, but in a smaller size, and a more comfortable prize of £ 80.00.

Illustrations by Niroot Puttapipat
Quarter-bound in leather with crushed silk sides.
72 pages.
16 colour illustrations.
Book size: 11¾" × 8¾".

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"The Great 'Umar Khayyám: A Global Reception of the Rubáiyát" has been published last month.

The book The Great ’Umar Khayyam, which consists of 18 essays about Khayyam’s influence, shows that traces of Khayyam can be found throughout Western literature and culture. Dutch poets such as Leopold and Boutens were inspired by him, for instance, but the quatrains also made their mark in 20th century painting and music. Seyed-Gohrab: ‘The Rubáiyát has even been applied in politics. The Russian president Putin cited Khayyam as his favourite poet. Immediately, a selection of Putin’s favourite quatrains was published, which was also translated into Iranian. The Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs didn’t want to get left behind and published his own volume, which was again translated into Russian. As such, Khayyam was used as a vehicle for communication and rapprochement. I don’t know a single non-European from the Middle Ages with such a level of influence.’

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The volume is the result of a two days conference held in Leiden, July 2009, as part of a number of events that took place to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Edward FitzGerald's first version of The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám and the transaltor's 200th birthday.

Asghar Seyed-Gohrab (Ed.)
The Great Omar Khayyam – A Global Reception Of The Rubáiyát.
Leiden University Press, 2012. 288 p.
ISBN: 978-908-72-8157-1
Price: € 44,95

Playwright/director, Christopher Jacobs, and composer, Dr. John Sharpley have produced what they believe to be an exciting new theatrical form, through the fusion of grand opera, physical theatre, illusionism, and dance. This new work, entitled “Open Then The Door”, they define as a musico-dramatico fantasy based on The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyàm, as translated by Edward FitzGerald, presents fictional possibilities in FitzGerald’s emotional and intellectual journey in creating his translation, in which one witnesses Omar Khayyam and his world as a construct in the mind of FitzGerald as he imagines Omar may have lived and struggled to rationalise it, set against the world in which FitzGerald lived and may also have struggled to rationalise.
For this project additional collaborators are wanted … collaborators with the vision and courage to help guide and lead the work to its successful production and presentation on the international stage. Contact Chris on stagesense@gmail.com. See also: Christopher Jacobs <www.stagesense.com>, John Sharpley <www.johnsharpley.com>

The Avalon Pers printed a selection of twelve quatrains (in Dutch) by Hans Warren, in a limited edition of 25 copies.

Prof. Khadim Ali Hashmi informs us of his translation of Khayyám's Algebra in Urdu: "Omar Khayyam ka Algebra", ”[عمرخیام کا الجبرا], published by The National Language Authority (Muqtadira Qaumi Zuban), Islamabad (Pakistan), 2003. This is the first ever translation of Khayyam’s Algebra in Urdu language. The book also contains a brief review of the life, work and poetry of Omar Khayyam.
Forthcoming is a comprehensive book on Omar Khayyam:
"دانشِ مشرق" (Danesh-e-Mashriq), in Urdu by Prof. Khadim Ali Hashmi, to be published from Lahore, Pakistan. The author can be contacted at: khadim.hashmi@gmail.com

Canadian actor David Calderisi has produced a CD of his Rubáiyát performance, with music by Kousha Nakhaei on the kamancheh, a traditional Persian stringed instrument. The presentation tells the story of how the poem came to be written; and what it went on to become — the most widely-published poem in the English language. Then follows a performance of the poem in the character of the old Persian sage, speaking to his young lover, in a secluded place, on the first day of Spring, almost a thousand years ago.
Together with the CD comes a handsome booklet containing the text. It can be ordered from Calderisi’s website: http://www.okdac.net/. Price: $ 15.00 CND plus handling and shipping.

The new issue of Omariana [1.650 KB] is now available: Vol. 11, Nr. 2 of 2012

"The Great 'Umar Khayyám: A Global Reception of the Rubáiyát" will appear at the beginning of September 2012. In cooperation with Leiden University Press and Amsterdam University Press, there will be a book launch on Tuesday, 11 September 2012 in Spui 25, Amsterdam, from 19.00 to 21.00.

The book launch consists of poetry recitation in Persian and Dutch (translated by J.T.P. de Bruijn), followed by lectures delivered by Jos Biegstraaten, Rokus de Groot and Michiel Leezenberg.

Read the invitation flyer [584 KB] (in Dutch)

The Omarian meditations of C.F. Volney. By Bob Forrest
In his book "Ruins: or Meditation on the Revolutions of Empires" (1791) C.F. Volney contemplates on the derelict state of the once great city of Palmyra. His thoughts are strikingly echoed in FitzGerald's verse 16, with its transient procession of "Sultan after Sultan with his Pomp", and his verse17, with its ruins inhabited by the Lion and the Lizard.

Jaarboek 6 - Liber Amicorum voor Jos Biegstraaten. Uitgegeven ter gelegenheid van het twintigjarig voorzitterschap van het Nederlands Omar Khayyám Genootschap. Woubrugge, Avalon Pers, 2012.

Infinite transformation: The modern craze over the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam in England and America, c. 1900-1930. Michelle Kaiserlian. Proquest Dissertations and Theses, 2009.

Martin & Mason databases on the Rubaiyat now accessible
Over the past ten years Bill Martin and Sandra Mason have created a number of digital databases relating to the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyámand its publication. These databases, which provide information that is searchable on a variety of fields, are now available for researchers to access, via the DSpace service of the University Library in Cambridge. The databases can be viewed via the following link http://www.dspace.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/242254.
The material covers five areas: published versions of the Rubáiyát (all languages); editions; reference works dealing with the Rubáiyát; musical works relating to the Rubáiyát; manuscripts of the Rubáiyát. More information is available via the link above and/or directly from sandrabill@omarkhayyamrubaiyat.com.

Ruba’iyat of Khayyam. Translation and Introduction Paul Smith. Introduction to Edward FitzGerald's Ruba'iyat by R.A. Nicholson. New Humanity Books, 2012.

A selection of recently added content

March, 2013. Omar and the Pre-Raphaelites. The Pre-Raphaelites were strongly influenced by the Rubaiyat, but Bob Forrest is surprised how little of their work, despite their enthusiasm, was directly inspired by Omar.
February 2013. Full text versions were added of the edition by John Payne, C.J. Pickering, Arthur B. Talbot and E.K. Cutter (English). Also two recent translations into Dutch were listed: Ewoud Bon and Ali Soleimani.
December 2012. Full text versions were added of the editions of E.A. Johnson (Johnson Pasha) and A. Guiterman (English)
November 2012. Full text versions were added of the editions of H.G. Preconi (German), J.H. Hallard (French), R.W. Whitney (English) and M.A. Varesi (English)
September 1, 2012: RSS feeds are now available for the chapter on Latest, and on (new) Translations (See Archives)
September, 2012: some reorganisation of content.
August 31, 2012: A new issue of Omariana, vol. 11, nr. 2 [1.650 KB]
August, 2012: The Omarian meditations of C.F. Volney, by Bob Forrest
July 8, 2012: The full text version of the translation by Jules de Marthold (1842-1927) was added in the section on French translators
February 25, 2012: A new issue of Omariana, vol. 11, nr. 1 [920 KB]
January 3, 2012: Audiofiles, recorded for LibriVox, were added to various translations.
December 31, 2011: Three new editions were listed, published or to be published in 2010, 2011 and 2012.
December 18, 2011: The full text version of the translation by Jose Castellot (1918) was added in the section on Spanish translators
December 17, 2011: The full text versions of the translations by John Leslie Garner (1888 and 1898) were added in the section on English translators
November 7, 2011: A list of translations, including full text versions, by Richard Le Gallienne, was added. See the section on English translators
November 5, 2011: A full text version of the translation (1902) of the Bodleian verses, by Charles Grolleau was added, as well as his translation (1917), into French of the 75 quatrains from FitzGerald's first edition. See the section on French translators
October 31, 2011: A pdf-version of the French translation by C. Anet and Mirza Muhammad, was added to the site. See the section on French translators