WeRead Powered by ReaderPub
Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam, Rendered into English Verse cover

Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam, Rendered into English Verse

Chapter 9: Transcriber's Notes:
By Omar Khayyam
Open in WeRead

Explore more books like this:

Classics of LiteraturePoetry

About This Book

A sequence of short, aphoristic quatrains meditates on mortality, the fleeting nature of pleasure and power, and skeptical questions about metaphysical promises. The poet pairs vivid sensory images—wine, the tavern, roses, gardens, and a passing bird—with compact philosophical reflections that urge savoring the present, cast doubt on assurances about an afterlife, and mourn time’s erasure of fame. Recurring motifs of cups, seasons, and decay frame bittersweet paradoxes and ironies, while elegiac touches recall vanished splendors and uncertain destinies. The translation renders these meditations into lyrical, often musical English verse.

Transcriber's Notes:

1. A Table of Contents has been created for this e-text where none existed in the original work.

2. Because the nature of this work is to present and compare the several translations, no spelling or end of sentence punctuation corrections have been made in the Quatrains. The reader will encounter several Quatrains that end without punctuation and the word "Paradist" appearing in Quatrain LXXXI in the "Fifth Edition" may be a typographical error for "Paradise," but has been retained as printed.

3. Spelling corrections made in Biographical Preface:

  • p. xv, "Sufi" to "Súfi" (the great Súfi poet)
  • p. xvi, "Schegel" to "Schlegel" (August Wilhelm von Schlegel)
  • p. xvi, "strongely" to "strongly" (strongly illustrated by)
  • p. xviii, "perfomed" to "performed" (could have performed)

4. Word Variations: ((x) shows number of occurences)

  • "Irám" (1) and "Iram" (2)
  • "Mahmúd" (5) and "Máhmúd" (3)
  • "Péhleví" (1) and "Pehleví" (2)
  • "Rubá'iyyát" (6) and "Rubáiyát" (7)
  • "Shiráz" (1) and "Shiraz" (1)
  • "Sultán" (15) and "Sultan" (4)
  • "Worshipers" (1) and "Worshipper" (2)