Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

I was listening to BBC World Service this evening and I discovered that today was the 150th anniversary of the publication of Edward FitzGerald's translation of the now famous Rubaiyat. Yesterday was also the 200th anniversary of FitzGerald's birth.

I remember reading some verses for English Literature class.

You can read the entire poem here.

Here are a few memorable verses:

Here with a Loaf of Bread beneath the Bough,
A Flask of Wine, a Book of Verse - and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness -
And Wilderness is Paradise enow.
...

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.

I discovered this amazing recitation of the Rubayat. What a voice!





Somehow the poem reminds me of the Book of Ecclesiastes