The Rubaiyat

Summary

I first read Edward Fitzgerald’s celebrated, if controversial, version of Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat when I happened upon it in my father’s extensive library when I was a sophomore at Notre Dame High School. I have since read it countless times, even purchasing over 10 different editions of the widely-read poem, which is arguably the most famous Persian literary work in the world.  While there is much debate about Omar Khayyam’s philosophical outlook (is his message Sufi-oriented or existentially hedonistic?), there is no doubting its beauty and its profundity of thought.

Public Domain (P)2019 David Christopher Lane