RUBAIYAT (roo-bi-yile) OF OMAR KHAYYAM. The collection of quatrains known as the •Rubilyit of Omar Khayyam,* owes its fame less to its author, the astronomer poet of Persia, than to its translator or adapter, Edward FitzGerald, whose version has become one of the monuments of English literature, and the; inspiration of innumerable imitations and parodies.
The original author, Ghias 'uddin Abel Fa* Omar ibn Ibrahim-al-Khayyem, was born in Naishapitr, Persia, early in the 11th century A.D.— some hold as early as 1020— and died at a. ripe old age about 1123. He was a man of profound learning, by profession a mathema tician and astronomer, one of eight scientists chosen by the Sultan Malik-Shah to reform the Mohammedan calendar. No less was he a philosopher, poet and humorist, a man of bold and independent thought and many-col ored fancy; and in his leisure moments he embodied his varied reflections in stray quat rains that have come down to us as the of Omar Khayyam.' The word simply means "quatrains,' being the plural of arubily.) The rubily is a complete poem of four lines, the first, second and fourth lines rhyming, complicated triple, quadruple and even quintuple rhymes being employed. The third line is usually, but not always, left un rhymed. There exist in various Persian manu scripts about 1,200 rubilyit attributed to Omar, not more than 500 of •which are considered authentic by even the most generous critics. These rubilyit, each presenting a distinct thought and unrelated to any other rubaly, ap pear: in the Persian manuscripts arranged betically according to the terminal letters of the rhymed lines. Edward FitzGerald, in cre sting his remarkable English version first pub lished in 1859, not only selected, combined and remolded ' such rub's as appealed to his genius, but also arranged them so as to pro duce an effect of continuity of thought wholly lacking in the original. He thus evolved a
meditative poem or elegy of marvelous melody and power, emphasizing, however, one phase of Omar's thought to such a degree that a con temporary wrote, "The Rubeiyat will come in time to be recognized as the highest expressions of The philosophy of the Ruhalyat as presented by FitzGemld is in effect: "We know the loveli-; ness of this world, we know nothing of the Hereafter; but God, who created us as 'we are will not punish us for being as He made us; let us then enjoy the only life of which we are sure, before we inevitably pass into darknesil' Without denying that this may be considered the old Persian's dominating thought, it must be added that Omar, being at least nominally a Mohammedan, had his moments of piety, and never 'wrote anything as daring as Stanza LXX XI of FitzGerald's version. Some have even maintained that Omar was a devout mem ber of the Safi sect; and insist on allegorical and religious interpretations of his praises of wine and beauty. But we are safest in con sidering the quatrains as expressions of the conflicting moods of an essentially human per sonatity.
FitzGerald's version in the author's fourth and final edition contains 101 quatrains. There are numerous other more extensive and more literal, though far less delightful translations in French, German, English, Hungarian and Nor wegian. Several of these translations may be found, presented with FitzGerald's work, in the