The Рубаї Of

Here is Edward FitzGerald's original translation of the Рубаї, the collection of poems attributed to the Persian назвами астрономів and mathematician, Omar Khayyam. FitzGerald's distinctive version (1859), with its oriental and imagery sensual warmth, made an exotic appeal to the Victorian imagination. Its scepticism fitted a time of increasing religious doubt; its romantic melancholy resonated with the writings of Matthew Arnold and Thomas Hardy; and its epicureanism heralded the Aesthetic Movement.