![]() ![]() However, interest in the book started to build only after it was discovered in the 1860s (being sold at a princely sum of one penny a piece) by the poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti, who popularised it amongst the pre-Raphaelites (a group of English painters, poets and critics).ħ5 years after its initial publication, in 1934, a copy of the Rubáiyát in its original wrapper was sold for $9,000. ![]() By that time, the third edition of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam (a collection of rubái or quatrains) had been published, and Khayyam had taken the Western literary world by storm.įitzGerald’s translation of Khayyam’s poetry first appeared in 1859. On September 2, 1863, English art critic John Ruskin wrote a letter to the unknown translator of the poetry of Omar Khayyam (1048–1123)-an astronomer and mathematician from Persia-saying, ‘I do with all my soul pray you to find and translate some more of Omar Khayyam for us: I never did – till this day – read anything so glorious, to my mind as this poem.’ He concluded the letter with the words ‘More – more – please more.’ The translator-Edward FitzGerald-did not read the letter until 1872. However, in the process, FitzGerald not only transcreated Khayyam’s poetry but his identity as well, turning the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam into one of the most controversial works of translations. ![]() ![]() Edward FitzGerald’s translation of Khayyam’s verses as the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam has been published in over 2000 editions and translated into more than 70 languages. ![]()
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