Conference: Omar Khayyam, Edward Fitzgerald and the Rubaiyat
This week-long conference to be held at Leyden and Cambridge celebrates the 200th anniversary of the birth of Edward FitzGerald (1809) and the 150th anniversary of the first publication of his famous Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (1859).
2009 will be an opportunity to mark the unique achievements of this former Cambridge student (Trinity 1826-30) and his extraordinary contribution to world literature. The Rubaiyat, rather loosely based on the verses attributed to the eleventh-century Persian writer, Omar Khayyam, has become perhaps the most widely known poem in the world. It has been republished virtually every year from 1879 (the year of FitzGerald’s fourth edition) to the present day, and translated into some eighty different languages.
“And, strange to tell, among that earthen Lot
Some could articulate, while others not:
And suddenly one more impatient cried-
‘Who is the Potter, pray, and who the pot?’ “
Irancove @ July 8, 2008