Penguin Classics: The Ruba’Iyat of Omar Khayyam

Philosopher, mathematician, poet and astronomer, Omar Khayyam is known and loved throughout the world for his celebrated Ruba’iyat. Writing in the 11th century, Khayyam was one of the most accomplished masters of the new and increasingly popular ruba’i, or two-line stanza, that had been adopted by poets to help them shake off the artifice of conventional court poetry and express their personal feelings with wit and clarity. Khayyam ranges in his stanzas through the most fundamental aspects of human experience and, since the first Victorian translation, his verses have been amongst the most popular in the English language. This new translation recaptures the sceptical and unorthodox spirit of the Persian text by giving as literal an English version of the original verse as possible.