Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan announced Friday that his country would completely cut economic relations with Israel, blocking Israeli ships from docking at Turkish ports and denying Israeli aircraft that might be carrying weapons overflight rights over Türkiye. The latter step imposes extra costs on Israeli cargo flights, which will have […]
“The Bird is on the Wing”: FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám 1:7
Stanza 7 of the first edition of Edward FitzGerald’s translation of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám talks about how little time we have here on earth, and the urgency for us to enjoy life. “Repentance” is a luxury we can’t afford, the poetry affirms: VII. Come, fill the Cup, and in the Fire of Spring […]
Russia, China, reject attempt of E3 to Reimpose Sanctions on Iran over Nuclear Program
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – France, the United Kingdom and Germany (the “E3”) on Thursday sent a formal letter to the UN Security Council asking for snap back sanctions on Iran over its nuclear enrichment activities, which they maintain breach the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) or nuclear deal. The joint letter of […]
More Americans now Sympathize with Palestinians than with Israelis
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – A new opinion poll by the Sadat Center at the University of Maryland finds a sea change in the American public on the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians. For the first time, the percentage of Americans who say they sympathize with Palestinians (28%) exceeds the percentage who sympathize […]
“Red Wine!” – the Nightingale cries to the Rose: FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám 1:6
The sixth quatrain of Edward FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám continues with its celebration of wine-drinking in the morning. It connects ancient Iran’s language of Middle Persian or Pahlavi, spoken in the Sasanian Empire 224–651 AD with the biblical figure of David, said in the Qur’an to be the author of the Psalms. VI. And […]
When even Saudi Arabia Jumps into Solar and Wind Power, You know Change is Here
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Saudi Arabia’s massive oil deposits and its 9.53 million barrels per day (bpd) of petroleum production make it an enormous carbon polluter and the foremost enemy of climate science and of electric vehicles. Some 38% of Saudi power plants use petroleum and 62% of electricity generation is done by domestically […]
Ancient Nomadic Scythians Found to be Ethnically Diverse
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The more genetic history that is done, the more it is clear that ancient ethnonyms, the names given supposed ethnicities, put a variety of peoples under a single rubric. I talked recently about how the Phoenicians, long thought to be what we would now call Lebanese, were actually a multi-ethnic […]
Netanyahu far outscores Putin and George W. Bush in Killing innocent Civilians, at 83% of the Dead
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Political Scientist and liberal Zionist Michael Walzer gave an interview early in the Israeli campaign against Gaza in which he said, “It’s not easy for me to say such a thing, but if there were almost 10,000 Hamas fighters among the 30,000 Palestinians killed, it’s not a bad ratio for […]
“But still the Vine her ancient Ruby Yields:” Fitzgerald’s Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám 1:5
I continue with my proposed project of writing a commentary on the first edition of Edward FitzGerald’s translation of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. FitzGerald was more faithful to the unconventional poetry attributed to Omar Khayyam than is generally thought, but there were moments in his first edition where he drew on images from other […]
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