Culture

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 […]

Omar Khayyam

Now the New Year is Reviving old Desires: FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám 1:4

Juan Cole

The fourth quatrain in Edward FitzGerald’s 1859 first edition of The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám is: IV Now the New Year is reviving old Desires, The thoughtful Soul to Solitude retires, Where the WHITE HAND OF MOSES on the Bough Puts out, and Jesus from the Ground suspires. اکنونکه جهانرا بخوشی دسترسیست هر زنده دلی […]

Omar Khayyam

“Those who Stood before the Tavern” – FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám 1:3

Juan Cole

Omar Khayyam Persian Poetry

Omar Khayyam

“Awake my little ones and fill the Cup!” FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám 1:2

Juan Cole

Persian poetry of life and love

Omar Khayyam

FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám 1:1

Juan Cole

British man of letters Edward FitzGerald translated the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám from two Persian manuscripts and published it in 1859. He had substantial help from young Orientalist Edward Cowell, who discovered a manuscript of the Rubáiyát dated 1460 CE in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. Rubáiyát means “quatrains,” and in Persian poetry they consist […]

Featured

Stephen Colbert and I: The Tightening of Right-Wing Censorship

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Paramount Global corporation has fired late night comedian Stephen Colbert even though Colbert dominated his time spot. Paramount owns CBS. In the age of creeping Trumpian fascism, this firing may be more than a typical studio cost-cutting measure taken in the shadow of a looming merger. I feel badly […]

Displaced and Refugees

Comics and Graphic Novels can empower Refugees to tell their Stories on their own Terms

The Conversation

By Dominic Davies, City St George’s, University of London and Candida Rifkind, University of Winnipeg (The Conversation) – There are more refugees in the world today than at any other point in history. The United Nations estimates that there are now more than 120 million people forcibly displaced from their homes. That is one in […]

film

Cheers And Jeers As Cannes-Winning Director Jafar Panahi Returns To Iran

Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty

By RFE/RL’s Radio Farda ( RFE/ RL ) – The awarding of the prestigious Palme d’Or to It Was Just An Accident, the latest film by Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, has sparked widespread reactions in Iran and across the global Iranian diaspora. The accolade at the 78th Cannes Film Festival marks a significant milestone for […]

Books

Why ‘The Coin’ by Palestinian writer Yasmin Zaher has won the Dylan Thomas Prize

The Conversation

(The Conversation) – Daniel G. Williams, Swansea University (The Conversation) – Yasmin Zaher’s remarkable novel The Coin has won the Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize for writers under the age of 40. This is not a story that begins at the beginning. Instead, its narrator starts with dirt and an obsession with cleanliness, but suggests […]