For the earliest collection of verse attributed to Omar Khayyam see my just-published The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam: A New Translation from the Persian (NB: the poem above isn’t in this collection– there are lots of such anthologies, and Whinfield favored the late Indian manuscripts.) Here is what novelist Michael Chabon said about my new […]
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poetry
Fundamentalist Pandemics: What Evangelicals and Khomeinists Could Learn From The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam
This essay by Juan Cole was originally published in Tomdispatch.com. See the original for a perceptive introductory essay by Tom Engelhardt. This spring, the novel coronavirus pandemic has raised the issue of the relationship between the blindest kind of religious faith and rational skepticism — this time in two countries that think of themselves as […]
Iran et États-Unis: l’ironie d’une curieuse affinité
Introduction par Tom Engelhardt 19 mai 2020. Traaduit de l’américain par Jean Granoux Nous sommes dans un moment religieux étrangement viral. Récemment encore, une Maison Blanche dans laquelle peu de choses, y compris la mort d’Américains, comptent plus que le soutien des évangélicaux, a rejeté les directives initiales préparées par les Centers for Disease Control […]
Omar Khayyam Day (5/18) in Lockdown: “My Diamond is your Ecstasy”
The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam: Quatrain of the Day For the earliest collection of verse attributed to Omar Khayyam see my just-published The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam: A New Translation from the Persian (NB: the poem above isn’t in this collection– there are lots of such anthologies, and Whinfield favored the late Indian manuscripts.) Here […]
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam: “All those whose Names are Written in Love’s Book”
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam: Quatrain of the Day All hearts that shine with passion’s radiance, no matter if they pray in mosque or church– all those whose names are written in love’s book have been set free of hell and paradise. trans. Juan Cole, (Whinfield 60) هر دل که در او نور محبت بسرشت گر […]
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam: Why some Sufis drink Wine
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam: Quatrain of the Day A search for good times isn’t why we drink: Wine’s not for going rogue or faithlessness. We sip to bring ourselves to selflessness; that is the secret of my drunkenness. trans. Juan Cole, (Whinfield 66) می خوردن من نه از برای طربست نز بهر فساد و ترک […]
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, “True lovers always are out of their minds”
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam: Quatrain of the Day True lovers always are out of their minds. They’re crazy and distracted and disgraced. When we are sober, life annoys us; but when we’re drunk, what things will be, will be. trans. Juan Cole, (Whinfield 8) عاشق همه ساله مست و شیدا بادا دیوانه و شوریده و […]
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam: “Who brought you, tipsy, here to me?”
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam: Quatrain of the Day Tonight, who brought you, tipsy, here to me? Who brought you to my hand without a veil? –to one on fire because you had been gone– one like an arid wind; who brought you here? trans. Juan Cole, (Whinfield 2) امشب بر ما مست که آورد ترا […]
Poetry of Uplift for our Plague Year: The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (Juan Cole’s New Translation)
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Today my new translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is out from I.B. Tauris/ Bloomsbury. I hope you all enjoy it! I make an argument in the historical epilogue to my translation that this volume is an anthology by many poets and that a custom had grown up of […]