Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám

Omar Khayyam (18 May 1048 – 4 December 1131), was a Persian polymath, known for his contributions to mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, and poetry. He was born in Nishapur, the first capital of the Seljuk Empire, a contemporary to the First Crusade. As a mathematician, he is most notable for his work on the classification and solution of cubic equations, where he provided geometric solutions by the intersection of conics. As an astronomer, he calculated the duration of the solar year with remarkable precision and accuracy, and designed the Jalali calendar, a solar calendar with a very precise 33-year intercalation cycle which provided the basis for the Persian calendar that is still in use almost 1000 years later.As a poet, he popularized the quatrain, and wrote the “Moving Finger” quatrain which is one of the most popular quatrains in the Anglosphere. It reads:“The Moving Finger writes; and having writ,Moves on: nor all your Piety nor WitShall lure it back to cancel half a Line,Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it”The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám is the title that Edward FitzGerald gave to his 1859 translation from Persian to English of a selection of quatrains (rubāʿiyāt) attributed to Khayyam, and these quatrains were translated again from the original in 1897 by the English poet and author Richard Le Gallienne. This version of the Rubaiyat contains the Le Gallienne translation. Read more