Audiobooks by Omar Khayyam

"The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is a collection of quatrains (four-line verses) attributed to the 12th-century Persian poet, mathematician, and astronomer, Omar Khayyam. While the original Persian text is complex and open to interpretation, it is the English translation by Edward Fitzgerald that popularized the work in the Western world. Fitzgerald's translation portrays a world view that is often characterized as: Carpe Diem: Seize the day, emphasizing the fleeting nature of life and the importance of enjoying the present moment. Skepticism: Questioning traditional beliefs and religious dogma, particularly in relation to the afterlife. Epicureanism: Focusing on pleasure and the senses as the primary goods in life. Fatalism: Accepting one's fate and the inherent unpredictability of existence."

Edward Fitzgerald, Omar Khayyam (Author), Bryan Matthews (Narrator)

Audiobook

[Russian] - Omar Khayyam: Pearl Thought [Russian Edition]

"Omar Khayyam is a Persian poet, philosopher, mathematician, and astronomer. In the world he is known as the author of one of the most beautiful poems in world literature in the form of Rubaiyat. The wisdom of his creative legacy still affects us, staying as fresh and relevant as a thousand years ago. There is even a tarot book Khayyam 'Rubio'! Well, perhaps you can get answers to your important questions, listening to this book. After all, it contains the most lively, ironic and invariably wise sayings of Omar Khayyam."

Omar Khayyam (Author), Stanislav Ivanov (Narrator)

Audiobook

Rubiyat

"The Rubaiyat Of Omar Khayham is a beautiful work of art much admired from generation to generation. Written in the eleventh century it is here brought to this audiobook by the great and accomplished actor offstage and screen Alfred Drake. Together with the beautiful Sohrab And Rustum by Matthew Arnold it too has its roots in Persian culture."

Omar Khayyam (Author), Alfred Keen (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (Fitzgerald Version)

"The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám is the title that Edward Fitz-Gerald gave to his translation of a selection of poems, originally written in Persian and of which there are about a thousand, attributed to Omar Khayyám (1048–1131), a Persian poet, mathematician and astronomer. A Persian ruba'i is a two-line stanza with two parts (or hemis-techs) per line, hence the word "Rubáiyát" (derived from the Arabic root word for "four"), meaning "quatrains". The translations that are best known in English are those of about a hundred of the verses by Edward FitzGerald (1809–1883). Of the five editions published, four were published under the authorial control of FitzGerald. The fifth edition, which contained only minor changes from the fourth, was edited after his death on the basis of manuscript revisions FitzGerald had left. FitzGerald also produced Latin translations of certain rubaiyat. As a work of English literature FitzGerald's version is a high point of the 19th century and has been greatly influential. Indeed, The term "Rubaiyat" by itself has come to be used to describe the quatrain rhyme scheme that FitzGerald used in his translations: AABA. However, as a translation of Omar Khayyam's quatrains, it is not noted for its fidelity. Many of the verses are paraphrased, and some of them cannot be confidently traced to any one of Khayyam's quatrains at all. Some critics informally refer to the FitzGerald's English versions as "The Rubaiyat of FitzOmar", a nickname that both recognizes the liberties FitzGerald inflicted on his purported source and also credits FitzGerald for the considerable portion of the "translation" that is his own creation. In fact, FitzGerald himself referred to his work as "transmogrification". "My translation will interest you from its form, and also in many respects in its detail: very unliteral as it is. Many quatrains are mashed together: and something lost, I doubt, of Omar's simplicity, which is so much a virtue in him" (letter to E. B. Cowell, 9/3/58). (Introduction from Wikipedia) This recording includes readings of all five editions by Edward Fitzgerald as well as the introduction to the third edition. (Note by Algy Pug)"

Omar Khayyam (Author), Algy Pug (Narrator)

Audiobook

A Rubaiyat Miscellany

"The translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam by Edward Fitzgerald has remained the most celebrated rendering in English of the Persian poet's work. While several other scholars produced their own translations of the Rubaiyat, yet others contented themselves by just paraphrasing the work of Fitzgerald. This recording features three reworkings of previously published translations. Arthur Guiterman and Ruel William Whitney based their renderings on the Fifth Edition of Fitzgerald's translation and Richard Le Gallienne, a distinguished poet in his own right, compiled his version from a variety of sources, in particular the prose translation by Justin Huntly McCarthy. The edition of the Le Galliene version used in this recording is a special selection made for an American friend by the poet from his larger collection of 261 quatrains, which has previously been recorded for Librivox. (Summary by Algy Pug)"

Omar Khayyam (Author), Algy Pug (Narrator)

Audiobook

Quatrains of Omar Khayyám in English Prose

"Justin Huntly McCarthy (1859 - 1936) was an Irish scholar, author and nationalist politician. In 1889 his prose translations of 466 quatrains of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám was published by David Nutt. An abbreviated edition, containing a shorter introduction and translations of 373 quatrains, was published by David Nutt in 1898, and this has been used for the present recording. (Summary by Algy Pug)"

Omar Khayyam (Author), Algy Pug (Narrator)

Audiobook

Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (Le Gallienne)

"This appendix to the 1580 edition of the Book of Concord is a compilation of Scripture passages together with citations from the fathers of the ancient Christian Church. They are intended to show that the Christology of the Formula of Concord differs neither in substance nor in terminology from Christian Orthodoxy. (Introduction by Jonathan Lange)"

Omar Khayyam (Author), Algy Pug (Narrator)

Audiobook

Strophes of Omar Khayyám

"One of the earliest versions of Omar Khayyám's quatrains by an American translator is John Leslie Garner's collection, published in 1888. It contains 152 quatrains, which the translator calls "Strophes." The collection is divided into eleven books, introduced by quotations from Bourne's "Anacreon," Leconte de Lisle, Giordano Bruno, Goethe, Alfred de Musset, Paul Bourget, Marcus Antoninus, St. James, Sully-Prudhomme, Edmund Waller, and Escriva. In his preface Garner says : "The collection might have been made much larger, but it was deemed inadvisable, as Omar's themes are not many, and the ever-recurring Wine, Rose, and Nightingale are somewhat cloying to Occidental senses." Garner further states: "The great questions of human life are of all times and of all ages, and although Omar never tired of struggling with them, he discovered nothing new, and at last, feeling that Death alone was certain, he resigned the task in despair...." Hence, Garner's version is pervaded by a gentle melancholy, and provides a striking contrast with the rubric splendour of Fitzgerald's famous rendering, and is therefore more consonant with current thinking about Persia's most celebrated classic poet. (Summary by Algy Pug)"

Omar Khayyam (Author), Algy Pug (Narrator)

Audiobook

Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (Fitzgerald)

"The Rubáiyát is a collection of poems, originally written in the Persian language and of which there are about a thousand, attributed to the Persian mathematician and astronomer Omar Khayyám (1048 - 1123). "Rubaiyat" (derived from the Arabic root word for 4) means "quatrains": verses of four lines." (summary from Wikipedia.)"

Omar Khayyam (Author), Alaaious (Narrator)

Audiobook

Quatrain

"LibriVox volunteers bring you 20 recordings of Quatrain by Omar Khayyám. This was the Weekly Poetry project for January 29, 2012. This is the first known English translation of a quatrain by Omar Khayyám. It appeared in Sir William Jones's "A Grammar of the Persian Language" (1771). (Introduction by Algy Pug)"

Omar Khayyam (Author), LibriVox Volunteers (Narrator)

Audiobook

Quatrain from the Rubaiyat

"LibriVox volunteers bring you 12 recordings of Quatrain from The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. Translated by Henry George Keene. This was the Weekly Poetry project for June 26, 2011. The popularity of the celebrated translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam by Edward Fitzgerald has cast many other worthy translations into undeserved obscurity. Among the earlier translators was Henry George Keene (1781-1856) whose translation of one quatrain appeared in 'Fundgruben des Orients' in 1816. Instead of the image of the wine and cup popularly associated with the Rubaiyat, the stanza translated by Keene refers to an image even more thoroughly explored in the poem : the potter and his clay. It may be said that while the wine represents the chemistry of Omar's universe, the clay represents the physics. In this context, wine can be seen, not merely as an intoxicant, but rather as the mysterious elixir which enables the clay figures to enjoy a brief experience of life before they crumble into dust.(Summary by Algy Pug.)"

Omar Khayyam (Author), LibriVox Volunteers (Narrator)

Audiobook

Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, Collected Translations

"The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (Persian: ??????? ??? ????) is the title that Edward FitzGerald gave to his translation of a selection of poems, originally written in Persian and of which there are about a thousand, attributed to Omar Khayyám (1048-1131), a Persian poet, mathematician and astronomer. A Persian ruba'i is a two-line stanza with two parts (or hemistechs) per line, hence the word "Rubáiyát" (derived from the Arabic root word for "four"), meaning "quatrains". (Introduction by Wikipedia) The three translations by women comprise this collection of recordings of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. (Note by Amy Gramour)"

Omar Khayyam (Author), Amy Gramour (Narrator)

Audiobook