Album Notes

Depending on the sources of reference that one chooses, Omar Khayyam is believed to have composed somewhere between 200 to 600 Rubaiyyat (Quatrains). Some are known to be authentic and are attributed to him, while others seem to be combinations of corruption of his poetry, and whose origins are more dubious.

The Rubaiyyat of Khayyam is among the few masterpieces that have been translated into most languages, including English, French, German, Italian, Russian, Chinese, Hindi, Arabic and Urdu.

The most famous translation of the Rubaiyyat from Farsi to English was undertaken in 1895 by Edward J. Fitzgerald. It appears that in many of his translations he has combined a few of the Rubaiyyat to compose one, and sometimes it is difficult to relate the original to the translated version. However, he has tried his utmost to adhere to the spirit of the original poetry.

The album of Rubayyiat-e Hakim Omar Khayyam is produced to convey the spirit of the poetry through the calm background music and the warm voice of Bahman Solati. This album is produced and recorded at the University of Manchester, for the school of Arts, Histories and Cultures. The edited book of Rubaiyyat has also been published in Tehran by Bahman Solati who has also translated the poems into modern English language.

The very famous quatrain of Khayyam is the following poem which is track three the second verse, with the following translation:

This clay pot like a lover once in heat
A lock of hair his senses did defeat

The handle that has made the bottleneck its own seat
Was once the embrace of a lover that entreat.




Marjaneh Alemi
UM