Audible Free Audiobooks

The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (Persian: رباعیات عمر خیام) 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)     [chương_files]  

The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám is so-named from the Persian word rubáiyát – a Persian word denoting a specific type of two-line stanza. Omar’s Rubaiyat is a beautiful anthology of Islamic wisdom literature: originally penned in medieval Persian during the late 11th century AD. The best known English translations are those by Edward Fitzgerald: his fifth (and last) translation includes a mere 101 quatrains – a fraction of Omar’s original work. Fitzgerald’s selection loosely groups quatrains by theme; rendering quatrains into English as four-line, rhymed stanzas. Omar’s writings are pervaded by the consciousness of the transient quality of life. In his Rubáiyát, the author ponders the limits of human knowledge and morality: and confronts his readers point-blank with the difficult questions that challenge every generation: – what is the ultimate benefit derived from human knowledge? – given human mortality; is is best to guide our lives by the dictates of reason, or sensuality? – what happens to my soul when I die? – why did God – the Creator – give me existence? (Introduction by Godsend)     [chương_files]