Omar Khayyám (1048–1131)

FitzGerald's Rubáiyát = 5⭐

Euphranor is an earlier work taking the form of a Platonic dialogue one day in late spring in Cambridge between a doctor and several young students while they drink beer and play bowls. It's a reply to a popular book of the 1850s on the proper education of English manhood which, little known today, set the tone for a certain kind of Stiff Upper Lipped Englishness that inspired the Scout movement and running towards machine gun fire armed with a stick, and pertains today amongst the Eton Set, Daily Mail readers, and those who still pine for the British Empire. FitzGerald, as far as I can make out, wasn't a fan. The polemic, good natured as it was, I could have done without, but the characters and setting were really appealing, and it's a great loss that FitzGerald never wrote a novel.

Sáláman and Absál is FitzGerald's translation of 14th century Persian Sufi poet, Jámí's, allegory of the soul's enlightenment. That he uses the metaphor of female sexual allure corrupting masculine purity and nobility doesn't read well in the 21st century. It was a bit of a slog, to be honest, but not without some beautiful images, and I learned something of the legend of Alexander's Mirror, which allowed the Great emperor to view far-off lands and communicate with people there, which was interesting. Overall rating 4 ⭐… (mere)

This edition contains both the first and fifth editions of Fitzgerald's translation as well as an introduction. Although normally I don't read introductions (and on the rare cases when I do, it is usually after reading the book instead of before), in this case I did read the intro & recommend it to anyone like myself who is unfamiliar with Persian literature.

I also recommend the fifth edition as a bit more modern in tone. If you don't want to read both, I would just read the fifth edition.… (mere)