The paradox is FitzGerald misinterpreted both the character and intent of the Persian poet on whose work he bestowed immortality.įitzGerald included a biographical sketch in his work called “Omar Khayyam: The Astronomer-Poet of Persia,” where, in classic Orientalist arrogance, he sets forth his conviction that Khayyam was an anti-religious materialist who believed that life’s only meaning was to be found in wine, song, and worldly pleasures:

Beloved today the world over, Khayyam’s poetry would very likely still be unknown to the Western world were it not for the beautiful translations of his Rubaiyat by the English writer Edward FitzGerald. Surely no other poet of any epoch has achieved such extraordinary fame through such a colossal misreading of his work. In the history of world literature, Omar Khayyam is an enigma. Calligraphic rendition of a ruba’i attributed to Omar Khayyam from Bodleian MS. I twas this universal outlook and breadth of vision that enabled him to elucidate the profound kinship between the teachings of India’s ancient science of Yoga and the writings of one of the greatest and most misunderstood Sufi poets of the Islamic world, Omar Khayyam. Sri Yogananda perceived that underlying the doctrines and practices of the various religion is one Truth, one transcendent Reality. 1952), one of India’s great modern-day Yogis.

I’ll be using the commentary by Paramahansa Yogananda (d. They are known for being highly metaphorical. The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam are 75 Farsi (Persian) quatrains of spiritual poetry written in the 11th century.

Omar khayyam rubaiyat farsi