The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, LibriVox audio reading

What it is

This is a public-domain audio recording from LibriVox of The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, Edward FitzGerald's English translation of Khayyám's Persian quatrains. The reading was made by a volunteer narrator and is not the voice of Khayyám or FitzGerald.

Why it matters

FitzGerald's translation, first published in the nineteenth century, made Khayyám famous across the English-speaking world, even though it reworked the original Persian poems considerably. This recording lets listeners experience the translation as a spoken text, centuries after Khayyám composed the original verses.

Look closer

• How might listening to the poem change your experience of it compared to reading it silently?
• Why is it important to remember this is FitzGerald's translation and a modern reading, not Khayyám's own words or voice?
• What has survived unchanged from Khayyám's original quatrains, and what has likely been transformed through translation?