Update Date: July 17, 2024
Who Was Edward FitzGerald?
The West Traveler who discovered Khayyam
Edward FitzGerald was born in 1809 and passed away in 1883. He was a traveler from the west to the east where everything was as a new experience for him. The attractions of the east were in such a way that he loved it and found himself responsible to share it with the world. He lived in the time that great English poets were living such as Alfred lord Tennyson and Thomas Carlyle. Edward FitzGerald was a poet too, but it seemed that he hadn’t known with his poems. He traveled to the east and after that the fate of being just a plain poet changed to being as a translator of a great Persian poet, Omar Khayyam.
The Image Citation: Ghanbari, M.R. (2005). Khayyam-Nameh. Kayyam’s Life, Philosophy & Poetry, (p. 489). Zavar.
The scanned document shows Edward FitzGerald (1809- 1883), the translator of Khayyam’s Rubaiyat.
Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat from Persia, the East, appeared in the West through Edward FitzGerald English Translation. 150 years before Edward’s Translation, Khayyam’s Rubaiyat had been translated into English and then into German but none of them caused Khayyam popularity in Europe. In fact, Khayyam became famous in the western countries with FitzGerald’s miracle. Edward FitzGerald had written his own poems but he became famous only through translation of Khayyam’s Rubaiyat. Therefore, it is said that they both owe their popularity to each other. Khayyam and his Rubaiyat became well-known in Europe with the help of the west traveler, Edward FitzGerald.
Edward FitzGerald, Anonymous Translator
Edward FitzGerald’s belief was that his translation of Rubaiyat hadn’t been word by word but he had tried to get people familiar with Khayyam masterpiece. While he didn’t know that this translation was going to change his social position and make him so famous around the world, in 1859 he wrote desperately that he wondered why he was supposed to publish that translation when nobody would read it. He convinced himself to publish the work of translation only to keep that alive. To discover the real and deep meaning of Rubaiyat of Khayyam, he had attempted to learn Farsi. With the help of Edward Byles Cowell who loved the eastern literature, Edward FitzGerald had learned Persian.
At last, in 1858, Edward FitzGerald asked his friend to publish the manuscript of Rubaiyat translation without translator’s name. For many years, he had published the Rubaiyat translation without the translator’s name. The first edition led to the second and third publication and each time he changed some parts of translation in order to approach the original Rubaiyat of Khayyam. Again, without the translator’s name, gradually Khayyam’s Rubaiyat was getting more popular in Europe. Everyone in Europe swelled with pride to have one edition of Rubaiyat of Khayyam.
The Omar Khayyam club formed and his name burst in Europe. It is a well-known fact that both of them, Khayyam and FitzGerald helped each other become famous. The moment that Khayyam’s Rubaiyat entered the western territories, it was believed that Omar Khayyam’s soul was in FitzGerald’s soul in a way that Edward recreate Khayyam’s Rubaiyat.
Edward FitzGerald was still anonymous translator as he preferred until it was at fifth publication of Rubaiyat English translation that his name appeared on the cover. But it was too late. It was almost six years after Edward FitzGerald death. For his precious work of keeping Khayyam’s Rubaiyat alive until now we can’t thank him enough.
An English version of Khayyam’s Rubaiyat with a leather cover decorated with gold and gems sunk with Titanic ship to the bottom of the ocean in 1912.
The Image Citation: Ghanbari, M.R. (2005). Khayyam-Nameh. Kayyam’s Life, Philosophy & Poetry, (p. 521). Zavar.
The scanned document shows the back cover of one of the last publications of Rubaiyat of Khayyam published by Wordsworth Publication in England in 1993.
The First English Version of Rubaiyat of Khayyam
The popularity of Khayyam’s Rubaiyat among the English was to such an extent that they consider Khayyam as an English poet. The honor of the first English version of Rubaiyat of Khayyam was attributed to Edward FitzGerald. Although many critics have said that Rubaiyat of Khayyam were not translated correctly by Edward FitzGerald, many others believe that he was the only person who caused all people around the world get familiar with a great poet from Persia. Omar Khayyam Neyshaburi, known as Hojjato-l-Hagh, was a Persian polymath, astronomer, mathematician and poet that is known as one of the most influential scientists of the Middle Ages. Omar Khayyam was a Persian poet who is well-known for his Rubaiyat. The quatrains of Khayyam, groups of four lines in the poem, have no complexity and are easy to understand for the ordinary people. This is why all people love them and use them occasionally in their daily conversations.
The Image Citation: Ghanbari, M.R. (2005). Khayyam-Nameh. Kayyam’s Life, Philosophy & Poetry, (p. 513). Zavar.
The scanned document shows Edward FitzGerald’s English -Persian handwriting.
FitzGerald helped the European countries know Khayyam in the period of time that people in Europe had been suffering deep sorrow. Rubaiyat of Khayyam could ease pain as the poem had invited people to free themselves from the unresolved problems.
While there are many opinions that Edward FitzGerald’s translation was not good enough and the translator was not able to translate the Rubaiyat of Khayyam correctly, because he could not understand the main intention of the poet underlined his quatrains, many people of his time enjoyed reading the English version of Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.
In this article, we attempted to bring the readers some helpful facts related to Edward FitzGerald and how he could become famous. Omar Khayyam Neyshaburi, known as Hojjato-l-Hagh, was a Persian polymath, astronomer, mathematician and poet that is known as one of the most influential scientists of the Middle Ages. His Rubaiyat become popular in Europe thanks to Edward FitzGerald’s effort.
To write the articles, GetBookOnline content writers have been studying the authentic published books. Here is the reference for writing the content “Who Was Edward FitzGerald?”:
Reference:
Ghanbari, M.R. (2005). Khayyam-Nameh. Kayyam’s Life, Philosophy & Poetry. Zavar.
Rubaiyat of Khayyam
English-Persian with Phonetic Transcription
Rubaiyat of Khayyam
Persian with Phonetic Transcription
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