The Sufistic Quatrains of Omar Khayyam

The Sufistic Quatrains of Omar Khayyam
By Omar Khayyam (various translators)

This 1903 anthology gathers three major English translations of Omar Khayyam's quatrains (rubaiyat) side by side — Edward FitzGerald's celebrated 101 quatrains, E.H. Whinfield's more literal 500-quatrain rendering, and J.B. Nicolas's French-derived version of 464 quatrains — alongside prefaces by each translator.

Robert Arnot's general introduction argues for reading Khayyam's poetry through a Sufi mystical lens rather than purely as hedonistic verse, situating the 11th-century Persian mathematician-poet within the broader tradition of Islamic mysticism. The volume remains a valuable comparative resource for readers interested in the different interpretive traditions surrounding the Rubaiyat.

A public-domain work, offered as a free digital edition by Nile Book Store.

Excerpt

I.
Awake! for Morning in the Bowl of Night
Has flung the Stone that puts the Stars to Flight:
And Lo! the Hunter of the East has caught
The Sultan's Turret in a Noose of Light.

II.
Dreaming when Dawn's Left Hand was in the Sky
I heard a Voice within the Tavern cry,
“Awake, my Little ones, and fill the Cup
Before Life's Liquor in its Cup be dry.”

III.
And, as the Cock crew, those who stood before
The Tavern shouted—“Open then the Door!
You know how little while we have to stay,
And, once departed, may return no more.”

IV.
Now the New Year reviving old Desires,
The thoughtful Soul to Solitude retires,
Where the White Hand of Moses on the Bough
Puts out, and Jesus from the Ground suspires.