The Portable Atheist - Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

[ragster2riches]

I don't know.. this translation is too nihilistic for my liking... but it is still pretty good!

[ragster2riches]

Oh Thou who man of Baser Earth didst make,

and whom with Eden didst devise the snake

For all Sin werewith the Face of Man

Is blackened - Man's Forgiveness Give and Take!

[rmeddy1]

And do you think that unto such as you

A maggot-minded, starved, fanatic crew

God gave a secret, and denied it me?

Well, well—what matters it? Believe that, too!

I love that part.

[MrFlippertie]

The rubiayat (means 'verses' i think) were written in Arabic, by a Persian, Omar Khayyam several hundred years ago.

The verses above are by Edmund Fitzgerald - an Englishman living in the 1800's.  They are a pretty loose translation of the original. Fitzgerald's version is recognised as a great work of poetry in it's own right.

[fabbe81]

@MrFlippertie the Rubiyat were written in Persian...

[MrFlippertie]

@fabbe81 I bow to your superior knowledge ;)

[47saeed]

@MrFlippertie His Scientific books were written in Arabic. His poetry was written in Persian.

[MrFlippertie]

@47saeed So I got that wrong, and I've just noticed that the version in the video is Le Gallienne's not Fitzgerald's. How much can I get wrong in one post?

I was just throwing in a quick answer to the original questioner about why the verses worked so well in English...

[c3066521]

This may be a stupid question, but if this is translated/transliterated or whatever, how does it rhyme so well in English?

[jessie74]

I think what happens is if the original words don't rhyme then they are replaced with synonyms that do rhyme.

It's probably a very tedious task.

[rmeddy1]

@c3066521 It's a paraphrased translation from Richard Le Gallienne.

[khaymari]

belive me they didnt change meaning of it, i have read them in farsi they changed wome words they changed spaces of lines but meaning delivered close to original.