"Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam" Part 1 of 3 by Edward Henry Whinfield (poetry reading)

Published in 1883, this translation is lesser known than Le Gallienne or Fitzgerald. It's much longer than other versions, being 500 verses in all. I'll read some cherry-picked verses and leave them numbered. I've left out verses which were more elegantly expressed in other versions.

The translations are all very different. Fitzgerald hardly mentions female companions, for instance. The degree of agnosticism differs too. This version is the most concerned with God. Le Gallienne's version leans toward aggressive atheism and is quoted by Christopher Hitchens in his book "God is not Great".

Somebody said to Bertrand Russell what he would say to God should he be called to account for his disbelief. He replied, "But, Lord, you didn't provide sufficient evidence..."

Don't be fooled by Omar - he didn't spend all his time drinking and whoring. He was also a mathematician and he wrote this poem. Some people consider it to be the Boozer's Bible, an excuse for underachievement in life. Which reminds me of a drunken Irishman I met who said, "I'm like Brendan Behan, except that I just get drunk, I don't write plays."

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