Anyone fearful that this edition of Edward Fitzgerald's The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is an unnecessary new translation of the Persian poet can rest easy. Annotated by Robert Richardson and published in conjunction with Nearer the Heart's Desire, Richardson's dual biography of Omar Khayyam and Edward Fitzgerald, this is instead a celebration of Fitzgerald's loose translation and an arrangement of Khayyam's verse into a unified narrative.
Richardson would be the first to argue that a new translation would be beside the point, describing Fitzgerald's version as a "silk road of the mind"--linking the two poets across time and space. Since its original publication in 1859, Fitzgerald's version of the Rubaiyat has been translated into numerous languages and appeared in more than 1,300 editions. Although it has been, in Richardson's words, "condescended to in a variety of ways" by critics and scholars alike, The Rubaiyat remains enduringly popular in a way that few works of poetry have.
The Bloomsbury edition is a delight. Richardson opens with a brief essay that is both personal and scholarly. His annotations are done with a light hand, and the poetry is illuminated by the work of artist Lincoln Perry. Previous artists have depicted the action of the narrative in an Orientalist style; Perry combines graceful silhouettes of roses and vine leaves with bold images of hands in action to reflect the volume's major themes. This is a Rubaiyat that will please longtime fans and new readers alike. --Pamela Toler, blogging at History in the Margins