The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

In Our Time: Culture

BBC

History

4.6 • 978 Ratings

🗓️ 22 May 2014

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. In 1859 the poet Edward FitzGerald published a long poem based on the verses of the 11th-century Persian scholar Omar Khayyam. Not a single copy was sold in the first few months after the work's publication, but after it came to the notice of members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood it became enormously influential. Although only loosely based on the original, the Rubaiyat made Khayyam the best-known Eastern poet in the English-speaking world. FitzGerald's version is itself one of the most admired works of Victorian literature, praised and imitated by many later writers.

With:

Charles Melville Professor of Persian History at the University of Cambridge

Daniel Karlin Winterstoke Professor of English Literature at the University of Bristol

Kirstie Blair Professor of English Studies at the University of Stirling

Producer: Thomas Morris.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	You don't need us to tell you there's a general election coming.
0:04.6	So what does it mean for you?
0:06.4	Every day on newscast we dissect the big talking points,
0:10.1	the ones that you want to know more about.
0:12.3	With our book of contacts, we talk directly to the people you want to hear from.
0:16.8	And with help from some of the best BBC journalists,
0:19.4	we'll untangle the stories that matter to you.
0:23.0	Join me, Laura Kunsberg, Adam Fleming, Chris Mason and Patty O'Connell for our daily
0:28.3	podcast.
0:29.3	Newscast, listen on BBC Science.
0:35.0	Thanks for downloading the In Our Time podcast. For more details about In Our Time and for our terms of use,
0:39.0	please go to BBC.co.uk,
0:41.0	UK, forward slash Radio4 for I hope you enjoy the program
0:45.8	Hello quote awake for morning in the bowl of night has flung the stone that puts the stars to flight and lo the hunter of the
0:55.8	east has caught the sultan's turret in a noose of light. That rousing
1:00.7	standard is the opening of the Rubia of O Oma Kayam, a long poem which in the first half of the
1:05.5	20th century was arguably the most influential in the English language.
1:09.6	It was self-published as a pamphlet in 1859 by the Victorian poet Edward Fitzgerald and it's based
1:16.2	on verses attributed to one of the great thinkers of medieval Persia.
1:20.1	But who was Omer Cayam and had it a poem which sold not a single copy for the first year of its life become one of most admired works of Victorian literature?
1:28.0	With me to discuss the Rubietta Omer Kiam are Charles Melville, Professor of Persian History at the University of Cambridge,
1:35.2	Daniel Carling, Winterstoke Professor of English Literature at the University of Bristol
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.