May
18 is dedicated to the commemoration of Omar Khayyam in
the Iranian solar calendar; the calendar which Khayyam has
invented himself. To the Western world which has always
been enchanted by the magnificence and glory of oriental
culture, Omar Khayyam is a venerable and honored figure
who brings to mind the delicacy and gracefulness of
ancient Persian civilization. The Iranian polymath,
astronomer, philosopher and poet is internationally known
for his insightful rubaiyyat (quatrains) which the
influential British poet Edward FitzGerland translated
from Persian into English 150 years ago.
Omar
Khayyam constitutes an inseparable part of Iran's
impressive history of literature and science. He is
associated with the development of the most accurate solar
calendar of the world, namely the Jalali calendar, which,
according to the astronomers and mathematicians is far
more exact and precise than the Gregorian calendar. It's
said that the solar calendar which Omar Khayyam devised
shows an error in the calculation of days and months only
once in each 10,000 years.Khayyam was born in 1048 in the
Neyshapur city of the Greater Iran. The literary potency
of Khayyam was so significant that made him the best
composer of quatrains among the Persian poets; however, he
is also known for his contributions to astronomy and one
of his most major breakthroughs was the reformation of
Persian calendar under the Seljuk King Sultan Jalal al-Din
Malekshah Saljuqi after whom the Persian solar calendar
was named. Khayyam was a prominent figure of mathematics,
literature, philosophy and astronomy in his age. Some of
the orientalist historians believe that Khayyam was the
student of Avicenna, the distinguished Persian physician,
theologian and paleontologist of the 10th century. In one
of his poems, Khayyam introduces himself as a follower of
Avicenna's ideological path; however, this studentship
seems to be a mystical and spiritual affinity rather than
a direct mentor – student relationship.
The
quatrains of Khayyam which have given him an international
prominence are a collection of poems with philosophical
essence and ontological nature in which Khayyam reveals
his skeptical standpoints regarding the modality of
material world and the existence of human being. It's
widely believed that Khayyam had a pessimistic, cynical
viewpoint regarding the material world as he typically
tried to direct criticism against the hypocritical,
insincere man and portray his crave for a utopian world
which is practically impossible to realize:
Yesterday
This Day's Madness did prepare;
To-morrow's Silence, Triumph, or Despair:
Drink! for you know not whence you came, nor why:
Drink! for you know not why you go, nor where.
Contextually,
Khayyam's quatrains can be divided into five main
categories: 1- the mysteries of universe 2- the
inevitabilities of life such as destiny and the disloyalty
of the world 3- questions 4- the modality of social life
5- the cheerful moments of life
There are
several translations of Khayyam's quatrains available in
various languages including English, German, Dutch, French,
Italian, Danish and Arabic. Edward FitzGeraldn's
translation is considered to be the most authentic and
complete version of Khahyam's quatrains in English;
however, the versions of Edward Henry Whinfield, John
Leslie Garner and John Leslie Garner are the other
acceptable and widely-read translations of Rubayiat.The
quatrains of Khayyam are available in more than 25
languages. One of the most remarkable translations of
Khayyam's poetry into languages other than English belongs
to Friedrich Martin von Bodenstedt. He was a 19th century
German author who published a consistent Deutsch
translation comprised of 395 quatrains in 1881. He was a
tutor in the family of Russian aristocrat and priest
Demetrius Augustine Gallitzin and had the opportunity to
learn Persian by the virtue of Russia's proximity to the
Greater Iran. The success of Bodenstedt's translation of
Rubayiat in German can be compared to that of FitzGerald
in English.
The other
notable translation belongs to the prolific Swedish writer
Eric Axel Hermelin who competently translated the
quatrains into Swedish. Hermelin who passed away in 1944
is known for his contribution to the translation of
Persian poetry into Swedish. He translated several works
by the distinguished Iranian poets including Attar, Rumi
and Nezami and paved the ground for the translation of
other masterpieces of Persian literature into European
languages, including, among others, Swedish.Despite being
literarily less momentous and significant than Ferdowsi's
60,000-couplet poetic opus "Shahnameh" which
revived the Persian language in the crucial epoch of Arabs'
conquest of Persia, Rubayiat has received enormous
attention in different countries and the international
community has glorified Khayyam and exalted his artistic
masterpiece extensively.
Tunisia has
constructed a set of hotels named after Khayyam. One of
the lunar craters has been named in honor of Omar Khayyam.
The Omar Khayyam crater is located at 58.0N latitude and
102.1W longitude on the surface of moon. The Outer
Main-belt Asteroid 1980 RT2 is also named in honor of Omar
Khayyam. The Argentine Marxist revolutionary and guerrilla
leader named his son in honor of Khayyam and his work.
Omar Pérez López is a Cuban writer and poet.The American
clergyman and activist Martin Luther King Jr. quoted
Khayyam in his speech Why I oppose war in Vietnam: "It
is time for all people of conscience to call upon America
to come back home. Come home America. Omar Khayyam is
right 'The moving finger writes and having writ, moves
on."
The late
American novelist Kurt Vonnegut refers to Khayyam's "moving
finger writes" quatrain in his novel "Breakfast
of Champions" when the protagonist Dwayne Hoover
reveals that he had been forced to memorize it in high
school.Anyway, Khayyam has been given so much
international attention that even the primary school
students in the United States know him well. He is only
one out of hundreds of figures who constructed the
pedestals of Persian civilization. He was a pioneer in
science and literature and now reminds the world the
matchless and unparalleled civilization of Iranian people;
the people whom the U.S. President threatens with a
nuclear strike on the roofs of their homes.
