The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

A jug of wine, a loaf of bread – and Thou

beside me singing in the wilderness

O wilderness were Paradise enow!

THOSE are lines you might sort of know but have no idea where you know them from.

Maybe your father or your grandfather used to quote them to you. Or maybe, like me, for the last million years you have carried round with you a tiny copy of an ancient Persian poem translated by a rather strange Victorian recluse.Awake! For Morning in the Bowl of Night

Has flung the Stone that puts the Stars to Flight

And Lo! The Hunter of the East has caught

The sultan’s Turret in a Noose of Light.

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is a collection of 105 verses translated or adapted or improved upon by Edward Fitzgerald. Omar Khayyam was an 11th Century Persian astronomer and mathematician, whose greatest achievement was to have reformed the calendar. How much his verses owe to him, how much they owe to Fitzgerald we don’t really know, and it probably doesn’t matter any more.

They are just a delight. The whole poem is a sort of glorified Carpe Diem – instructions to seize the moment.

We don’t know where we came from, or where we are going, but in the meantime, stop and smell the roses, drink the wine, make the most of each moment before we leave this magic shadow box of nights and days and return to dust.

The moving finger writes and having writ, moves on.

To celebrate the 150th anniversary a wonderful new edition has been published, edited by Tony Briggs.

If you knew it of old, it will be good to welcome back a familiar friend. If you have never read it, don’t miss the chance. It is weird, wonderful, romantic, exotic and wonderfully cheering and life enhancing.

Awake, my Little ones and fill the Cup

Before Life’s Liquor in its Cup be dry.

Sounds good to me...

■ The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, translated by Edward Fitzgerald, edited by Tony Briggs (Phoenix Poetry, £5.99)