Omar Khayyam
خیام
Mathematician and astronomer of Nishapur, known to the world for quatrains on time, wine and doubt.
- Known for
- The Rubaiyat (quatrains)
- Forms
- Rubai
- Places
- Razavi Khorasanخراسان رضوی
- Isfahanاصفهان
- Samarkand and Bukharaماوراءالنهر
- Collection
- The Greats
In his lifetime Khayyam was famous as a scientist. He wrote a treatise on algebra that classified cubic equations and solved them geometrically, and worked on the reform of the solar calendar.
The quatrains attributed to him reached the West through Edward FitzGerald's free English version of 1859, one of the most widely read poems of the Victorian age. Scholars still debate how many of the quatrains are really his.
Booksکتاب‌ها
The principal works of Omar Khayyam.
The Rubaiyat
رباعیاتThe quatrains attributed to Omar Khayyam, on the shortness of life, the turning heavens, the potter and his clay, and the consolation of wine. Khayyam left no collection of his own; the quatrains were gathered in later manuscripts, and scholars still debate how many are genuinely his. FitzGerald’s English versions of 1859 made them famous worldwide.
Read 7 poems
Poems by Omar Khayyamشعرها
In the original Persian, beside an English translation.
هر سبزه که برکنار جویی رسته است
گویی ز لب فرشته خویی رسته است
Every blade of grass that grows beside a stream
seems to have sprung from the lip of one with an angel’s nature;
Grass by the Stream
در دایره ای که آمد و رفتن ماست
او را نه بدایت نه نهایت پیداست
In the circle of our coming and our going
no beginning can be seen, and no end;
The Circle of Coming and Going
ابر آمد و باز بر سر سبزه گریست
بی بادهٔ گلرنگ نمی‌باید زیست
The cloud came and wept again upon the grass;
without rose-coloured wine one should not live.
The Cloud Wept on the Grass
دی کوزه گری بدیدم اندر بازار
بر پاره گلی لگد همی زد بسیار
Yesterday I saw a potter in the bazaar
stamping hard, again and again, on a lump of clay,
The Potter in the Bazaar
ای بس که نباشیم و جهان خواهد بود
نی نام زما و نی نشان خواهد بود
How long we shall not be, and the world will still be,
with no name of ours and no trace left behind.
The World Will Remain
این قافله عمر عجب می‌گذرد
دریاب دمی که با طرب می‌گذرد
This caravan of life passes strangely by;
seize the breath that passes in delight.
This Caravan of Life
این کوزه چو من عاشق زاری بوده است
در بند سر زلف نگاری بوده ست
This jug was once a wretched lover, as I am,
caught in the coils of a beloved’s curls;
This Jug Was a Lover
Omar Khayyam in Iranian history
Iranian historySeljuks, Mongols and Ilkhanidsسلجوقیان، مغولان و ایلخانان
Turkic and then Mongol conquerors took Iran in turn. The Seljuks built mosques and colleges; the Mongols brought catastrophe, then, as the Ilkhanids, became patrons of history-writing and art.