Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam by Edward FitzGerald
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Some helpful advice: Try and have a history with this book! Makes it even more special!

Some of my history with this book: Two of my very close friends, one, who got it for her Birthday, and the other, who got it for me on my Birthday, have been insisting that I read this book since December 2012. In fact, the second one was SO insistent I read it that he practically quoted it in front of me all the time, and sure enough, the moment I unwrapped it, I just HAD TO read it! Also, it isn't like you have anything much to do if you're on a bus from London to Oxford and reading is the BEST distraction one can find!

Now coming to the book- let's put it this way, when I get older, losing my hair, many years from now (No,I'm not going to write this review 'When I'm Sixty-Four' way!)and someone takes out the pretty, navy blue 1900 edition of Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam from my shelf and asks me how I got hold of it, I'd probably launch into a very long story involving a nervous twenty-one going on twenty-two year old girl studying archaeology at Oxford University, her Boo Radley-like classmate, some funny stories involving Pearl Jam , coffee, too-spicy-to-handle burritos, and a Birthday spent in a very Roman Holiday way. And then, I'd talk about the intoxicating power of poetry, the similarity between the state of a drunk man and man drunk with power and ambition, the pain of unrequited love and passion that a man could feel for his beloved or a devotee towards God, the irony that enshrouds man's life and work, his talent and art. All these and perhaps much, much more is encapsulated in this little book that I managed to read four times on my three hour journey from London to Oxford.

What is commendable about this book is you will never forget the little couplets and one of them or another will keep coming back to you at the oddest of hours imaginable. (I quoted one to everyone who'd call me to wish me on my birthday while another kept on repeating itself in my head even when I was asleep and it was then I understood Sam's obsession with this book!) What is also amazing is how beautifully it has been translated, so more than Omar Khayyam, I'd really give all the credit to Edward Fitzgerald because he translated it to a language I could understand and managed to keep its poetic beauty alive and captivating if not intact.

More than anything else, this book gave me an optimistic outlook regarding reading. After all, if I read something as beautiful and profound and passionate as Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam on my birthday, my life as a reader could only get better and better!



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