Pibewiki (d)----_-_-_-_---~-~----=----------~ --,
1·eais sjn ce the
/
irst edi tion
l vard Fitz
’
"Rb.
_
s
u a1yat...
_____
.___
tar Kl1ayyam" Vas pub-
and tl1at its 111erits ,vere
mmediately recognised -
’
lS to tl1is day one of tl1e
11ysteries of literary cri-
and public taste. The
, olume, it vill be recall-
5.T 5/IEPP,CJPO
/
, first sh_oved every sympto11.1 of being rl1at is in the expressive term of to-day a complete flop. , i ly failure can ne·ver be adequately explained, but ncludes tl1at England in the late ’fifties, suffering , _more tl1an one sl1ock to l1er self-esteem, vas in 1
od to sympatl1ise vitl1 an indolent autl1or’s trans- , from a medireval Persian poet of ,vl1011.1 it l1ad ’~ heard.
JtzGerald had read On1ar I(l1ayya111 " in a paddock , : d witl1 butterflies and brusl1ed by a delicious •.•_, ,vhile a dainty racing filly of Y/. Bro,vne’s came
- tg up to ,vonder and snuff about him. That
- lot England’s n1ood at tl1e moment wl1en the
’J tppeared and it ,vas only by slor degrees that the if. and subtl~ _art of this maste !l ?iece came to be , Jated. Ed1t1on follo,·ved edit1on, and, tl1ough J translators essayed to show tl1e exact meaning /’ t the astronon1er-poet had ,vritten, the popularity 11 zGerald’s adaptation l1as seldom waned. Yet
!/ ! rld seems to be as far as ever it has been from
l~Lining what exactly On1ar Kl1ayyam meant to ,t The interpretation of l1is rriting will long ft _one of tl1e 1nost fascinating of literary pursuits. jn acute Frencl1 critic and historian of Englisl1 t :e, Ivf. Louis C_azamian, ~as mai ?,tained ~l1at the , 1t1011 of tl1e Pers1an quatrains, the1r mouldmg and - ’1 :ement in a personal way by FitzGerald, express 1.nermost soul and subtlest essence of 19th century · ~holy, wl1ich, acquiring thus the deptl1 of a far- • : past, seen1s to spread as well o,rer tl1e wl1ole · t destiny."
Tl1e implication is not very exact
- 1e doubts wl1ether it would stand analysis, even
1
makes allowance for the fashionable melancl1oly
! period, for the teaching of latthew Arnold and
lore light is to be obtained fron1 the Ca111bridge y of E11glish Literature, wl1ere lr. A. Hamilton 1 pson writes that FitzGerald’s main abject was · cesent, in a connected for11.1 intelligible to Englisl1 · ; tl1e cl1aracteristics of On1ar’ s tl1ought, lùs po11derpon life and deatl1, the eternal n1ysteries of the le, wl1y and whither of man, and the influence
- , :rnal and irresponsible po,ver upon lù11.1, and his
-
to tb.e pleasures of tb.e rnon_,ent as a
refuge
~·the · probiem."
.t<ïtzGerald, l1e continues,
tually concealed l1is 0rn tl1oughts 011 tl1e mysteries perplexed On1ar."
So do most English readers
The tendency to resort to the pleasures of tl1e nt as a refuge fron1 great problems is as great r (it is to be l1oped tl1at observation n1ay be made t incurring tl1e odious cl1arge of indulge11ce ralising) and one does 11ot deliberately read the at for tl1e sake of the essence of nineteenth century holy. One reads tf1e11.1 mainly for their beauty and n imagery, and one fïnds in them very n1ucl1 ,vl1at ·es to fïnd. To e,rery reader his o,·vn interpretation. the attractions of O111ar l(l1ayyam. se1zes tlle 1magmaL1on or the ïeâp.er and happ, • it as a rule witl1oût raising speculations as to _
the precise scl1oolof mysticism ,·vl1icl1 _tl1e poet ,-lfiJ _FitzGerald in l1is preface to the Rubaiy : , tl1at Omar, l1aving failed of finding any Pr but destiny, and any rorld but tl1is, set abou·, the most of it "preferring rather to soothe , , througl1 tl1e senses into acquiescence ,vith tl1ir •-sa, v them tl1an to perplex it witl1 vain disquiet what they might be."
That of course corn :
near to asking one to consider the sedati,r1 of the Rubaiyat, and sedatives are always sougl Xlaste not your Hour, nor in the vain pursuit_ Of This and That endeavour and dispute ; Better be jocund ,vith the fruitful Grape Than sadden after none, o’r bitter, Fruit. Naturally enough it is nottl1e poets and pl1i] alone ,vho l1ave sougl1t to interpret O111ar I< lan ·y a painter l1as seized upon the more famil : of tl1e Rubaiyat and given to tl1e11.1 his o,vn _ design-such painters as Edn1ond Dulac an_ Bagdatopulos wl10 have portrayed tl1e East , and insight. Sorne of the latter artist’s r< from Omar were publisl1ed a fe,v years ago in tl1 ; and , vere deservedly popular for tl1eir beauty c One 1nigl1t sum up the matter by saying tl1a1 any poet l1as so often entl1ralled tl1e artist, ,vl1 latter seeks to be interpreter of tl1e inner tnea11i poet’s thougl1t or merely illustrator of tl1e ,v- l 1ave been made familiar to all the world in tri -To tl1e long list of painters ,vho have foun, tion in the t,·velfth century poet of Naishapur 1 been added an Iranian named Darvish, some 1 ,rivid ,vork, lately exl1ibited at tl1e Greatore~ in Lo11don, is reproduced in tl1ese pages. His tl1e strange, but by no means unfamiliar, histc artist fro11.1 his youth on,vards insisting on fi11din~ of expressing tl1e tl1ougl1ts ,·vithin him. Insp of all by his father’s reading of tl1e Shalmameh, : to pai11t as a child and k.ept at it rl1en he grew 1100d and produced as n1any as 416 painti11gs ill of Firdausi’s great epic. The11, after leading tl a l1er1nit for a ti1ne, l1e determined to dro,vn th a pursui11g pl1anton1 in wi11e and to pass his <• garden of roses listening to 11igl1tingales and , .
. Tl,ougl,ts of tb.at k :ind naturally led_t ;~,~- ;~ :: 1
wr1t1ngs of Hafiz and On1ar Kl1ayyan1. Once the urge to paint seized him and in l1is pictorial se11tations of wl1at Omar taugl1t 1nay be founc of tl1e fancy a11d tl1e plùlosophy whicl1 n1ay be see1 tra11slated wor~s. of ~hat great poet. _
His paintin
tl1e u11usual d1st111ct1on of bei11g the work of a countryn1an of Omar’-s and on that account as for tl :-eir artistic. merit, they deserve tl1e ~Ost att_ent1on. Darv1sl1 is probably not tl1e first Ir p~1nt sce11es fro11.1 O1nar l(l1ayya111 and to it h1111 to the world of to-dayr ; but as the latest to atte :npt that_ task he 001nes with a 1ries autl1ent1c1ty that 1s botl1 delightful and ,,relconie.
