On the 150th anniversary of the publication of Fitzgerald's translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, a look at how the classic was rescued from obscurity by the appreciation of one keen reader... The Madras reprint is much more than a reprint: it is a whole compendium of Omarian studies.
Rumi
At last you have departed and gone to the Unseen.
What marvellous route did you take from this world?
Beating your wings and feathers,
you broke free from this cage.
Rising up to the sky
you attained the world of the soul.
You were a prized falcon trapped by an Old Woman.
Then you heard the drummer's call
and flew beyond space and time.
As a lovesick nightingale, you flew among the owls.
Then came the scent of the rose garden
and you flew off to meet the Rose.
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