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A Book of Verses underneath the Bough,
A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread–and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness–
Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow!
The quatrain above comes from Edward Fitzgerald’s second edition of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, 1868. Fitzgerald’s treatments of Omar Khayyam’s poems brought the Persian poetical to the attention of the western world more than 700 years after the poems were written.
Omar Khayyam
Omar Khayyam (1048-1123) was born in Nishapur, the capital city of Khurasan, Persia, now Iran. He was born Ghiyath al-Din Abul Fateh Omar Ibn Ibrahim al-Khayyam. Little is recognise of his early life but the name Khayyam means “tentmaker” and signifies that either Omar or his father Ibrahim may have practiced that trade.
Omar was educated locally and finished a treatise on algebra as a youth. He came to the attention of Sultan Malik Shah who offered Omar presence in the royal court. The Vizier Nizam al-Mulk gave Omar a pension which enabled him to devote himself to exploration in his favored subjects of mathematics and astronomy. He was commissioned to build an observatory in Isfahan, and he was later assigned with eight other scholars to revise the Muslim calendar. Omar published various books on astronomy and algebra which rivaled the studies of contemporary Europeans.
Though noted as a mathematician and astronomer, Omar wrote poems all around his life. His preferent style was to write four line quatrains, and it is thought that he wrote with regards to one thousand of them for the duration of his life. Not all of the manuscripts pulled through but with regards to 600 poems have been attributed to him, altho most critics agree that not all of those were written by Omar Khayyam.
The word rubaiyat is a plural noun referring to the four line quatrains that Omar wrote. Each quatrain may in the right way be called a rubai. In progressed convention rubaiyat now refers to a four line poem with a rhyme system of aaba where each line expresses a finish thought.
The major themes in Omar’s rubaiyat are the mortality of the humane spirit and the fragile nature of humane existence. The tone of his poems is many times pessimistic. Omar writes vividly in regards to the impossibility of understanding the universe. As a counterpoint he also writes in regards to the wisdom of living in the moment, sharing friendship, and the conviviality of enjoying wine in the tavern.
Not surprisingly, Omar’s poems were viewed with suspicion by orthodox Muslims. Since wine and drunkenness were prohibited by Islamic law, crusade was made to interpret his poems when it comes to wine metaphorically, as in spiritual or romantic intoxication.
Omar said to a student near the end of his life, “My tomb shall be in a spot where the north wind may scatter roses over it.” Omar Khayyam passed away in Nishapur in 1131. According to the biography by Ali ibn Azidu’l-Baihaqi, Omar called his family to listen his last wishes and said, “Oh Lord, I have known You according to the sum of my ability. Pardon me since verily my noesis is my recommendation to You.”
Edward Fitzgerald’s Treatment
The world knew very little when it comes to Omar Khayyam’s poetry until Edward Fitzgerald’s second edition of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam in 1868. The original edition of 250 copies was published in 1859 anonymously and unnoticed. However the 1868 edition was astoundingly well received. The edition treated 101 of Omar Khayyam’s quatrains as one long poem. Many critics believed that it was an English poem with Persian allusions.
Fitzgerald did not translate Omar’s poems literally. He freely reinterpreted them and even combined a heap of of the poems to make a whole new poem. However his translation was inspired and skillful, faithful to the soul of Omar Khayyam’s poems if not to his words.
In fact, Fitzgerald spoke of his work not as a translation but as a transmogrification. Fortunately, Fitzgerald’s work is so good that few in the western world mind the fact that a lot of of the work is Fitzgerald’s own creation.
Fitzgerald formulated quatrains with iambic pentameter. That is, the meter of each line holds five feet, and each foot is iambic with an unaccented syllable followed by an accented syllable. The rhyme pattern for the four lines is aaba.
Notice the last line of “A Book of Verses under the Bough” where Fitzgerald chose the word enow in order to formulate the final iambic foot.
Other Translations
There are numerous roots to view and read Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat in the firstborn Farsi language.
The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam has been translated into a good deal of languages worldwide. Many English translations have followed Fitzgerald’s. For interest and the sake of comparison, here are a few further and added translations of the “A Book of Verses underneath the Bough” quatrain.
From the original edition by Fitzgerald, still in iambic pentameter:
Here with a Loaf of Bread under the Bough,
A Flask of Wine, a Book of Verse – and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness -
And Wilderness is Paradise enow.
From the 1882 edition by Edward Henry Whinfield:
In the sweet spring a grassy bank I sought
And thither wine and a reasonable Houri brought;
And, even though the people called me graceless dog,
Gave not to Paradise another thought!
From the 1888 translation by John Leslie Garner:
Yes, Loved One, when the Laughing Spring is blowing,
With Thee besides me and the Cup o’erflowing,
I pass the day upon this Waving Meadow,
And dream the while, no thought on Heaven bestowing.
From the 1898 prose translation by Edward Heron-Allen:
I desire a little ruby wine and a book of verses,
Just sufficient to keep me alive, and half a loaf is needful;
And then, that I and thou ought to sit in a desolate place
Is better than the kingdom of a sultan.
Lastly, just for fun, here is Wendy Cope’s transcription of the engaged in a struggle South London novice poet, a reputation she created, Jason Strugnell’s translation:
Here with a Bag of Crisps beneath the Bough,
A Can of Beer, a Radio – and Thou
Beside me half asleep in Brockwell Park
And Brockwell Park is Paradise enow.
At least he got the enow portion right.
ReviewThough it drinks deep of it is subject, Karen MacNeil’s Wine Bible deftly fends off two traps a heap of wine books fall into: talking down to wine novices or talking up to more experienced enophiles. The book wards off these traps through MacNeil’s obvious, and infectious, love of her subject, which comes out in closely each sentence of the book, and which lets her talk with regards to wine in a way that combines the good teacher, the trusted friend, and the expert sommelier. As conductor of the wine program at the Culinary Institute of America in Napa Valley, California, MacNeil is one of the world’s true experts on wine. After reading a chapter on the Burgenland, for example, you’ve learned regarding the region’s sweet wines while sentiment like you’re actually there, toasting a glass of Cuvee Suss with the author. It is this passion that leads to describing an Italian riservas as “mesmerizing” and a Cabernet Sauvignon as having “texture like cashmere.”
The Wine Bible is broken into countries, hitting all of the major wine makers and most of the minor ones. Each division gives elaborate descriptions of the country’s wines (with chapters on person regions when necessary), highlighting specific wine manufacturers and person wines, as well as talking when it comes to local foods, customs, and other tidbits that add to the reading experience. MacNeil begins her journeying through the world’s wine with an priceless section on “Mastering Wine,” which lets a reader get ready before uncorking discerned sections. –A.J. Rathbun
Review”A dazzling, comprehensive, innovative guide to wine, free of elitism and pedantry. This exhaustively successful work sets a new standard and makes wine more accessible and user-friendly than it has ever been before.”
—Anthony Dias Blue, wine and spirits editor, Bon Appétit (Bon Appétit )
From the Inside FlapThink of this book as a lively course from an expert teacher, grounded deeply in the fundamentals and enriched with enthusiasti asides, tips, anecdotes, definitions, glossaries, illustrations, maps, wine labels – everything, in fact, but the actual wine itself. By America’s famous wine teacher and authority. “A dazzling, comprehensive, innovative guide to wine, free of elitism and pedantry. This exhaustively successful work sets a new frequent and makes wine more accessible and user-friendly than it has ever been before.” (Anthony Dias Blue, wine and spirits editor, Bon Appetit)
Most helpful client reviews
201 of 210 people found the following review helpful.
 Your second wine book
By Eric J. Lyman
The spine on my worn copy of the Wine Bible is cracked and it is pages are dog-eared, even even though I think the book has assorted remarkable shortcomings. As I write this, I find myself in the strange position of pointing out perceived flaws the thick volume even even though I turn to it for selective information on a regular basis.
My greatest complaint is that I feel the book doesn’t actually recognise what it wants to be. On the one hand, it is a comprehensive reference book that in numerous areas goes into more depth than other general wine books. But it falls short as a reference book because it lacks the scope of books like The World Atlas of Wine or The Global Encyclopedia of Wine, which cover more up-and-coming wine manufacturing countries, more specific makers and, peculiarly in the case of The World Atlas of Wine, are heightened by gorgeous photographs and maps. Though the Wine Bible is significant (it weighs in at a hefty 910 pages) it is design is more compact than the other books I mentioned, and so might make a better travel associate for an individual visiting multiple wine fabricating regions in a single trip. But the lack of good maps makes a supplemental book necessary.
Additionally, the book may feel like a disjointed collection of articles that ought to have been better integrated before publication. Often, the same selective information (referring to multiple or mixing up names for grape varieties or regions, or quality standards in specific countries) is referred to parenthetically assorted times, oftentimes in quick succession — something unnecessary, specially given the book’s splendid glossary.
But in spite of these criticisms, I find myself referring to the book repeatedly. Part of the reason for that is author Karen MacNeil’s delighting and unpretentious writing style, which someways manages to please wine lovers of a lot of dissimilar levels of knowledge. Ms. MacNeil’s passion for wine comes through in the text and her cognition of the subject is exceedingly impressive, with her descriptions often compensating for a lack of quality photos. And though I would like to see more wine manufacturing areas covered by the book, the regions she does address are covered exceedingly comprehensively. The quality of info is likewise very even: before travels to these areas I have read the book’s segmentations on South Africa, the Mosel, Loire, Ribera del Duero, Languedoc, as well as everything on my adopted home country, and could not detect any ebb in Ms. Mac Neil’s ebullience or knowledge.
After a heap of thought, I settled on four stars for this review, in spite of the complaints I have. The book is just too utile and too skillfully written for less stars. The next addition, I feel sure, will earn five on my improvised scale.
Once you have moved beyond the most basic level in wine knowledge, this is an important book to have. If you may buy only one book on the subject, this is not the one I would suggest — The World Atlas of Wine gets my vote for that honor — but if you were to limit your collection to two books, then I think this is a severe nominee for that second position. Once you’ve got that much covered, I’d lean toward a book that focuses on your favored wine formulating region or another specific aspect of the subject, like tasting or wine production.
88 of 91 humans found the following review helpful.
 An magnificent introduction to wine…
By Tarik J. Ghbeish
A great book for a beginner. This book doesn’t rate wines, it teaches you when it comes to how they are made, what flavors each grape is known for, what regions grow each type of grape and so on. Immensely utile information. I have applied this as
* a learning tool,
* a reference when I’m curious when it comes to a wine I’ve found
* to settle arguments with family over wine labeling
* a reference to determine which wines may be worth attempting from a specific region.
As a reference, the book is not encyclopedic, but it doesn’t try to be either. The book is a bible in the sense that it gives you a good solid overview of a wine region, it’s styles of wines, and a heap of of it’s representative makers if you want to start out attempting out the regions wines.
It is quick to point out that the uttermost judge of a wine is the drinker, and you shouldn’t be timid to determine you do or don’t like a wine in spite of it’s reputation. I like that and believe it is a good approach.
19 of 19 persons found the following review helpful.
For all who love wine…
By Daniel L Edelen
Utterly arousing and attention holding and comprehensive, The Wine Bible is just the right length to provide even the most discriminating oenophile with all the facts necessitated to quench his thirst. It is difficult to imagine a better overview of all the wine areas of the world. Certainly there are more scholarly tomes, but MacNeil’s ebullient and zestful writing style is utterly charming and never wearying, her descriptions of specific wines so lively you may almost taste them. I wanted to rush out and buy all her recommendations.
The layout of the book starts with the basi principles of how wine is made, what constituents make outstanding wine, how to taste, the major grapes and their characters, and other fundamentals. It then proceeds into an extensive look at the countries that construct wine. Each country division breaks down the major wine formulating areas within the country, going into great detail to spotlight the distinctive calibers of those areas that fetch their wine to life. The country sectionalizations also include travel notes, remarks regarding the local food, wineries to visit, and more. At the end of each growing area section, MacNeil includes specific wines of note.
This format makes the subject rather approachable, but also leads to the only complaint I have (and it is not sufficient to take away anything from the book.) Because of the length (900+ pages), the book is written sectionally. Given the scope, MacNeil wrote it in a manner than lends each section to being self-contained. Because of this, when reading various country sections, MacNeil repeats herself galore times, ofttimes explaining a conception in a later chapter that she had explained earlier. This is done for clarity sake, peculiarly if the book is being applied as a reference. For a finish readthrough, though, one may plainly skip over what had already been explained previously.
If you have a passing psychological result of perception learning and reasoning of wine and wish to go to the next level (or plainly need an approachable, yet finish reference), I may think of no better place to commence than The Wine Bible. MacNeil’s love of wine surely comes through and makes this reference a gripping read, one of the few references you’ll find hard to put down.
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